The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Essay

The Misinformed Reading Experience of Clyde Fans
Readers experience Seth’s Clyde Fans through the dual narrative perspective of the brothers, Abraham and Simon. Although this dual perspective implies that readers gain an omniscient experience of the story, I focus on a scene from pages 52 to 58, where Abraham’s misunderstanding of Simon compromises the story’s integrity. Therefore, Abraham’s perspective does not inform the reader’s experience of the story, but misinforms it. Abraham portrays his misunderstanding of Simon by making assumptions about him, using him to form his own identity, and remaining unaware of the degree of his misconception. Moreover, the narrator in LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” shares these tendencies …show more content…
He lists the places Simon occupied as he walks around; "This room is where Simon spent most of his time . . . This is where he wrote and where he studied . . . This where he assembled our promotional materials . . . This is where he wrote his book." (Seth 55-56). The words "this is" conveys the certainty he has in his statements. Abraham states obvious facts that do not give deeper insight into Simon’s character. Abraham does not need to understand Simon to be able to list the spaces Simon occupied. While he may understand superficial details about Simon, he still fails to understand the intimate details that make up Simon’s character, which translates to his failure to understand Simon altogether.
In my essay “The Hidden Relationship behind ‘Omelas’,” I argued that the narrator’s “continuous doubt and uncertainty is why the reader cannot accept them as credible or worthy” (Nguyen 3). Similarly, Abraham exhibits this uncertainty by making assumptions about Simon. Unlike the narrator however, readers accept Abraham’s perspective because they are unaware of Abraham’s uncertainty. Abraham’s perspective is the only perspective readers have at this point of the story. Since Simon’s perspective of the story has yet to occur, they are unable to see the discrepancies within Abraham’s

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