Les Misérables

Walk Away From Omelas”, describes a utopian city, but not without a twist. With this piece, the author provokes the reader to question the morality of utilitarianism as both a citizen of the fictional city, and allegorically as a member of our world. Le Guin uses many literary tactics to compel the reader to be critical of her fictional society, primarily sharply contrasting imagery and metafictional writing techniques. The creation of two distinctly contrasting worlds, Omelas and the Cellar, is…

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is a story which written by Ursula K. Le Guin. The author starts the story with describes about the Omela. The story points out clearly that the people of Omela have traditions that they annually practice. The author describes the environment of the city citing its boats, roofs, buildings, streets, and gardens during the Summer Festival. The celebration is inclusive of all age groups, from babies carried by their mothers to old folks of the city. The…

For my first essay in ENG100Y I have decided to base my assignment on the reading The Ones Who Walk Away from Omela’s, a metafiction that articulates the making of a story within the fictional story. The topic that I have chosen based on this reading asks that I perform a critical investigation and identify the story world/ worlds the narrator has creatively established and interwoven into this text. After stating these story worlds present in the reading, I am to use examples from the text to…

Dystopian literature is, with a few exceptions, bleak and societies depicted often lean towards an Orwellian type of oppression. In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (TOHWW) we can observe a different type of oppression, one where people are not trapped by barbed wire and the thought police, but by their own inhibitions and their inability to digest a harsh reality. This creates a system where everyone seems to be a free and willing participant, even though they are slaves to their own pleasure…

Palms sweating, heart racing, blanket clenching. Have you experienced this chilling feeling before? Every person has a limit to their willingness to watch horror films. Some people get a thrill out of watching horror films while others avoid the experience altogether. Humans try to eliminate fear from their lives, but fear in moderation is beneficial. While fear is often an emotion people tend to avoid, some actually embrace it as a result of fear creating feelings of joy and a rush. Fear…

The idea of a perfect world is very complex and often confusing to understand; it becomes simpler to imagine such world if suffering existed within it. However, if a perfect world contains suffering, it then becomes flawed. In Ursula Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, the narrator struggles with the problem of creating a realistic ‘perfect world’, and as a solution she has created two contradictory worlds in which the existence of one is dependant on the other. the narrator provides…

Kindness Matters In the Left Hand of Darkness, the Gethenian’s are a unique breed that were used for experimentation. The Gethen’s can relate to our transgendered community. Gender plays a huge role in science fiction. Challenging our thoughts on what we think is normal broadening our horizons on embracing the supernatural. Although the Gethenians are neither man or female and that seems weird to us. Does Gender really play a major role in defining who we are at the end of the day regardless…

Loss of life, something that everyone must face, many short stories have dug into this topic such as Gwilan’s Harp by Ursula K. LeGuin, The Washwoman by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and The Last Leaf by O. Henry. The climax of each story comes when an important character dies, forever impacting the surrounding characters. In Gwilan’s Harp, Gwilan endures the loss of her husband Torm and of her beloved harp, but finds fulfilment in her god given talents. The Death of the washwoman in the aptly named…

In the short-stories “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry, “The Washwoman” by Isaac Singer, and “Gwilan’s Harp by Ursula K. LeGuin, all of the characters struggle with many losses. One of the main and most apparent loss is life in each story. In “The Last Leaf”, ironically, a failure of a painter, Old Behrman dies, when it is least expected. Behrman was not respected, but his death leads the reader to instantly admire him for his brave attempt to save someone he loved. “Gwilan’s Harp” displays a loss of…

happiness and joy. One day when it was warm “the festival of Summer came to the city of Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. Some streets filled with woman carrying their babies chatting as they walked and others filled with music laughter and dancing”(Le Guin 1). When the word festival comes to mind it brings thoughts of joy happiness and comfort to be yourselves. While walking through the streets seeing snow on the mountain peaks, feeling a light breeze through the air, and hearing a faint cheer…