Welcome, men and women, to my blog, Organick Literature. My name is Nick, and here I will share my thoughts and opinions of various stories and aspects of literature.
My favorite text from this summer is by far "The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas," by Ursula LeGuin. After reading the story, I felt rather afflicted. LeGuin did such a fantastic job of burning this theme of morality into our heads, but lets us decide as to which road we take. The author builds up this utopia of happiness, yet just blows it away when she reveals that all the people of Omelas "understand that their happiness...depend[s] wholly on this child's abominable misery." How can all these people live their lives knowing a child's "buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually." It boils down to these questions: Is our happiness worth the suffering of others? How do we respond when faced with a moral paradox of being selfish or selfless?
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