English Composition Assignment

Bad experiences are what make people grow and mature from their former selves. Once someone sees that life is not the fairytale that it is made out to be? he is able to make sense of the reality around him. In the short story of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas? by Ursula K. LeGuin? the city of Omelas is a Utopia that is not as perfect as it seems from the outside. The city is holding a child captive for the good of the community. People come to see the child with their own eyes as it suffers? and because of the horrid event of coming face to face with the child their Utopia exists. This story is an allegory of the maturing process of life's journey.

To the youth of Omelas? life before encountering this captive is flawless; "Omelas seems in my words like a city in a fairytale" (Ursula pp 12). These innocent children have never been through an awful experience to make them think otherwise. In the case of the story this would mean seeing the child? or in real life anything forcing a child to become adult. Until then they will act like children? immature and self-centered. "...He never ceases playing...his dark eyes wholly rapt in the sweet? thin magic of the tune" (Knapp pp. 75-81). The quote describes an Omelas child playing his flute. As an adolescent child he is too involved in what he is doing to notice everything and everyone else around him. However? the children all know what is to come of their near future for? "They all know [the child] is there? all the people of Omelas" (James pp. 294-308) ? even the children who have not yet seen it. If seeing the child represents maturing then this quote would say that viewers? upon seeing the child? know that they will mature at some point if they have not already. They may not know when or what this life-altering event will be like. They do? however? know that it is coming.

However what causes the children of Omelas to mature is not hearing of the child but actually seeing it. The reason for this is because it is the first bad experience that these young people endure. "This is usually explained to the children when they are between eight and twelve" (James pp. 294-308) which is about the same age when a child of our world starts to mature. Hearing about the child cannot prepare someone for the event of coming face to face with it. Nobody knows what it is like to mature until it starts to happen by itself. The maturing children have no idea what will happen to them? or in the case of Omelas? whether they will leave or stay in the city.

The rapidly maturing children who stay in Omelas? to become the future of the city? are symbols of people who are in denial about their maturation and are just trying to hold onto their ...