The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
This story was particularly pathetic in regards to its purpose. Many great writers have written astounding epics detailing life in a completely satisfying environment. Utopia is the greatest of such epics. Le Guin takes a very trivial and superficial attempt at accomplishing such an overwhelming task. The story has a false sense of importance that is pushed through the pages by the narrator's melodramatic accounts of Omelas. There is nothing enigmatic, enlightening, or even interesting about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. The story is so plainly stated that the reader feels as if he is being spoon fed or perhaps lectured by some pompous pseudo- visionary. The only attribute of this story is its brevity. The reader does acquire a sense of relief when he finally reaches the end of the story, and fortunately, this comes quickly. There is one line in the story that does deserve some merit. When talking of the price of such thorough happiness and joy the narrator says, "...to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else" (772). This line is cleverly written and yields much truth.
