The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas By Ursula Leguin

A metafiction such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, written by Ursula LeGuin, is a uniquely written piece which perfectly exemplifies a narrator’s articulation of the making of a story within a fictional story itself (Scoville 2016). Specifically, in terms of the narrative’s discourse throughout the writing of LeGuin, the sequence of events in this story lies not within the events taking place, but within the act of telling the story itself (Scoville 2016). Accordingly, a reader could conclude that throughout the story a clear conflict within the narrator was evident when attempting to construct a story world that represented a utopian. Consequently, from this struggle and self-doubt within the narrator to create a believable perfect

Naturally, if this world is to be a perfect utopian it must be conveyed as a beautiful town full of happiness where everyone gets along, which is why depictions that are commonly known to be associated with the idea of happiness and joy are present within this story. This is the world that the narrator first attempts to describe as to convince readers that there is a perfect place where everyone is in solidarity, full of love, cheer and joy (Scoville 2016). However, the narrator becomes quickly discouraged and begins to show clear doubt on whether or not this story world is believable to readers. “Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How describe the citizens of Omelas?” (LeGuin 6). This is the start of the narrator’s uncertainty and questions about whether or not these citizens of Omelas are convincing to readers because, as LeGuin claims, as humans we tend to see “happiness as something rather stupid” (6). In worry that the readers will not accept this perfect world because it seems unrealistic or because it is not fulfilling the assumed desires readers have for evil and suffering required for fiction made by the narrator, she consequently switches story worlds and abandons the utopian. From this, one could assume that the narrator has biased views about readers, by how this doubt coming from the narrator relies on the notion that readers prefer evil and suffering over other fictions. Consequently, this assumption reflects certain dark desires that the narrator believes readers have which may or may not be true. She claims that “evil is interesting” (LeGuin 6), which speaks volumes as to how the narrator views human beings as a