Short Story Essay - The Othering in Those Who Walk Away From Omelas and The Very Old

Man With Enormous Wings

The other is the result of one treating a person differently or poorly due to the differences
in characteristics that another person may have. Now, what happens after or when the other
occurs? When a person is othered, the people affected, including the individual being othered,
and the person othering the individual, both groups experience different feelings towards this
othering. The one being the other would probably have similar feelings of being excluded, but
what goes on within the one that others others? That would vary from person to person,
situation to situation. This essay will explore how the groups of people or the individuals in two
short stories feel and react to this othering. In the short stories, Those Who Walk Away From
Omelas and The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, the person being othered have similar
reactions while the ones othering the others tend to show different emotions that surface.

The child from Those Who Walk Away From Omelas, and the old man from The Very
Old Man With Enormous Wings, who were both locked away in a small, dark, and filthy room,
were both very in pain and suffering but both lacked the ability to properly communicate with
other individuals, and lost hope and accepted their fate in being othered. Even though the child,
at the start, did yell for help, hoping to be saved, as shown in this quote, “‘I will be good,’ it says.
’Please let me out. I will be good!’ They never answer. The child used to scream for help at
night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, ‘eh-haa, eh-haa,’ and it
speaks less and less often.”. This quote shows the barrier of communicating between the
people of Omelas and the child due to neglect and being abandoned. As well, this indicates the
decline of hope as the child puts in less and less effort to hoping to be saved, and this is seen
when the child’s pleas become simple wails. As for the old man, he starts getting othered when
the villagers don’t see him providing what they expected of him, and when he in fact proves to
them he is the opposite to what they expect. This can be seen in this part of the story: “Although
many thought that his reaction had not been one of rage but of pain, from then on they were
careful not to annoy him, because the majority understood that his passivity was not that of a
hero taking his ease but that of a cataclysm in repose.” At that point, he was then abandoned by
everyone while their attention shifted to another “attraction”, and so “The angel went dragging
himself about here and there like a stray dying man.” It seemed as though he had lost
everything and was just wandering about. As such, the child and the old man both seem to be
simply spending their days, waiting for the end of their lives.

As for those who perform the action of othering, they have different reactions towards
the ones being othered. The villagers from Those Who Walk Away From Omelas feel sympathy
towards the child, even if they don’t take any action in showing sympathy towards the child, and
the citizens and family from The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings do not care very much for
the abandoned old man. For the people in Omelas, they understand how they are othering the
child but also know that they cannot do anything about it because if they do try to save the child,
it would ruin their world of utopia. However, as they know that they have no chance of saving
the child, many young people are forced to accept it but feel the sadness and rage ㅡ
sympathizing with the child ㅡ and they often “go home in tears, or in a tearless rage, when they
have seen the child and faced this terrible paradox.” There are even some that refuse to stay in
a place where they have to sacrifice the joy of an innocent child for them to enjoy their perfect
lives, so those are the ones who walk away from Omelas, who “leave Omelas, they walk ahead
into the darkness, and they do not come back.” In the end, there’s simply a sense of
powerlessness, and nothing is changed, except for the feelings of pain and sympathy that is felt
when the people of Omelas learn about the abandoned child in the basement. As for the
villagers in the other short story, they didn't give a single care that they were othering the old
man. In their situation, they were not living in a perfect world. They had so many opportunities to
show sympathy and help the old man. However, they never did. Instead these villagers had
continued diverting their attention somewhere else, something more appealing and interesting
to them ㅡ the woman that turned into a spider. And so, the old man became forgotten and even
the family that he lived with didn't care about what condition he was living in, even though they
had the means to warmly welcome him and not other him, they still chose to do so. However,
when the old man's condition came to a point where he seemed like he was nearly dying, the
members of that family did reach out a helping hand by throwing a “blanket over him and
extended him the charity of letting him sleep in the shed, and only then did they notice that he
had a temperature at night, and was delirious with the tongue twisters of an old Norwegian. That
was one of the few times they became alarmed, for they thought he was going to die and not
even the wise neighbor woman had been able to tell them what to do with dead angels.” In this
quote, as the family provided certain provisions, such as a blanket and better shelter, and
started becoming concerned ㅡ or so alarmed ㅡ they are slowly allowing the old man into their
lives, not so much othering him. As such, for the people who other, there are some people who
recognize that there are people being othered and want to change that while for others, they
don’t really know they are othering an individual, and hence don’t change their behaviour much
towards them.

From the paragraphs above, it is clear that the child and the old man, the ones being
excluded and treated differently are the ones who share the same emotions of misery, while
different sentiments and reactions arise from the people who choose to exclude the man or the
child. This idea is the relevant beyond short stories, and in our everyday lives, where we are
constantly othering people, sometimes feeling guilt ㅡ or not ㅡ and occasionally seeking
solution ㅡ or not.The two short stories being compared showed how people will always exclude
and other people, whether it’s knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally but it’s
what they feel towards it and choose to do about it that is always different, and will result in
different outcomes.