"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin, is a surprise-ending short story that shows how society can create traditions and ways of thinking that very few people can stand up against. The story takes place in an imaginary town where the people are happy and simple. Le Guin constantly reminds the reader that people are happy, but there is phoniness. She says, "All smiles have become archaic." The author gives the reader a basis for the town's setting. The story takes place during a summer festival. Then she lets the reader's imagination create what the he or she thinks is a believable, "perfect" town by giving him or her options. The options are small details like whether there is or are not religion, technology, drugs, alcohol, and even sex without inhibition. The reader is given these options because she wants them to participate in the story. Le Guin does not want a king, monarchy or any person who thinks that they have power over the other townsfolk in Omelas, because that would create rebellion, which would ruin the ending of the story. The overall tone in the story is sarcastic. LeGuin makes the town out as too good to be true and in fact, it is. Then she goe

In every society there are unspoken truths in a culture. The people know; they just do not like to talk about certain taboo subjects because that will bring unwanted feelings to the surface. In Omelas the people never spoke of the child, they just knew it had to be there. To them, it was normal to have a suffering child hidden in a cellar. There are certain topics that the American culture chooses not to talk about like death or a past experience that would be morally unacceptable. The emotion that would be felt if these unspoken truths are discussed would be embarrassment or shame.

Obviously this town was not all it was cracked up to be. The old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover" could be relevant to the facade of Omelas. It is natural human nature to look at someone and immediately judge him or her by his or her appearance. The real facts that make up that person are unknown, but as a human, there are assumptions being made inside our mind. Some of these assumed perceptions could be negative or positive and they could be about the person's life or personality. Omelas looked as if it were a "perfect" and happy city, but at the core of their blissful existence was one completely miserable and neglected child. That small factor made Omelas utterly disgusting.

Everyone in Omelas knew about the unfortunate child, but everyone in the city and even those who walked away, chose to ignore the awful truth. The ones who stayed in the city made up excuses in their mind why the child should not be free, "It is too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy", "Its habits are too uncouth for it to respond to humane treatment" and "It would not get much good from its freedom." These excuses can relate to the way some may look at the poor, sick

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1182
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)