Arrington 1
Kendrick Arrington
Mr. Henderson
English 102
October 3, 2018
In the works, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Guinn, Birches by Robert Frost, and Oedipus the King by Sophocles the reader sees the characteristics appearance vs reality and naivety throughout the writing.
Living the utopian life is every humans dream. To live in a world where everything is perfect and there are no worries only “… boys and girls, naked in the bright air, with mud-stained feet and ankles…” However, everything comes with a price; would you still want to leave in your utopian city if it was at the cost of one person suffering everyday of their life. In the shorty story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” a child is the individual who must suffer for the rest of their life. The child naïve to the world out there only receives half a bowl of corn-meal a day. This child is like a dirty little secret to the citizens of Omelas. The citizens know of this child and learn about this child around the ages of 8 and 12 whenever they feel as if young children can understand the concept. The child has no real identity it is acknowledged as an “it” by the narrator and never gives a gender. The child is seen as an object rather than an individual. This child can have many different symbolic meanings. One being the representation of underclass societies in Western habitats or third world countries. The child is disregarded and overlooked by all the citizens of Omelas who stand for the rich and the privileged. The citizens know about the sick poor child however helping the child would stop the great utopian lives of all the other citizens.
Oedipus the King is a very complex character in the Greek tragedy play Oedipus the Ringolevios is a King of Thebes who became king rather quickly. He was raised by Queen Merce and King Polybus of Corinth after being left on the outskirts of town by his mother. He was raised believing that those were his parents. He won the heart of the queen of Thebes and the throne as a reward for ridding the city of the lion Sphinx. He has a very prideful personality in the beginning of the tragedy due to saving Thebes from the curse of Sphinx and becoming King overnight. His high pride comes tumbling down when a priest tells him his city is in danger. Throughout the play we see how Oedipus struggles with revelations of his true family history and his own doing.
In the works Birches and Omelas there is an apparent comparison of appearance vs. reality. Oedipus’s life was a façade. It appears that his parents are the people who raised him, his wife is a woman who he won over was dur to his skill, and that he will bring the person who killed Laius to justice. However, Oedipus world comes crashing down when he discovers his parents are not the people who raised him, his wife is his mother, and he is the person who killed the former king echo just so happens to be his father. He rejects the oracle and its prophecies, as well as ...
