Customer Reviews

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a story that haunts you long after you've read it and after you think you've forgotten it. I think that it is a perfect parallel for The Giver. Rather than distribute normal life pains and anguish among a society, only one is chosen to suffer, allowing the remainder of society to experience utopia.

It's curious that so many reviewers identify so uncritically with those who walk away. I think that is the base-note of the story - having enough wit to see wrong but not enough imagination/courage to change it.

A friend of mine teaches this story in college. There is a goose-bump moment when one student comprehends why the story is named what it is and what it is actually naming. The ones who walk away are defined not by their refusal to be cruel but by their refusal to do anything about it.

This short story place the reader in front of a fantastic city of happiness. However, this is not a fairy tale, and if only you go deeper (no great effort, I ensure you, as this is the goal of the writer) you will start wondering about the sense of happiness and sorrow, good and evil, life and death. There is no simple explaination of these themes, nor a simple corrispondence between fictional and real conceps. If you need an explanation, this is not the place to look. But if you want a suggestion, read this story, because it's worth it.

I believe that the ones who walk away from omelas take a look inside themselves and discover that their happiness is not worth sacrificing another human life. The event of the Festival of Summer is about a celebration of life and yet they are sacrificing one life for the happiness of the town.

This poignant story forces the reader to decide if the happiness of the many is worth the suffering of one. In the end, however, those who choose to leave do so because, I imagine, the happiness of others is eliminated from the equation. It then becomes a question of whether or not that particular individual's happiness is worth this poor child's suffering - at least, that is why I would leave Omelas!

At $164 minimum, I will not purchase the book. I am sure it's worth 5 stars, though.

But, I strongly recommend the inspiration for it, as acknowledged by LeGuin herself: the chapter Rebellion (or Mutiny) depending on the translation, in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. This precedes the chapter "The Grand Inquisitor." I have both of them on my website in PDF format: http: [...]

As LeGuin tells it somewhere, her title was taken from a road sign seen in a rear view mirror as she left Salem, Oregon. Thus: Omelas. My essay "Ivan's Take on NAFTA" is derived from Mutiny also: http: [...]

I found this story to be one of the most relevent stories on the modern human condition. I believe we are, to some extent the people in Omelas. Every time we drive by the homeless, every time we walk by the sick, every time we oooh and ahhh about something we see on television. But we still walk away. I think many people think that the people who walk away are the honorable ones in the story. I whole heartedly disagree. The one's who walk away are just as guilty as the ones who stay. They walked away and did nothing = the ones who stay and ejoy the "happiness."

I believe this book to have been to hard to follow for the most part. While this is true I did enjoy it and I grasped the idea that, in this instance, one individual person has to suffer for all others to experience eutopia.

Whoa. What a weird story. It's hard to follow at some points but it's short enough for you to be able to read it a couple times in order to get it. It is a twisted, bacchanalian story filled with drugs, communal orgies, and iniquity. Exploitation is a major theme in this story and if you have to write an essay about exploitation in this story good luck because you'll probably run out of jucie in about 5 minutes. 6 if you're lucky. It is decent writing and conveys a meaningful message.