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Setting in The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Essay

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Imagine a place where there is peace, love and happiness shared amongst a community. This sounds so far-fetched from the world in which we live, and to most people this place is unimaginable. The majority of people dont understand that we live in a world in which happiness and peace comes at the expense of another class of people. Whether or not you understand this doesnt make you guilty of anything, it just makes you normal. Figuratively, the setting of the story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas relates quite well to the setting in which we live in on a daily basis. We live in a world in which people are sacrificed for freedom and happiness every day. In the story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, the same thing is taking place. A single individual is being sacrificed for the greater good of the rest of the community. The peace, love and happiness of the community rides on the shoulders of this single individual. The Author of this story uses the setting of the story to relate to the setting of the world in which we live today in a couple of different ways.

The authors objective in writing this story to most appears to be to create an imaginary community in which there is peace and everyone within the community. Clearly, this would be imaginary and not possible to almost everyone. The author added a twist to the story when it was revealed that in order for this peaceful, happy and conflict free society to exist, someone had to endure pain. It was at this point in the story where the connection to the real world was revealed. The world in which us Americans wake up every day could be described a pretty peaceful by most. We dont see the kind of disease, famine and all out disparity on a large scale as many places in the rest of the world. Americas story relates very directly to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas in the sense that the freedom and happiness we experience on a large scale comes from the sacrifice of others.

Like in the story, even today many Americans forget that the peaceful setting in which they get to wake up into everyday comes with an extreme price. Many dont understand the pain and despair that has been undergone by others in order for us to experience this happiness. The same thing takes place in the story as well. The majority of the people in Omelas live a life in which they take for granted the fact that they get to live in this peaceful and nearly perfect community. Therefore, the setting of both the story and the world in which we live in today are not at all that different. The author seamlessly integrates both the modern setting of the world and the setting of the story to reveal this connection.

Another usage of the setting by the author that relates to the world in which we live today was when the people of Omelas that didnt believe that the sacrifice of the individual for the peace and happiness of the community was just. Many people in the world we live in today dont agree with individual sacrifice for peace and happiness. The people of Omelas that didnt want to take part in a community like this simply walked away. Clearly, you couldnt just walk away from todays society like they did in the story, because there arent many places you could go to escape. Therefore, like they did in the story, we live our lives today with a blind eye to the sacrifice that must take place for us to enjoy the peace and happiness in our everyday lives.

As has been discussed, the author uses both the setting and the characters of the story to directly relate his view of Omelas to the world in which we live today. He uses the sacrifice of the single individual to relate to the sacrifice of the many people who give their lives for the peace and freedom in which we enjoy today. He also uses the attitude of the majority of the people of Omelas to represent the attitude of the people of the society in which we live today. In reality, saying that the people are responsible for the suffering probably isnt fair, it is just the way the world is. I believe that this is the point the author is trying to make. Nobody wants anyone to suffer, but there are just some things that we dont have the power to change in the world that we live in. This is why Omelas is a Not So Unfamiliar Community.

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