Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and The Pragmatical Princess

I wanted to compare "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" to a more recent story, "The Pragmatical Princess." What stood out to me as being similar in the two stories was how the dragon had introduced a new for of religion, Islam, to the Princess. I related this to how the young adults were introduced, or rather showed the boy in the cellar. Once the Princess was introduced to the religion she converted similar to how some of the young adults who were exposed to the boy in the cellar wound up walking away from Omelas. These young adults, like the Princess, changed the beliefs which allowed them to view their surroundings differently. They began to realize that the village of Omelas that was so happy wound up to be unappealing to the young adults after they viewed the starving specimen that was held in the cellar. I also compared the skeletons of bodies that the dragon had eaten to the boy in the cellar himself. These two were similar considering people were sacrificed or held against their will in order to make the lives of others pleasant. The Princess was able to be happy especially when the dragon freed her from the chains, which was like the people of Omelas being freed of a terrible life by the sacrifice of the boy in the cellar.
Posted by at

9 comments:

  1. HumbertNovember 13, 2011 at 8:04 PM

    I wonder if the boy's parents knew he was down below the cellar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LisaNovember 15, 2011 at 11:06 AM

    To Peter: Everyone in the society eventually knows about the child because everyone is told when they reach their mid-childhood. So, yes, the parents would likely have known; tho' I suppose they might not know it was *their* child. But in that case every parent whose child mysteriously disappears must think, "I wonder if they've been taken to the basement?"

    ReplyDelete
  3. ThedardenNovember 16, 2011 at 12:04 PM

    you made some nice connections

    ReplyDelete
  4. jess.putlandNovember 16, 2011 at 6:28 PM

    I agree with a lot of what you are saying Stasio. However, I think something to think about is that my understanding of the story is that the Princess actually almost forced her religion, muslim, on the Dragon so that he could stay in his home and she could stay with him. I think this adds a bit of a twist to your post if we think about it that way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. TatyNovember 16, 2011 at 10:31 PM

    I think the connection that you made between the skeletons of the bodies in the dragons lair and the boy in the seller was really interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. samweesnerNovember 17, 2011 at 10:46 PM

    For Jess, the dragon was comfortable where he was. It's much easier to "change" your religion than to move. In my opinion, that is.

    ReplyDelete
  7. NickDecember 5, 2011 at 9:52 PM

    I think you can't appreciate what you get in life if you don't know what you can lose.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Troy HeskethDecember 6, 2011 at 10:43 PM

    i enjoyed your connections between the two books. i found that interesting

    ReplyDelete
  9. LaurenDecember 9, 2011 at 6:01 PM

    I am curious about how the child could go missing without the parents figuring out where he went, unless all children were taken from their parents.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)