Le Guin has a similar patter for both “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and “The Day Before the Revolution”. This pattern is very descriptive imagery. In Omelas the first paragraph is pure description of the setting. The author uses strong words to allow the reader to experience a more vivid imagery like “The rigging boats in harbor sparkle with flags”( paragraph 1). The way she uses sparkle gives the sentence a different feel. It seems more colorful, bright and full of life. The way she uses her words to describes the scenery is very interesting and also very easy to imagine. Le Guin also uses a lot of description in Revolution also for the setting. She describes the crowds and how the character struggles to get in between all the people “only the booming and the bodies pressed one behind the other”. In this sentence she doesn’t directly say it is crowded, but she gives more of a feeling especially when she says bodies pressed one behind the other. This gives a more vivid feeling and picture of whats happening.
Although her imagery is very vivid and very easy to view and feel, when she gets further into her story everything gets more complicated to understand. In the story Omelas i started to feel very confused after the narrator spoke about technology. i didn’t really understand what they meant with that line. Also the fact that they say “people of Omelas are happy people”(paragraph 4). But before they had mentioned in the beginning of paragraph three ” we do not say the words of cheer much anymore”. It makes me loose the point of the story. How can you the people of Omelas me happy people but not be able to express it. Throughout the whole story their is a big message or idea of happiness being repeatedly mentioned. But it seems like the narrator has a hard time describing it because they keep contradicting themselves. The pattern and the way the story is told seems really confusing in general. The way they mention drooz, being a sort of drug. If this is such a happy place why do only some people take the drug? The story doesn’t really explain a real reason on why they take the drug. It only describes the feeling the drug gives, but not enough on why do they take the drug. The setting of the place seems bright enough so why do some like to take but not all?
From what i have read from Omelas, I get the feeling that the people from Omelas aren’t really happy people. They take drooz to feel brilliance to their minds and bodies. Also a very important change to the story when the narrator is speaking about the wonders of Omelas an its festival. Then unexpectedly a change of mood occurs when the child in the basement is described. Its like the ironic part of the story. Throughout the whole beginning of the story we hear of sparkles and happiness. But then more deep into their is this switch in which the child lives the complete opposite of happiness. What is the real message that Le Guin tries to send?
