Allegory

• the style of a story, poem, painting, etc., in which the characters and actions represent general truths, good and bad qualities, etc..”

(Longan Dictionary of Contemporary English)

• In literature, symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation for meaning other than those indicated on the surface. The characters in an allegory often have no individual personality, but are embodiments of moral qualities and abstractions. Allegory is closely related to the parable (religious teaching story), fable (animal story) and metaphor, differing from them largely in intricacy and length.

(The Columbia Encyclopedia)

• Le Guin‘s story was originally published in New Dimensions （ Volume 3)-- a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg in October 1973.

• It was reprinted in Le Guin's The Wind's Twelve Quarters in 1975.

• It won a Hugo Award for best short story in 1974.

(From Wikipedia)

About the author

• Ursula Le Guin (1929--) American writer of science fiction and fantasy, poet and critical essayist.

• Ursula K. Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, the daughter of Dr Alfred and Theodora Kroeber Quinn. She grew up in an academic atmosphere. Le Guin's mother was a psychologist and writer of children's stories. Her father was the head of UC-Berkeley's Department of Anthropology, who published work on Native Americans.

About the author

• She began writing during the 1950s, but not until the 1960s did she began publishing. In her novels, she uses science fiction to explore contemporary ethical, moral, and social issues like colonialism and the Vietnam War. her fame has extended beyond the genre boundaries

• Her thought-provoking novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, as did The Dispossessed (1974).

• In an interview, Le Guin explains why she likes the science fiction form: “ Science fiction allows me to help people get out of their cultural skins and into the skins of other things. In that sense science fiction is just a further extension of what the novel has traditionally been. in most fiction the author tries to get into the skin of another person; in science fiction you are often expected to get into the skin of another person from another culture.”

Text Analysis (division)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The happy celebration of Summer Festival (delineation of the city and people)

Misery of the Child in the cellar

Diverse attitudes toward the Child

Paragraph 1

• Please draw a picture of Omelas and describe its physical appearance and its big event.

swallows, tower, bell, boat (rigging)

Omelas City (geographical delineation)

procession

destination of the procession

People (action)

music

Horse race (decoration and action of horses)

mountain

Omelas is a port city by the sea with bright towers and houses with red roofs and painted walls. There are tree-lined avenues, moss-grown gardens, great parks and public buildings. Towards the north side of the city there is a great water-meadow called the Green Fields. Far off to the north and west are mountains with snowy peaks half encircling Omelas.

Splendid city

Joyous celebration

The people there were joyously celebrating the Festival of Summer with music, dance and procession-- men, women and children except for the riders who were naked. The highlight of the celebrations was a horse race to be held on the great water-meadow called the Green Fields. So the whole city is immersed in happiness.

• what is the dominant impression in P1? How is it achieved?

Beauty and Happiness

• Visual sense

• Auditory sense

• Olfactory sense

Visual sense

• Swallows soaring• Bright-tower• The rigging of the boats sparkled with flags • a shimmering of gong and tambourine• Their manes were braided with streamers of silver,

gold, and green• The air of morning was so clear that the snow still

crowning the Eighteen Peaks burned with white-gold fire across the miles of sunlit air

Care-free lifeOmelas is port city surrounded by sea and has high towers shining bright in the sun.

the chains on the ships were decorated with flags which were shining in the sun.the glimmering light reflected from the

gongs and tambourines.

Paraphrasing: in the fresh and crystal clear morning air, the white snow covering the tips of Eighteen Peaks like a crown seems to be on fire by sending off golden sunlight

The manes of the horses were also decorated with flowing ribbons of silver, gold and green colors.

crown White-

gold

Visual sense (portray of the people)

• The procession was a dance

• Children dodged in and out

• boys and girls, naked in the bright air, with mud stained feet and ankles and long, lithe arms,  exercised their restive horses before the race.

People danced to the music as they moved forward

Children ran in and out of the procession playfully

Bend readily; supple

Unsophisticated and honestapproachable

Auditory sense

• Clamor of bells• their high calls rising like the swallows’ crossi

ng flights over the music and the singing• They flared their nostrils and pranced and boa

sted to one another•  banners snap and flutter now and then• As if that little private silence were the signal,

all at once a trumpet sounds from the pavilion near the starting line: imperious, melancholy, piercing.

loud uproarThe shouting of the children grew stronger and stronger like sound heard overhead of the swallow flying by which can be heard over the music and singing.Dilate their nostrils, spring forward on the hind

legs and speak with excessive pride

Move quickly with a sharp sound; move with quick and irregular motions

When the child stopped playing the flute, a short silence follows. It seems to be a signal for the horse

race to start. Suddenly from a pavilion near the starting line, a commanding, sadly pleasing and shrill note of a

trumpet sounds.

