Empoword

Additional Readings 431 Untitle d 130 (A text wrestling analysis of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin) A small child, alone, playing his new video game. A stay-at-home dad collapsing into his office chair at his computer after a long day at work. A successful businesswoman starting her day on the treadmill, sweat trickling down her temples. How many would be considered happy: all of them, perhaps none of them? The short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin describes a fictional town during its summer festival and the processions. The story is populated with contrasts and comparisons about the idea of happiness between Le Guin’s fictional society and ours, and it suggests reasons as to why both societies fall short of experiencing true joy. A thought-provoking question arises early in Le Guin’s fairytale: “How is one to tell about joy?” (Le Guin 2), as if she is troubled by the idea of trying to describe joy to the reader. Perhaps she knows the reader will not understand happiness. For how can one understand happiness if they have never experienced it before? “We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy” (Le Guin 2). With the increase in technology and the rise in power of corporations, we have been receding from happiness. Every big event or holiday celebration is exploding with advertisements, informing us on more “stuff” we could have. Few of these advertisements, almost none, predict an enlightened future, free from overbearing material things. Instead, our celebrations should more similarly follow that of the summer festival of Omelas. Le Guin begins her story describing the fictional town during its summer festival. This festival consists of different processions—one of them being dance— where citizens of the town celebrate in the streets. “In other streets the music beat faster, the shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing” (Le Guin 1). The people of Omelas crowd in the streets to play music and dance, enjoying in the company of their neighbors. One of the factors in this society’s happiness is dance. Later in the passage Le Guin goes on to describe a procession of nudes offering rituals of sex to members of society. “Surely the beautiful nudes can just wander about,