In the short stories “Those who walk away from Omelas” and “A party in the instead, "Authors Ursula LeGuin and Ralph Ellison depict desensitized scenes in which communities demonstrate an extreme lack of empathy toward human beings subjected to unjustified abuse. Such bleak depiction is accompanied by a lack of recognition of the problem and the fact that nothing is being done to end such injustices. In doing so, both authors criticize the role of society in the “bystander effect” and in human rights violations. that permeate the lives of many people today Say no to plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned” Get an original essay The theme of conscientious objection is present in. both stories In "A Party Down at the Square", this theme is demonstrated through the boys' response to the lynching of an African American man. Although he is not as thrilled by the scene as the naysayers around him, the boy says, "I've had enough." I didn't want to see anymore. I wanted to run somewhere and throw up” (Ellison, 209) but yet, worryingly, he stays. This is similar to the sentence: “They all know she is there, all the inhabitants of Omelas. Some have come to see her, others are content to know that she is there" (Le Guin, 200), found in "Those who move away from Omelas". Both lines describe an awareness of the abuse that the The man and the child suffer, but nothing is done to help them, save them or prevent it from being inflicted on others. This is a direct example of what John M. Darley and Bibb Latan do. The bystander effect or the psychological phenomenon in which individuals placed in or around large crowds are less likely to help others Ellison creates a horrific scene for the reader as the boy notes how one "could feel his skin burning." or “Every time I eat barbecue, I'll remember it, I'll never forget it. Every time I eat barbecue, I'll remember this nigger” (Ellison, 209). These lines have such a dramatic effect on his reader because he is able to see how it has no effect on the narrator. Using sensory imagery such as the smell of burning skin or the sight of a man barbecuing is cringe-inducing and sets an extremely disturbing tone for the story. This is also done with the sentence "He is so thin that he has no calves on his legs; his belly sticks out; he lives on half a bowl of cornmeal and fat a day. He is naked .His buttocks and thighs are a mass.” of suppurating sores, because he continually remains in his own excrement. "(Le Guin, 200). As the reader can imagine the taste of semolina and corn fat coupled with the smell of continued, aged bodily excrement which directly correlates with the unhealthy diet of semolina and corn fat corn grease, LeGuin also created an uncomfortable and nauseating atmosphere In both scenes, the reader feels like they are somewhere else and they are not actually in the situation Yet the narrator and the inhabitants of both stories. stay and endure the sights, smells, and disturbances and do nothing to stop them Ellison and LeGuin present people who, regardless of the injustices, are willing to make themselves uncomfortable and distressed, demonstrating. thus the bystander effect and its deep-rooted effects on humanity These effects are demonstrated through the characters' lack of guilt for their conscientious objections and their desensitization to the violence of the scenes that some.Town residents find themselves able to cope with the idea that their luxurious lives are built on the back of an innocent person's pain. When the narrator mentions, “One thing I know there isn’t in Omelas is guilt. " (LeGuin, 199), the reader can reasonably conclude that it is because they feel that they have no reason to feel guilty. It becomes deliberately clear that their lack of guilt is a calculation. Their happiness comes of their willingness to sacrifice one human being for the benefit of the rest They know the violent and cruel conditions of the child locked in the room, but thanks to the existence of the child and the knowledge of his existence, "this makes. possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the depth of their science ".(LeGuin, 199) The narrator speaks of the moment when, being young, one learns of the existence of the child and at that age. , they want to help and do something, but with age we find that most learn to accept the situation and accept it relatively. know the child’s situation. In short, they learn to reject guilt. The boy in "A Party Down in the Square" learns the same thing his uncle tells him, "You get used to it with time." (Ellison, 210) Ellison constructs the internal dialogue with the boys in a way that presents to the reader how the boy understands the physical agony that the African American man faces. The line "It was a good night. It was also a party. I was right there, you see. I was just there, watching everything. It was my first party and my last. My God , but that nigger was tough,” (Ellison, 210) depicts the boy’s lack of humanity. His lack of guilt is demonstrated as he describes the horrific scene as a party and something he will decide not to attend. Ellison specifically uses the word party to emphasize how these murders have been belittled and the boy describing the event of a generally innocent African American man being tortured and murdered as a party is symbolism of a lack of guilt. The same thing happens in “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas,” as a “Festival” (LeGuin, 198) takes place at the beginning of the story. You could consider a Festival to be ignoring a child being tortured in a small room because it's happening at the same time. Both stories recount gruesome events, but the author deliberately uses the words party and festival to emphasize what is truly dark, violent, and sinister as fun, happy, and guilt-free. Authors Ursula LeGuin and Ralph Ellison both use imagery, language, and emphasis on the dehumanizing abuse that occurs in each story, particularly Ellison, who excessively uses the word "nigger" in her story to emphasize the lack of humanity given to the tortured African-American man. This is also done through his use of her when the narrator explains a plane crash nearby. The plane is personified by a woman: “Then I saw her. Through the clouds and fog I could see a red and green light on its wings” (Ellison, 208). The narrator describes the crashing plane in a mystical and glorified way, very different from the burning of an actual human being, which is instead described as a "lifeless roast pig" (Ellison, 209). As Ellison specifically takes life from non-living things, LeGuin specifically took life from a living thing. The description of Omelas' child is full of fear and almost disgust. The lines, "He is feeble-minded. Perhaps he was born defective or perhaps he became a fool through fear, malnutrition, and neglect. He picks his nose and sometimes fumbles vaguely with his toes or genitals, then, 2017.