Olfactory sense

• One could hear the music winding through the city streets, farther and nearer and ever approaching , a cheerful faint sweetness of the air that from time to time trembled and gathered together and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells.

Paragraph 1

The music moved in a curved way through the city, sometimes it went farther and sometimes nearer,and once you may feel it approaching to you. It was like a faint sweetness of air. Sometimes you can find it, but sometimes not. Finally, it gathered together and broke out to join the clanging of the bells.

11. Analyze the last sentence.

music air?

melodious sweet

Father,nearer Faint, tremblevagueness

these words, in a grammatical way, also indicate the music movement heard from the starting place “farther” to the comparative degree “nearer” to the continuous tense “approaching,” stressing the distance is getting shorter and shorter.

Synaesthesia: The term is applied in literature to the description of one kind of

sensation in terms of another

• They flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another;

The horses rear on their slender legs, and some of them neigh in answer.

• Far off to the north and west the mountains stood up half encircling Omelas on her bay. The air of morning was so clear that the snow still crowning the Eighteen Peaks burned with white-gold fire across the miles of sunlit air, under the dark blue of the sky

Figurative language

Personification:

Metaphor:

Figurative language (portray of the people)

Children dodged in and out, their high calls rising like the swallows' crossing flights, over the music and the singing.

• The crowds along the racecourse are like a field of grass and flowers in the wind.

Simile:

The crowds moving about along the racecourse were swaying back and forth like grass and flowers in the wind.

nature

Figurative language (portray of the people)

• The faces of small children are amiably sticky; in the benign grey beard of a man a couple of crumbs of rich pastry are entangled

Amiably childrensticky beardbenign

Transferred epithet:

The faces of the likeable children are sticky from eating sweet things and there are also crumbs of rich pastry in the grey beard of a kind and gentle old man.

Figurative language (portray of the people)

• his dark eyes wholly rapt in the sweet, thin magic of the tune.

Thin: lack fullness; light. his eyes are fully concentrated in the sweet and lightly enchanting tune he is playing

Synaesthesia:

portray of the people

In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved.

• Some were decorous: old people in long stiff robes of mauve and grey, grave master workmen, quiet, merry women carrying their babies and chatting as they walked

Periodic sentence Loose sentence

Paragraph 2

• The very short paragraph is a transitional paragraph in which the writer uses two short questions to introduce two important subjects.

• In the next long paragraph she describes the people of Omelas and expresses her views on joy and happiness, which is the main theme of the writing.

Comparison and contrast(paragraph 3)

Similarity Differences

They were not barbarians. Yet I repeat that these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. Theywere not less complex than us

•They are content with their life. They are able to pursue and feel happiness•They have a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.•They know true sense of happiness coming from the communion of the finest and fairest in the souls

Similarity Differences

simple folk

dulcet shepherds

noble savages

bland utopians

shepherds who had a melodious voice and were good at singing

naïve people

primitive people who lived in a virtuous, innocent state uncorrupted by civilization

agreeable and courteous people who believed in a utopia, a perfect society.

Paragraph 3

Shepherd:allusion, suggesting one of the historical symbols of pastoralism: a shepherd and his sheep. Pastoralism celebrated the innocent life of shepherds usually from an idealized Golden Age of rustic innocence and idleness.

noble savages: allusion, referring to romantic literary figures in the 18th century, uncivilized, brave and kind

Utopianallusion, referring to people believe in Utopia Sir Thomas More described in his novel—Utopia

Paragraph 3

In 1516 the English statesman Sir Thomas More published a book that compared the condition of his England to that of a perfect and imaginary country, Utopia. Everything that was wrong in England was perfect in Utopia. More was trying to show how people could live together in peace and happiness if they only did what he thought was right.

But the name he gave his imaginary country showed that he did not really believe perfection could ever be reached. Utopia means, literally, "no place," since it was formed from the Greek ou, meaning "no, not," and topos, "place."

Since More's time, utopia has come to mean "a place of ideal perfection." Over the years many books similar to Utopia have been written, and many plans for perfect societies proposed, most of them impractical. Utopia has also come to mean any such scheme or plan.

