The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas 'And' The Descent Of Alette

Alice Notley’s The Descent of Alette is an epic poem that details a character known as Alette embarking on a journey through a series of underground subways, traveling further into the darkness ultimately seeking to destroy the tyrant who rules this underworld. The epic poem is divided into four different books. On her voyage, Alette passes from car to car, seemingly entering a new realm each time. Exhibiting a stream of consciousness, Alette describes each new world that she enters. As her journey progresses, Alette arrives at various caves, which seem to have no immediate significance and start to become monogamous. In the end, Alette transforms into an Owl and rips a bush that is the Tyrant’s livelihood from the ground in turn killing him and falsifying his …show more content…
Similarities appear between Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” and The Descent of Alette. “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is about a town that on the surface appears to be a utopian society without a care in the world, but upon further inspection there is a something darker that is occurring in Omelas. A poor child is locked away in a basement in one of the town buildings. The child is essentially the scapegoat of the society. Every year teenagers are exposed to this horrific scene, which is very traumatic; most of the adolescents are able to overcome this. The few exceptions that can’t overcome this sickening sight of the suffering youngster are the ones that walk away from Omelas. These individuals cannot overlook the overwhelming guilt that has just been thrust upon them. A connection between the poem and the short story is that both individuals recognize the flaw in their current civilization. Alette pursues the Tyrant, who has control of the underground in hope that she can unshackle the trapped souls in the subway while the