Wargo1

Aaron Wargo Proffessor McKeever November 13th 2013 English 1010 Word count: 514 Evil is within everyone The ones who walk away from Omelas has many different messages throughout the story and evil is hidden within this story. Ursula k. Le Guin sends messages through the sub-text. Le Guin does this by written symbols, which help to convey a deeper message. Her story expresses the nature of humanity and the evil in the world.

At the beginning of the story she writes boys and girls naked in the bright air. This is an allusion back to the Garden of Eden in the bible. The nakedness symbolizes freedom, happiness, and the utopian attitude in Omelas. The boys wear flowers in their hair and girls race horses in this society. This symbolizes a perfect society free from judgment.

However the story goes from a perfect society to a dark broom closet under ground. Under ground in this broom closet there is Omelas. Omelas is a scapegoat for the city. He represents the nameless poverty stricken class. Another thing he represents is the hiding of the poor and the out of sight mentality for the people in the utopia. The basement symbolizes the division between the upper class and the lower class. Hence the upper class

Wargo2 being on top and the lower class being underneath them in the basement. The lower class is suffering beneath the happiness of the upper class and no one is paying attention or seams to care.

Evil is very evident in this story and especially regarding the boy Omelas. It is very evil that the people use Omelas a scapegoat for there own good. They use him for all that is bad in the world to make theirs great. Its evil that the people choose to ignore the boy who is being beaten for there own good. Even the people who decide to leave the utopia are evil for not trying to help the poor boy in the basement. This story expresses the evil in people that they only care about themselves and no body else.

The Lottery, is a similar story to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. Both of these stories express a great deal of evil. The Lottery, takes place in a small village with an unusual practicing. They held a yearly event, called the lottery. One person in the town was randomly chosen by drawing and violently stoned by friends and family. The drawing has been around for 75 years and was practiced by everyone in the town.

The lottery and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas are similar in the way that the individuals in the story are not strong enough to confront their disapproval. The stories are also similar because the citizens used sacrificed one person as a scapegoat for their own happiness. As in the case of Omelas being held and beaten in the basement while everyone was living in a utopia. In both of the stories the people are very evil by expressing extreme selfishness, and lack of concern for other human beings.