Paragraph 3

24. So far, according to the description, What are the people of Omelas like?

They are not simple though happy. They are not barbarians, shepherds or utopians. They are not less complex than ordinary people. They are not naïve and happy children. They are mature, intelligent, passionate adults.

Paragraph 3

12. “ but we do not say the words of cheer much any more.” why is that?

Because “we” needn’t use words to express our happiness. This indicates being happy is their way of life and is no longer a problem.

13.

We: ordinary people

All smiles have become archaic:

Smiling to show one’s happiness is old fashioned for there is no need of it now.

Paragraph 3

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.

Pedant: (derog.) a person who pays too much attention to small details and unimportant rules; scholar; theorist; academician

Sophisticates: worldly, knowledgeable ones because of their social experience

The writer begins to criticize the views of pedants and sophisticates. Ordinary people have got into the bad habit of considering happiness to be something stupid. This view was encouraged by people who consider themselves learned and worldly-wise.

Paragraph 3

•Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting:

These pedants and sophisticates declare that only pain stimulates the intellect and only evil arouses the interests of people.

Treason: betrayal of trust or faith; treachery; great disloyalty and deceit; unfaithfulness; betrayal of one’s country

banality: n. quality of being commonplace; uninteresting

•This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain:

What does “this” refer to?

•What should be the social obligations of artists?

Paragraph 3

An artist betrays his trust when he does not admit that evil is nothing fresh nor novel and pain is very dull and uninteresting.

Why do people hold that “Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting”?

People hold this kind of opinion because the artist betray their trust. They trusted the artist to find happiness for them. When the artist realizes the difficulty of this task, he gives it up. To an artist, evil is common and pain is uninteresting. But he is not willing to accept that evil is commonplace and that pain is terribly boring. Instead, he uses them as valuable subjects for his artistic creation, which mislead people into thinking only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.

Paragraph 3

21. If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em:

If you cannot beat evil then become evil yourself. This idea is put forward as an aphorism, maxim. It explains why the artist betrays. As they can’t defeat evil, they accept it and express it in their work.

22.    If it hurts, repeat it: If something hurts, then repeat it and you will not feel the pain as strongly as you did at first. Another aphoristic statement. 

a parallel sentence. The writer declares if you praise despair (can’t lick ‘em), then you condemn delight and if you accept violence (repeat it ) then you, in reality, give up everything else.

23. But to praise despair is…to lose hold of everything else:

An aphorism is a concise statement that is made in a matter of fact tone to state a principle or an opinion that is generally understood to be a universal truth. Aphorisms

are wise sayings aiming at imparting sense and wisdom.

Paragraph 3

•Given a description such as this one tends to make certain assumptions. •Given a description such as this one tends to look nextfor the King, mounted on a splendid stallion and surrounded by his noble knights, or perhaps in a golden litter borne by great-muscled slaves.

such as this: this refers to the above sentence: All smiles have become archaic. After reading the above description the reader is likely to assume certain things. the reader may assume that Omelas is a feudal kingdom where one can see the king riding a beautiful horse surrounded by noble knights or a golden litter carried by strong well-built slaves.

Anaphora:The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses,

clauses, or paragraphs

Paragraph 3

• What is the nature of happiness according to the author?

destructive neutral necessary

Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what isnecessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.

Paragraph 3

The things they do not have:

monarchy slavery the stock exchange the advertisement the secret police the bomb, the clergy and soldiers. cars nor helicopters. guilt.

Paragraph 3

What things are considered unnecessary but undestructive, comfort, luxury, exuberance?

quality of being vigorous, luxuriant and abundant; enthusiasm; abundance;

Central heating

Subway trains, washing machines, beer and drooze

All kinds of marvelous devices not yet invented, floating light sources, fuelless power, a cure for the common cold.

Paragraph 3

•  I thought at first there were no drugs, but that is puritanical: puritanical: too rigid and severe morally; derog. like a puritanAt first I thought there would be no drugs but that is being too severe and rigid.

•  the faint insistent sweetness of drooz may perfume the ways of the city: drooz: a fictional name for a pleasant but not habit-forming drugthe faint but compelling sweet scent of the drug drooz may fill the streets of the city

Paragraph 3

•which first brings a great lightness and brilliance to the mind and limbs

lightness

mindbrilliance

limb

the drug first makes your hands and feet seem light and your mind more keen and alert

Paragraph 3

•   then after some hours a dreamy languor… inmost secrets of the Universe:

after some hours you fall into a lazy dream and have wonderful visions revealing the most mysterious and deepest secrets of the universeLanguor: pleasant tiredness of mind or body.languid

arcana: plural of arcanum, secret or mysterious knowledge known only to the initiate.arcane: adj. lit. mysterious and secret; esoteric;•What is the author’s attitude toward drooze? 

