Compare and Contrast of Short Stories

In “The Ones That Walk Away From Omelas” and “The Lottery”, Ursula Le Guin and Shirley Jackson portray a supposedly perfect society built on clandestine secrets. In the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, Omelas’ inhabitants are smart and cultured, and it seems like a utopian city of happiness and delight. Everything about Omelas is your every desire, disregarding the secret of the city: the good fortune of Omelas requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in never-ending filth, darkness and misery, and that all its citizens should be told of this when they come of age.

After the truth is told to the people of Omelas most are initially shocked and disgusted and somehow manage to live there life and make it worth it for the child’s existence; others just walk away from the city of Omelas. In the short story, “The Lottery”, a small village of about 300 have an annual lottery; women, men, and children participate, to see who will be the chosen one to guarantee enough rain for the corn crops. The winner is to be stoned to death. The way the authors use irony to depict the story societies as wonderful and perfect then towards the end the dark secret is discovered is very intriguing and captivating, which makes you want to keep reading.

In the story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, Omelas seems to be this beautiful and cheerful place. The story takes place during a festival and there are children running around laughing and there is music. It talks about a race and how the horses are excited, “(the horses) flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another “ with silver, gold, and green braided into their manes. The story has and air of excitement and celebration that is soon questioned when the author begins to talk about the child.