Thomas King The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

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Thomas King’s “Afterwords: Private Stories” and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” invite their readers to think about privilege and power and how that relates to ethics. Thomas King’s use of stories shows us that we choose to follow ethics only when it benefits us, only when it creates an interesting story. Le Guin’s story on Omelas vividly creates this imaginary utopia where all is great because one child is locked away. This represents they system we live in. One where privilege is always at the expense of another.
Thomas King tells us about a family he knows in “Afterwords: Private Stories.” This family consisted of John and Amy Cardinal and their three children. Their youngest child, Sam, was adopted. Sam suffers from …show more content…

Inequality is what gives, some of use, comfort, power and privilege. This quote from King “It’s not that we don’t care about ethics or ethical behavior. It’s not that we don’t care about the environment, about society, about morality. It’s just that we care more about our comfort and the things that make us comfortable—property, prestige, power, appearance, safety” (163) is him summarizing this. He is explaining this subconscious action, people make when facing inequality knowingly or unknowingly. This action is actually inaction because why change something, to better another, if it will have a negative impact, no matter how small, on your life? This is drawn out for us in Ursula Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From …show more content…

All of the people of Omelas know of this child. This is because their happiness depends on the child's misery as explained in this quote “If the child were brought up into the sunlight…the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed” (4). Most people are upset or angry about the child’s predicament but do not do anything about it. On the other hand, some people walk away from Omelas because of this child’s predicament but still, do not do anything about it. This represents the fact that privilege is often at the expense of another. The happiness of the people of Omelas is their privilege and that is at the expense of the child who must live in dirt and misery. This also reflects the author’s perspective of

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