She thinks to ban drugs completely would be puritanical. She permits the use of drooz, a drug that brings great lightness and brilliance to the mind and limbs and vastly increases all the pleasures of the senses but it must not be habit-forming. However, she thinks many of them would not need to take drooz because they are already so happy and content.

Paragraph 3

• It will not do :

it will not bring the real happiness.

•It is trivial:

it is worthless•A boundless and generous contentment, a magnanimous triumph felt not against some outer enemy but in communion with the finest and fairest in the souls of all men everywhere and the splendor of the world's summer;magnanimous: having, showing, generosity

communion: fml. lit. the sharing or exchange of deep thoughts, ideas, and feelings, esp. of a religious kind

Paragraph 3

What fills the hearts of the people of Omelas with joy and pride is a feeling of great and unlimited contentment. They also feel a courageous triumph not over some outer enemy but in sharing with all that is fine and fair in the souls of all men and in the grandeur of the world’s summer. The triumph they celebrate is the victory of life.

• What are the necessary things for people in Omelas?

Things that can beautify the city, like avenues, green meadows etc..

Citizens who are not simple but happy, mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives are not wretched

Citizens who have contentment of life

…

Paragraph 3

• a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time:

Fairy tales generally begin in this way: “Once upon a time, long ago in a country far away…” 

•Perhaps it would be best…assuming it will rise to the occasion:

Perhaps it would be best if the reader pictures Omelas to himself as his imagination tells him, assuming this fancy city will be shaped as desired.•for certainly I cannot suit you all:

For certainly I cannot describe Omelas in such a way as to satisfy all of you.•As you like it: Picture Omelas to be as you like it to be or as your fancy bids.

Paragraph 7 &8

Paragraph 7 is another short paragraph to introduce the next important subject: the suffering and misery of a child upon which is based the joy and happiness of the citizens of Omelas.

42. In what kind of a room is the child imprisoned? (P8)like a broom closet or a disused tool room (3 paces long and 2 paces wide) in the basement or cellar

locked doorno windowSparse sunlight

mops, with stiff, clotted, foul-smelling heads in one corner

floor is dirt and damp to the touch

A little light seeps in dustily between cracks in the boards, secondhand from a cobwebbed window somewhere across the cellar.Secondhand: not directlyDustily lightairLight, reflected from a window covered with cobweb across the cellar, leaks into the dust flying room through cracks in the wallboards. to the touch: when felt

e.g. A cat’s fur is soft to the touch.

Paragraph 8

• It could be a boy or a girl:

The author thinks it is not important whether it is a boy or a girl. She uses “it” for the child from now on, and regards it not as a person at all.

Paragraph 8

How is the child described? Make a list of aspects being discussed.

Physical state

Physically small, thin because of malnutrition

Looks 6,but 10 in reality

No calves to the leg, belly protrudes

Surface skin rot

Buttocks and thighs have festered sores

Mental state

Feeble-minded, imbecilePsychological

state fearful, frightened

food

Paragraph 8

Half bowl of meal and grease

action

Pick nose, fumble with toes and genitals (as it does not know what to do)

Whine, cry

Being kickedsocialisation

No understanding of time and interval (no idea of how much time has passed from one incident to another).

Enclosed, in solitude

Clumsily play with his genitals and toes without any intentions

Utter low nasal sound from uneasiness

Why wouldn’t its parents come to rescue it?

How to determine who should be imprisoned?

Adults’ attitude

• One of them may come and kick the child to make it stand up.

• The others never come close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eyes.

• It has to be there

Transferred epithet: feeling of fright and disgust

Everyone in Omelas knows that their happiness is based on this child’s abominable misery.  

Adolescents’ attitude

Initial reaction

Terminal reaction

Shocked, sickened, disgust outrage, impotence

They feel disgust, which they had thought themselves superior to:

They experienced a strong feeling of dislike but before they saw the child they had thought they would not be affected by this kind of feeling, i.e. they would not be sickened at the sight.

indifference

Adolescents’ attitude

Initial reaction

Terminal reaction

Shocked, sickened, disgust outrage, impotence

indifference

paradox

Often the young people, when they have seen the child, go home crying for they feel pity and compassion and want to do something to help it but they cannot or they feel great anger and outrage because they feel helplessly bound by strict and absolute terms –All the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas depend on one condition –they must do nothing to lighten the terrible misery of the child. This is the paradox, the contradictory situation.

paradox

•To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement( kind treatment to the child)—let guilt within the walls •a little vague pleasure of warmth and food, no doubt, but little more•Its habits are too uncouth for it to respond to humane treatment•Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of the splendor of their lives. Theirs is no vapid, irresponsible happiness. It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundityof their science.

