Journal Assignment

Both "Harrison Bergeron" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" are stories about ideas. Although these stories are set in a fictional future, each is making a statement about the present-day world. 500 Words.Please read both stories.

Click on this link to reach an online version of the story.

• "Harrison Bergeron" (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• Comments from professors discussion
• This week we read two highly imaginative stories. Don't worry about "conflict" and other terminology this week. Instead, focus on the ideas behind the stories that the authors are trying to illuminate. In fact, in addition to the questions above, I want to see if you can restate the ideas that each of these two writers are attempting to explore.Set aside your disbelief and take these stories at face value the first time through. This sort of writing, although not realistic, stems from a time-honored literary tradition, and the points that both Vonnegut and LeGuin are trying to make about our world are serious ones. In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," LeGuin is asking a question that has more relevance than at first it might seem. I'd like you to refrain from expressing outrage at the treatment of the child in this story (or, as one of my colleagues likes to say, "No actual children were harmed in the writing of this story") and focus instead on what it is LeGuin is trying to get at, the moral dilemma she is attempting to illuminate.