Comparing individual and society assumptions in Jackson, Le Guin, and Lequin

¶ … Utopia:

An Analysis of the Lottery and the Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

George Orwell once wrote that, "Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness." In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas, the truth of this maxim is made manifest through gripping tales of what price a utopian society is worth in human suffering. Both authors create ideal societies where inhabitants are materially satisfied and happy, yet underpinning this comfortable lifestyle is a horrible fact which harkens back to the primitive and violent nature of humanity. This shared moral framework in the book forces the reader to question what decision they would come to in order to live in a utopia as well as what choices they are making to live in their own society. The stories do have significant differences. The decision of some individuals to resist the barbarity of their "utopian" society in Omelas is contrasted the family which kills its own mother in The Lottery. This difference reflects differing perspectives by the authors regarding human nature.

There exist significant similarities between Jackson's The Lottery and Le Guin's Omelas in regards to what reasons are made to justify the terrible truth about their social order. Both stories have an inherent focus on violence. In The Lottery, the author tells us that, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." This quotation distills the lottery down to is essence which is violence ignoring all the trappings of tradition, ritual, and history. Furthermore, the quote shows how what really matters to the villagers is the avoidance or questioning of change. Similarly, in Omelas, the author writes, "Those are the terms. 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." The major similarity between the two works can be seen in these quotes. Both authors are attempting to make cases about the cost of utopia and what price is worth living in one.

What separates the works fundamentally is how the characters respond to the moral shortcomings of their societies. In The Lottery, all the characters go along with the necessity of executing Tessie Hutchinson including her own family and even encourage children to participate including her young song, "The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles." In contrast, in Omelas a few citizens recognize the moral compromise and barbarity they are engaging in when it is described that after learning the horrible truth, "Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home." This highlights the authors' different philosophical perspective on human nature. Jackson is arguing that all people, even one's own family, will value their own happiness in utopia over a human life whereas Le Guin holds out the hope that humanity has some elements which will resist such violence and barbarity on inherent moral grounds.