The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin - Research Paper Example

The short stories The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson do show the cruelty underlying the social practices and traditions. To begin with the stories depict the scenes of happiness involving social gathering and joy. These two short stories are basically social because they focus on social happiness and celebration and the cruelty underlying it. However the shocking thing is that both these stories do end with cruelty and violence. The stories which begin with scenes depicting social harmony end up depicting the cruelty underlying this harmony. This does indeed bring down the artificiality marking that social happiness. These stories raise important questions related to the power of social traditions and the cruelty underlying them. No doubt the endings of both these stories are full of shock and surprise. Yet, both the writers that are Ursula K LeGuin and Shirley Jackson have used different techniques to depict the cruelty underlying social traditions. It is this difference of technique that makes the two stories different in form and content. Both the writers have used different devices to bring out the cruelty underlying social traditions and prejudices. In her story Shirley Jackson has used the elements of shock and surprise to depict the cruelty underlying it. In contrast, Ursula K LeGuin has used the power of the known and the acceptable to bring out the cruelty marking the story. Both the short stories to begin with shoe the power and strength of social traditions. However, in their ending the two stories shock the readers by turning the scenes of joy and celebration into something violent and miserable. However, in the story The Lottery, much credit goes to the writer. The story has a cruel and abrupt ending. Shirley Jackson masterfully turns a plot marked by joy and celebration into something cruel and shocking. Shirley Jackson pretends the whole thing to be plain and usual, till she shocks the readers in the end with scene of violence and blood. The readers are shocked in the end to see the cruelty that underlies the social tradition that was being celebrated by people. The ending of the story is marked by shock, surprise and cruelty. To achieve this impact, Shirley Jackson used an objective and distant point of view. Shirley Jackson uses this point of view from the start till the end. The writer has nowhere in the story used words signifying any emotions or views by her. The story to begin with appears to be a typical country lottery taking place when, “the flowers are blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (Jackson).”. All the time neither the readers expect anything, nor do they seem to be apprehensive (Lynch 74). The readers throughout the story remain calm and unafraid till the things change in the end (Lynch 74). The readers all the time expect that it is a story related to a country lottery. They do expect the story to end with fun, joy and brotherhood. The story did end with a sense of brotherhood, but it is a brotherhood that is very cruel and violent. The ending of the story brings out the black tradition behind The Lottery. It shows as to how the residents of that simple country resort to violence and cruelty to uphold their tradition. The people, whom the readers consider to be easy going and relaxed, end up being so cruel and violent. It is this ability of Shirley Jackson to hold suspense till the end of the story that makes her writing technique so better as compared to Ursula K LeGuin. It is amazing the way she manages to hold on to the sense of doubt of the readers till the end. It is the ability of Shirley Jacksons to manage the fear and sense of doubt of the readers that makes her a better writer. The readers do not suspect till the end that the story will end up in something rude and shocking. The short story The Lottery is a beautiful example of the use of irony by Shirley Jackson. Right from the beginning of the story, Shirley constructs a scene of rural happiness and joy. It is a typical rural setting where the farmers get together to talk. The women engage in chatting and exchange of gossip. Young boys are busy gathering polished and round stones and arranging them in heaps. It is a typical rural setting marked by much noise, joy and merriment. To the readers, right at the start, nothing appears to be strange or suspicious. Even the most expert of the readers is not able to guess that such a scene of joy and merriment will end up in something so sad and bloody (Yuhan 35). At the start people are shown to be joyful about the lottery and do worry to reach the venue in time. The readers the entire time suspect that the one who wins the lottery will get some good gift or price. However, things turn out to be different when the readers come to learn that the winner is to die a cruel death. Jacksons uses irony in an expert way. Even when the readers come to know that the winner is going to die, she continues to narrate everything in a matter of fact and simple manner. This highlights the shock underlying the plot. It many a times multiplies the shock marking the ending of the story and the cruelty associated with the lottery. Even when everybody in the story comes to know that Tessie is to die, no body shows emotions of kindness or concern for her. Instead the people get irritated with Tessie for not accepting something that is a tradition and a normal practice. Not even her family and friends. Here, one does need to mention that the ending of The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas is not so abrupt and shocking. It is more of disturbing and painful. In that sense the writing style of Shirley Jackson is much superior to Ursula. In the short story The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas, the writer Ursula K LeGuin does not use shock and surprise to pock readers. In instead she brings out the element of pain in the story by placing something rude and cruel in the story against the so called compassion and sophistication of the people of Omelas. In contrast, Shirley handles the theme of social cruelty in a much better manner. While narrating the story, Ursula does not hide her emotions and views from the readers as Shirley Does. Rather she resorts to a first person point of view while telling everything that is going in Omelas. While constructing the setting of the Omelas, Ursula conveys all the emotional and material details to the readers. Nothing is kept hidden from the readers. Hence, to begin with the readers carry a very high and respectable image of the people of Omelas. Ursula never tries to manipulate the belief and attention of the readers so as to surprise or shock them. Everything in the story is presented as it actually is. Nothing is kept hidden or disguised. The writer presents Omelas as a Utopia where everything is marked by nobility, joy and abundance. The people in Omelas are shown to be happy and fulfilled. There is no religious power in Omelas that forces the people to heed to it. Nor is there any political dictatorship that presses the people politically. Omelas is a place with much natural beauty signified by fields, mountains and green open places (Pippin & Aichele 115). The people there are living a life of abundance and peace. Everything there is perfect except for one child who is kept imprisoned in an underground room, scarcely fed, and forced to lead a life of hunger, disease and misery at a place where, “The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes (LeGuin)”. Thereby, Unlike Shirley Jackson, Ursula does not move the readers by surprising or shocking them. She rather pains the readers by conveying that how the happiness, joy and abundance at Omelas is based on the pain and suffering of one innocent child. She shows to the readers as to how social stability many a times is based on cruelty inflicted on the innocent. The normal approach of the writer, while depicting the suffering of the innocent child is something that pains the readers. The readers here are not shocked, but rather angered by the cruelty of the people of Omelas. They are not shocked but rather troubled. The writing style of Ursula is not as dramatic as Shirley Jackson. In that sense it may be mentioned that the painting Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist does convey very same feelings of cruelty regarding something that is scared and respected. It is an interesting religious painting by Dolci that depicts an act of cruelty associated with something that is traditionally respected and held to be scared (Gealt 169). This is a painting that happens to show something shocking and bloody, that totally contrasts with the joy and happiness visible on the face of Salome. As in the above two stories, the painting does depict the cruelty that marks much of social and religious traditions. Thereby, the amazing thing about the short stores The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas and The Lottery and the Painting Salome with the Head of St John the Baptist is that they present really shocking and disturbing themes in a very matter of fact and casual manner. The artists in these works have expertly used the point of view and irony to convey the cruelty associated with social traditions and practices. Works Cited Dolci, Carlo. “Salome Head of St John the Baptist” 1665-1670  the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Gealt, Adelheid, M. Painting of the Golden Age. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Print. K Le Guin, Ursula. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama. And Writing. Ed.X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact ed. New York：Pearson, 2013.1396. Print. 245 Lynch, Frederick R. Invisible Victims. New York: Praeger, 1991. Print. Shirley, Jackson. “The Lottery” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama. And Writing. Ed.X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact ed. New York：Pearson, 2013.1396. Print. 250 Yuhan, Zhu. “Ironies in The Lottery”. Studies in Literature and Language 6.1 (2013): 35-42. Print. Pippin, Tina and George Aichele. Violence, Utopia and the Kingdom of God. New York: Routledge, 1998. Print. Read More