The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Summary

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The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, by Ursula Le Guin The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Guin has a very ironic point of view with its omniscient narrator. It is filled with symbolism reflecting the biblical story of Jesus and salvation. Three main symbols to support this are the citizens, the child in the basement room, and the ones who walk away. The city of Omelas is described as a sort of Utopian "happiness", filled with not only music and dancing, but nudity and drugs also. There is no pain found until the narrative shifts to the one lone malnourished child held in a basement that makes all of this possible, the martyr. Everyone is aware of the child and knows this is the reason behind their happiness, but there are only few that have ever dared to stand up against this. The citizens and the Utopian society are a direct symbol of a sinful world. Often living in sin appears to be a much happier way of life. The story states, " If an orgy would help, don't hesitate. Let us not, however, have temples from which issue beautiful nude …show more content…
I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas." Could this place they walk away to be Heaven? The Bible promises that if we turn our back on sin and accept this gift we will end up in heaven in true eternal happiness. There are those who question if there is really a Heaven or question the reliability of the Bible, they could be considered to have an ironic point of view. The narrator as I previously mentioned has this same point of view questioning the reader if you believe in not only Omelas but the citizens as well. Whether you believe in the Bible, Jesus and Heaven or not there is no mistaking the similarity between the salvation story and

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