What Can We Control?

What Can We Control?

Stories we have read have come along throughout our lives to make us think. We try to put our critical thinking skill to work to interpret the words that are put on paper. Many of these stories cause us to make conclusions that make us reflect on our own lives and if they are being fulfilled to their full potential. Three short stories, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin, ""Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison, and "The Greatest Man in the World" by James Thurber are all stories that bring out critical thinking skills needing interpretation.

These stories all involve issues of morality and a struggle for freedom in very different settings. Some of the characters may be seen as conquerors trying to or in the process of controlling something or someone. We will begin with a detailed look at "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" and how a supposed utopian society may not be so perfect and happy at all.

In "Omelas," the celebration of the Festival of Summer is getting underway and "the great joyous clanging of the bells," gives the reader a sense of happiness in the town(1). The narrator goes on to say, "all smiles have become archaic. Given a description such as this one tends to make certain assumptions, but the people of Omelas "were not barbarians (3). From this, the tone of the story starts to change and the true nature of the story and the town begins to unfold.

The Festival starts but before we can get comfortable with the story we learn that there is "one more thing" that is about to be revealed that is the central part of this town (8). "In the basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas... there is a room." The narrator goes on to describe the room in great detail, describing a room filled with filth and a child of no particular gender. The description of the room brings up one of the many ironies in the story because of the description of the building the child is housed in. It is described as a "beautiful building" which is a stark contrast to the room with "one locked door and no windows"(8). With this revelation, the town of Omelas does not seem so joyous after all.

The people of Omelas "all know it is there.... Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there(9)." The happiness of the town depends "wholly on this child's abominable misery." People who come to see the child for the first time "are always shocked and sickened at the sight." They ultimately realize that there is nothing they can do:

If the child were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing, indeed; but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed. Those are the terms. To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed(10).

The child must be sacrificed for the happiness and health of Omelas. If the child was happy and set free the city would crumble. Some people do leave after seeing the child but they are hardly noticed when they leave. It is not fully understood why the child must be the scapegoat but the morality of the town is lacking. They seem to have not been taught moral responsibility.

This brings up the issue of utopia. How can a massive amount of people be truly happy when this child is suffering. Are they truly happy at all? Can this be called a utopian society when the happiness of all depends on the misery of one? ""Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison also deals with some of the same topics.

The story begins with a quote from Henry Thoreau. "The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies...(1)" Ellison uses this quote from Thoreau as a great comparison and an introduction to his story. He compares Thoreau's "wooden men" who can be "manufactured" with Ellison's shift worker off to work right on time. This quote is the beginning of a very complex story that begins in the middle, moves to the beginning, then the end, without using flashbacks.

The story is set in a future where the Ticktockman or "master timekeeper" has the whole society on a very strict time schedule. Everything is done to the minute without interruption, until Harlequin comes along. Harlequin is a problem for the Ticktockman. He disrupts workers as they try to change shifts, thus disrupting the master schedule. In one instance, he drops billions of jelly beans on workers on automatic slidewalks, trying to change shifts, delaying the master schedule by seven minutes and causing a riot of laughter from the workers.

The shift was delayed seven minutes.

They did not get home for seven minutes.

The master schedule was thrown of by seven minutes(25).

For this crime, the Harlequin is ordered to appear before the Ticktockman. Ellison then shifts to ''the beginning.'' He writes, ''And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes goes goes goes goes tick tock tick tock tick tock and one day we no longer let time serve us, we serve time and we are slaves of the schedule. . .bound into a life predicated on restrictions because