Forster and Le Guin, in their short stories “The Machine Stops” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” respectively make many assumptions about human nature in regards to what people seek and value most. Both texts, set in Dystopian and Utopian futures, present the Marxist ideas of commodity fetishism, alienation and modernity as it relates to the human need for happiness, security and spirituality and/or religiosity. The futuristic worlds that both authors set up in their short stories deal with the ramifications of modernity in societies; in both worlds the threat against individual and collective life of humans is what drives them into developing values that keep such threats at bay. Commodity Fetishism is an inherent quality found in
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Forster, within the short story, “The Machine Stops” addresses the many complexities of the idea of modernity and how it affects alienation within a society dominated by a Machine. Marx argues that human powers and products become alienated from their original intended purposes and become autonomous when humans ascribe certain values to those commodities. Commodities are not fetishized overnight, “A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood” (Marx 1). They become alienated when humans begin to fetishize them beyond their trivial value, and when they ascribe significance and meaning to them over and above their accepted value. Le Guin, in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” relates the tale of a young child that has become fetishized as a commodity, a thing with a material value apart from its existence as a human, a commodity that has been alienated from its intended purpose; The child is a tool used to insure the city’s happiness and security, like the way the Machine in Forster’s “The Machine Stops” becomes alienated and fetishized as a larger than life tool that insures its occupants’ safety and security. Indeed, Marx states, “...man, by his industry, changes the forms of the materials furnished by Nature, in such a way as to make them useful to him” (1). Similarly, in both …show more content…
While they seek happiness and security almost desperately, they all shy away from all things spiritual. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, religiosity is viewed as an institutionalized value that they do not want to attend to. While they agree that a sense of religion is not entirely a bad idea, they do not believe that institutionalized religion is what Omelas needs, "Religion yes, clergy no” (2). However, the child is fetishized in a similar way that many of the devils and demons in Abrahamic religions are treated, “– sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there. One of them may come and kick the child” (3). The child is lowered in value to the point of atrocity, it is the lowest point of existence in the city, the lowest anybody can go. The disgust with which they treat the child is also reminiscent of Muslims throwing stones at the devil during the Hajj - the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. The child, often referred to as “It” is the price that the city has to pay for its happiness. The child’s miserable life in that basement is the cost of the city’s security and happiness; The citizens of Omelas rationalize their own guilt by trying to look at the child as an object, by referring to the child as “It” and trying to either stay as far away from it as possible or to view it much like humans have viewed demons and devils in religion. The child is a
Forster, within the short story, “The Machine Stops” addresses the many complexities of the idea of modernity and how it affects alienation within a society dominated by a Machine. Marx argues that human powers and products become alienated from their original intended purposes and become autonomous when humans ascribe certain values to those commodities. Commodities are not fetishized overnight, “A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood” (Marx 1). They become alienated when humans begin to fetishize them beyond their trivial value, and when they ascribe significance and meaning to them over and above their accepted value. Le Guin, in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” relates the tale of a young child that has become fetishized as a commodity, a thing with a material value apart from its existence as a human, a commodity that has been alienated from its intended purpose; The child is a tool used to insure the city’s happiness and security, like the way the Machine in Forster’s “The Machine Stops” becomes alienated and fetishized as a larger than life tool that insures its occupants’ safety and security. Indeed, Marx states, “...man, by his industry, changes the forms of the materials furnished by Nature, in such a way as to make them useful to him” (1). Similarly, in both …show more content…
While they seek happiness and security almost desperately, they all shy away from all things spiritual. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, religiosity is viewed as an institutionalized value that they do not want to attend to. While they agree that a sense of religion is not entirely a bad idea, they do not believe that institutionalized religion is what Omelas needs, "Religion yes, clergy no” (2). However, the child is fetishized in a similar way that many of the devils and demons in Abrahamic religions are treated, “– sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there. One of them may come and kick the child” (3). The child is lowered in value to the point of atrocity, it is the lowest point of existence in the city, the lowest anybody can go. The disgust with which they treat the child is also reminiscent of Muslims throwing stones at the devil during the Hajj - the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. The child, often referred to as “It” is the price that the city has to pay for its happiness. The child’s miserable life in that basement is the cost of the city’s security and happiness; The citizens of Omelas rationalize their own guilt by trying to look at the child as an object, by referring to the child as “It” and trying to either stay as far away from it as possible or to view it much like humans have viewed demons and devils in religion. The child is a