Isaac Golf

AP English Lit
Troy
A. -Berliner, Samuel. "Le Guin's." Daily Kos. N.p., 10 Jan. 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
-Timberg, Scott. "Ursla K. Le Guin Work Still Resonates." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 10
May 2009. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.
B. Ursla K. Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkley California and attended Columbia University where
she got a Masters in French and Italian Literature. She was born with three older brothers and an open
family that sufficed as a good environment for knowledge, it kind of seems like her parents were
really hippie and well educated, she quotes her upbringing as being the paramount factor in her love
of literature. She lived through the civil rights movement which could relate to her use of a restricted,
burdened, and somewhat abused character in the Omelas world.
C. The main idea of the story is to question the morality of a society where everyone gains from a few or
ones suffering, the story itself doesn't quite answer its own question. The focus of the story is on the
pros, cons, and the reactions of the public to the basis of the society.
D. Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more
thing. (2).
This quote I felt was significant because he sort of assumes that you have to have some bad in
Omelas, he asks if we believe and answers for us no. This seems to assume that this place cannot exist
because there is only joy. Sadly it is mostly true, which is the second part of this quote. What it
reveals about society, both ours and the city of Omelas. The way the evil entity (the boy) of the
society is presented to the reader parallels to how the children find out about it. They are presented
with the basically perfect society, almost being enticed, and then are told there is one more thing.
The only difference is that those born in Omelas are not to make the assumption that is is too good to
be true, because they know nothing other than it.
E. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they
go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. 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. (3).
This looked significant first because of how the quote is structured, first she tells the story of what
those who walk away do, and then she gives us a point of view of a citizen of Omelas. She shares her
experience as one which also gives us a frame for her perspective. She also seems to bring to light the
idea of those who walk away having a sort of instinctual, unbeknownst, or maybe even divine
knowledge of where to go or what to look for, which is really interesting. This does reveal that some
will always choose one side and some will always choose the other, but both in Omelas and in our
society never will everyone agree on the moral issue.
F. They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are
content merely to know it is there. They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand
why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the
tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of
their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend
wholly on this child's abominable misery. (3).
This was particularly interesting because is examines the moral plight or lack there of for a citizen of
Omelas. And whats even cooler is that she whys away from taking the seemingly morally right side of
leaving, she does this by using many positives of the society. In response to the eight positive remarks
to other side is supported by the child's abominable misery. Which is almost equally as bad but not
nearly as vivid or extensive as the other remarks. Overall it shows to how easy it is to be swayed
away from the morally right by the enticing advantages of happiness.