The sudden pivot in Guin’s role as a narrator challenges the comfort the readers had experienced, to now contemplate the meaning of a utopia. Shorter sentence structures and low modality descriptions effectively contrasts the first half of the short story, which had no shortage of lengthy descriptions of “red roofs and painted walls”. In this case, Le Guin takes full control in describing “it” in grotesque imagery, stripping the child of what little humanity it had left. The initial vision for Omelas is now skewed, as Le Guin changes her into third person to describe the consequence. This is juxtaposed in the second part, which brings forth the dilemma in the seemingly perfect world that the reader had created. Le Guin’s first person colloquial voice combined with strong romantic imagery - describing Omelas with “a clamor of bells” and “bright-towered by the sea”, reinforcing positive imagery of nature - in the first part of the short story paints the city as an idyllic place, where all people are satisfied with life. The statement of Omelas containing “no guilt” is a cornerstone in categorising Omelas as a utopia. Another essential point of Le Guin’s utopia is that the citizens “were not simple folk”, upholding society’s values of education and culture. For example: “They did not use swords, or keep slaves.”, which promote anti-war and anti-slavery, relating to the context of the author. That being said, Le Guin does establish common values and a rough outline of the world through long, detailed descriptions of the people and culture. As the readers are invited to receive the freedom given to them as a co-creator of Omelas, the notion of a “utopia” is brought to life in the perspective of the individual. Numerous parts of the text encourage the reader to participate in the creation of Omelas, through rhetorical questions. Le Guin’s writing style invokes the audience to create their individual Omelas, exploring the notion of a Utopian society, while also expressing her ideas on the matter. Question: How does De Guin use the roles of the narrator and audience to interrogate the notion of ‘utopia’? Text: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K.

Omelas analysis