However, it is their tears, which are shed when their generosity is put to the test, and their anger, when they realize their helplessness, that truly makes their lives splendid and grand. Since they have no other ways to save the child, they have to make achievements to compensate for what they have owed to the child.

Adolescents’ attitude

Initial reaction

Terminal reaction

Person of conscience

Their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality

accomplice

The reality makes it fair and just to treat the child like this

What is necessary in order to be happy?

Things that can beautify the city, like avenues, green meadows etc..

Citizens who are not simple but happy, mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives are not wretched

Citizens who have contentment of life

The suffering of the child

Adolescents’ attitude

• One of the adolescent girls or boys go alone

It implies they are the few people.

• The last paragraph is the most interesting and thought-provoking paragraph. The writer puts forward the problem but does not supply the answers.

•Where do you think they are heading for?

About the title

• a fictional city of happiness envisaged by the writer.

• It came from a road sign: Salem (Oregon) backwards…. Salem … equals Peace.

Suffering

child

Happiness of citizens in Omelas

Suffering

child

stay leave

represents moral choices

• Loss of innocence in soul (Selfish citizens knowing that they are only getting

those nice things because of the pain the child is going through, which in turn is

selfish and morally wrong.)

•principle of Utilitarianism: the suffering on one child hurts less people than the

good of thousands of happy citizens.. The action of

maltreating the child is not judged, but the resulting happiness for everyone justifies the act through

utility.

selfless citizens of Omelas who choose to

not be apart of the suffering and have moral awareness

Spectators: leave the suffering child behind

Variations on a theme by William James:

• The text discusses on a theme by William James. The author shows different ideas from William James’ theme concerning happiness and what it is based on.

• This short fiction anthology was inspired by James's "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life." 

• Le Guin experienced " a shock of recognition " when she read passage from James

"if the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which … millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torture,…even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as fruit of such a bargain . "

• Omelas is a fictional city of happiness envisaged by the writer. She describes emotionally and colorfully the city of Omelas and its citizens but it is a piece of allegorical description. So "Omelas" should not be read as a realistic story. Le Guin is playing around with the old idea about "the greatest good for the greatest number" and taking it to its logical extreme. What if, magically, all the evil in the world could be heaped on one person and everyone else could be happy. Would it be worthwhile or would the injustice done to that one probably retarded child outweigh the good of all the rest.

• On one level the story can be understood about the western world living off the suffering of the third world.

• On another level it can be understood about our society's refusal to accept the legitimacy of the plight of the poor.

Summary general idea

In this allegorical writing, Le Guin brings up a rather provocative theme, the nature of happiness and on what it depends. In the beginning, Le Guin fashions a utopian city, Omelas. It is celebrating the Festival of Summer. There is an air of excitement throughout the city with its clanging bells, flag-adorned boats, beautiful buildings and joyful processions.

People march in procession to watch a horse race, which will begin very soon. Then Le Guin comments indirectly on the people of Omelas to convince that they are not simple but happy. According to her, their happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. They do without monarchy, slavery, or any commercial, political or military institution. There is no guilt in Omelas. People live a happy life which they love earnestly.

Summary general idea

However, Le Guin discloses the truth of Omelas’ happiness shortly, which shocks the readers. In a cellar in Omelas a child has been locked in a tiny room and mistreated for a very long time. All the happiness of Omelas is based on its suffering. The people of Omelas accept this as a terrible justice of reality and let the child’s misery go on.

By this sharp contrast between the former happiness and the present cruelty, Le Guin draws the attention upon her theme—the nature and basis of happiness—should the happiness of the many be based upon the suffering of the few? But she provides no solution except an open, thought-provoking ending that some people leave Omelas after seeing the child.

Summary of features

• the author uses short four short paragraphs (2,7,11, and 13) to introduce new topics or ideas. These short paragraphs are more effective and forceful than ordinary topic sentences.

• the writer uses a lot of specific words describing sound and color to paint a verbal picture of the city of Omelas and to describe the joyous celebrations that were being held.

• Varied sentence structures: periodic sentence, loose sentence, short elliptical sentence, rhetorical questions.

• Figures of speech