Savage
Mecha Collins
Dr. Alan W Brownlie
English 111
October 23rd 2014 Savagery in Society
Wealthy individuals have more privileges and opportunities than the average person. Most wealthy people think down on the poor or ordinary people. In the short stories “The Ones Who Got Away From Omelas” by LeGuin and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut both deal with the complications many average people deal with when being judged by people with a higher power. In each story they both deal with these three problems, the struggle of ordinary people to survive, the suffering imposed on some people in order for the majority to do well and the savagery to which ordinary people are reduced in order to keep the society functioning.
Omelas is a city in utopia where the people there have very happy lives. Every summer a festival came to the city. All sorts of music is played at the festival and children prance around bare foot and ride horses. Although Omelas is a city of happiness beneath it lies very dark twisted things. In order for the city to remain happy one innocent child must suffer. In a basement under a public building a child is kept there for amusement. The child only eats half a bowl of corn meal and grease a day. “If he people of Omelas want to keep their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, and the kindly weathers of the skies depend on the child’s abominable misery” (Leguin 261). Although they would like to do something for the child they feel they can’t. The moment the child is released prosperity and delight of Omelas would be destroyed. “To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed” (p.261). Omelas is truly a selfish city, letting one innocent child surfer shows the people of
Dr. Alan W Brownlie
English 111
October 23rd 2014 Savagery in Society
Wealthy individuals have more privileges and opportunities than the average person. Most wealthy people think down on the poor or ordinary people. In the short stories “The Ones Who Got Away From Omelas” by LeGuin and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut both deal with the complications many average people deal with when being judged by people with a higher power. In each story they both deal with these three problems, the struggle of ordinary people to survive, the suffering imposed on some people in order for the majority to do well and the savagery to which ordinary people are reduced in order to keep the society functioning.
Omelas is a city in utopia where the people there have very happy lives. Every summer a festival came to the city. All sorts of music is played at the festival and children prance around bare foot and ride horses. Although Omelas is a city of happiness beneath it lies very dark twisted things. In order for the city to remain happy one innocent child must suffer. In a basement under a public building a child is kept there for amusement. The child only eats half a bowl of corn meal and grease a day. “If he people of Omelas want to keep their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, and the kindly weathers of the skies depend on the child’s abominable misery” (Leguin 261). Although they would like to do something for the child they feel they can’t. The moment the child is released prosperity and delight of Omelas would be destroyed. “To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed” (p.261). Omelas is truly a selfish city, letting one innocent child surfer shows the people of