Rhetorical Analysis Of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Sierra Sabin

Professor Flocco

ICC1

21 October 2014 A utopian society seems truly ideal upon realization of the technicalities incorporated with it. Ursula K. Le Guin illustrates the concept of culture as well as the idea of both compassion and sacrifice in her article “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” Le Guin introduces her article by creating an image of a typical day that would be experienced by the Omela people. By describing the landscape along with the white picket-fences around the surrounding homes and parks, a visual utopia is being established. Beyond a bureaucracy, decisions are made among the inhabitants. The state of happiness instilled in the citizens of Omela runs much deeper than the physical attributes. “They were not less complex than us. The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid.” Comparing these occupants to an American society of today’s time period is an appropriate literary device that helps Le Guin’s audience further understand the culture. They were in fact just as complex and intricate as us, they simply lived happier lives. “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.” This quote from the article infers that

Their happiness and statutes on how they live their lives are not defined by technology, or methods of transportation, or drugs, or other synonyms for luxury. Meaning a multitude of possessions is not equivalent to one’s happiness. Only what is necessary is incorporated into the daily lives of these people. Because competition, slavery, and wars are all considered destructive foundations, they are not, and will never be assimilated into the lives of the Omelas. This also contributes to the lack of government and clergy. Letting the inhabitants to wander about and rule themselves is the idealist version of upholding a