O m e l a s

In the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", Ursula Le Guin uses the symbol of a child to symbolize poverty, and the way the child is treated to represent selfishness.  She also addresses the unnerving reality that we often accept unjust affairs merely because everyone else does.  The only people who refuse to accept the treatment of the child are the ones who walk away from Omelas-- the characters which represent the people in the world who question authority when they think something isn't right.  The ones who walk away represent those of us who are unwilling to turn a blind eye, and would rather give up all our wealth than be part of a corrupt community.

The child in the closet symbolizes the poor.  The mindset the people use to justify their treatment toward the child represents the mindset many of us have today to justify not helping the poor.

• "They would like to do something for the child.  But there is nothing they can do. . .if it were cleaned and fed and comforted. . .in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and 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 the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed."

The ones who walk away from Omelas are the ones who refuse to take part in an unjust community, and represent those of us who question authority and are not willing to comply with a community's norms if they are immoral.

• "At times one of the adolescent girls or boys who go to see the child does not go home to weep or rage, does not, in fact, go home at all.  Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home.  These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone.  They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates."
• "They seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

M i n i v e r C h e e v y

In the poem Miniver Cheevy by E.A. Robinson, Robinson addresses the already well-known truth that  there are, in fact, some things in life that you cannot change.  But instead of dwelling on this depressing reality and living a life of sorrow and hatred, Miniver learns to accept the fact that he should make the best of what he was given, even if it is not ideal... Right?

Just kidding.

No, Miniver Cheevy takes his sadness so far, he eventually "weeps that he was ever born".
I believe that in his poem, Robinson is bringing attention to the fact that when we as people don't get what we initially desired, we tend to dwell on what could've been instead of focusing on being grateful of our actual circumstances.  We think and think and romanticize that "what if", to the point where we begin to loathe our existing situation.  And some of us might even take it as far as to resent being born...

I think the moral of the story is that we must accept that we can't control every aspect of our lives.  But just because one thing doesn't go right doesn't make it okay to let it ruin your entire life.  We must change the things we can't accept, and accept the things we cannot change.

I r o n y

Irony is often unavoidable in real life, but in writing it is a very useful tool in communicating a concept often associated with satire or sarcasm.  It is an effective way to convey a point to an audience because it puts a situation or idea into a sort of sarcastic perspective that more obviously depicts the flaws of the topic being discussed.

There are two common types of irony:

• Expectational Irony
• Oxymoron Irony

***Note: These are not legitimate terms, and EliAnalyzed© is in no way responsible if you use these in real life and look stupid.

Expectational Irony is used in literature when an author plays with your expectations, setting you up to expect one thing, and then totally throwing a curve ball.  For me, the most prominent example of how Gordimer uses this type of irony is in how she sets up the story in the first place-- it's written primarily in synopsis, just like a fairytale, and begins with "In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after".  And for God's sake, the story is even called "ONCE UPON A TIME".  I don't know about you, but when I hear those four magical words, I expect a pleasant story with a happy ending.  I mean, I don't know how Gordimer was raised, but I was personally brought up to believe that fairytales are not meant to be dismal, and quite frankly, TRAUMATIZING accounts of death and tragedy.  But who knows?  Maybe Gordimer is also trying to teach us a little something about expectations...

On the other hand, Oxymoron Irony is the kind of irony that has to do with contradictions, some great examples of which can be found in Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic".  Morissette describes a "no-smoking sign on your cigarette break" or "a free ride when you've already paid."  If an oxymoron is a phrase made of two opposites, then Oxymoron Irony is a situation made of opposites.  Point being, Oxymoron Irony is also apparent in "Once Upon a Time".  Gordimer depicts a family that goes to such extreme lengths for safety that they finally take it too far, and what they thought would make their son safe is what ended up killing him.  The fence in that story is such a prime example of Oxymoron Irony because it represents such a huge contradiction: the difference between safety and death.

So... What's the point?  Well, I guess Gordimer could have just told us "So basically, humans have a tendency to go to extreme lengths to get what they want, like safety.  But that never turns out great, so I wouldn't advise it.  So um, yeah."  Very convincing, right?  However, instead of doing that, Gordimer used irony.  She crushed our expectations and perplexed us with contradictions, and in doing so, was more effectively able to portray her point.

A n g e l s

I'm Eliana, and this is my blog, Elianalyziation.

I read many great works this past summer, but I particularly enjoyed "The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I love that the story is teeming with symbolism and can be interpreted in many different ways.  Maybe I interpreted it wrong, but frankly, I don't really care.  To me, it was a story about a selfish humanity that was blinded by their stereotypes and expectations.  The angel represented the magnificent, beautiful things in life.  Unfortunately, the people of the village, representing humanity as a whole, quickly decided that the angel didn't meet their expectations of what an angel should be, and quickly lost interest in him.  My favorite quote from the story is "Then he noticed that close up [the angel] was much too human. . . Nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels."  Marquez beautifully conveys the idea that if you go about life with a closed mind, you miss out on all the beauty and wonder of the world.