We wrapped up the third in our initial series of depressing short stories: Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”

After discussion about the nature of the hero, the desire for happiness, and the relationship between rebellion and oppression, I asked you to begin laying out a plan for a paper. Here’s the prompt:

Write an essay in which you explain what a reader should learn from these three stories. Do they all say the same thing? Do some disagree? How are they relevant?

Wrap up your annotations tonight and we’ll begin writing in class tomorrow.

Great first day! We had a solid discussion (one that won’t be over anytime soon) about what it means to be an individual.

Throughout this course we will be exploring characterization in novels ranging from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to Camus’ The Stranger. The goal is not to establish a universal conception of identity but to understand how each character develops within the work. More on this later.

We read Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” to stir up some discussion about the individual’s place in society. We’ll discuss more tomorrow.

You should begin Things Fall Apart tonight. To get your journaling started: Why does Okonkwo react to his father the way that he does?