Melanie Arthur
Williams
English Honors 9
4 June 2012
Section Three: Summary Paragraph
Constancy of Society
The constancy of society is a theme that is found in the four short stories “By The Waters of Babylon,” “2BR02B,” “The Lottery,” and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” In “By The Waters of Babylon” the priest explains to the reader the rules, laws, and expectations of his role. He explains the Dead Places, the Forest People, the Hill People, and The Place of the Gods. All of these things he explains have stayed the same for a very long time as a never-ending custom. “These things are forbidden – they have been forbidden since the beginning of time.” The story “2BR02B” tells how a perfect, futuristic society holds the answer for a new way of life. Though there are people who may disagree with the overpowering government, the reader can observe that this society will stay as it is for generations. As more people die and more people are raised in this culture, it will seem less odd and more people will accept it. “If you don’t like it here, Grandpa…” he said, and he finished the thought with the trick telephone number that people who didn’t want to live any more were supposed to call. The zero in the telephone number he pronounced “naught”. The number was: 2BR02B. The connection of constancy in society is also found in “The Lottery” as seen with the lottery system and the stoning of whoever “won the lottery.” Unlike in “2BR02B” the people of the town in “The Lottery” have all been raised with the system and think it’s absurd that any other town would not use their same system. The old man says, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,” and then he warns that without the lottery, “we’d all be eating chickweed and acorns.” Finally, in the story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” the boy in the cellar has represented a source of happiness for the town for many years. Somehow when the people of Omelas see his agony, they will feel grateful for what they have in life and become a happier society. Not everyone will see his pain this way. “Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day of two, and then leaves home”, helping to perpetuate the structure of society. As shown, each of these four stories shows examples of different ways of life, but their constancy will always continue.
Section Four: Short Story
Livingston’s Day (Inspired by “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”)
The time was nearing 12:00 noon. School had been let out early today and all children were at home in their apartments waiting for their parents. Most grabbed a snack to eat, others waited impatiently for their parents to come home to start the ride upwards. Adults were also let off early from work. Everyone was getting the day off. Some parents arrived home just then, got their kids ready, and walked to the closest elevator, most likely the one on their apartment floor. A middle class family crowded into an elevator that was almost full, the two children, a boy and a girl, smiling from ear to ear. They waited for this day every year as if it were Christmas. The elevator started to move upward, getting faster and faster as it zoomed past the seventieth floor. The boy, named Marcus, looked up at the ceiling of the elevator as if he could see the sky through it. The girl, named Joanna, tugged on her mother’s sleeve.
“Mommy, will you hold my hand when I look down this year?” Joanna asked.
“Joanna, dear, don’t you think you’re old enough now to look down without me holding your hand?”
“Please, mommy,” she begged. “This will be the last year, I promise.” Joanna’s mother smiled and gave her daughter a quite nod.
Today was Livingston’s Day.
Generations ago the country was ruled by a man named Preston Livingston. He was an honest, kind ruler who took care of his people. Livingston, being a man of adventure, loved to fly. He was himself a pilot, one of the very few allowed this experience, and he would flew his numerous planes all over his country, to observe. Usually, he would be content with his country while flying over it, but on the ground Livingston had a growing feeling inside him that too many terrible things happened there. In the skies, he felt free and limitless, but standing on earth made him feel small and useless. After years of planning, Livingston had constructed an idea that would change society forever; he would build his country into the sky.
His ultimate goal was to get his whole country off the ground by the time his rule would end; he succeeded. The people, thinking at first that this was absurd, did not protest because they loved their ruler. In the end, people and society benefited from a healthier, cleaner, and safer community in the tall skyscrapers up above, connected by wide bridges for pedestrians and cars. The rulers after Livingston were so in favor of him, they dedicated one day of the year to him. On this day at 12:00 noon, the people of the country would congregate on the very tops of the buildings.
The steel elevator doors opened and the families stepped out onto the roof, squinting until their eyes adjusted to the strong sunlight. Others had already gotten to the top. Adults and children greeted each other with smiles and hugs. Looking across a bridge connecting two skyscrapers, Joanna and Marcus could see the faces of people they went to school with. Looking past that, they saw the thousands of other buildings, all the same height as the one they stood atop. And on top of those skyscrapers were hundreds of thousands of people of all ages, on their roofs for the same reason. Everyone was ready to near the edge and look over the rail. They would do so to remind themselves of who they were and why they were living this way, Livingston would have wanted them to. They would acknowledge their wonderful lives up in the sky and be grateful for not living on the ground. Then everyone would look into they sky. That was where their future was, their hopes and dreams.
Marcus and Joanna followed their mother and father over to the railing. A gusty breeze swept through the air, whipping Joanna’s hair against her face. The young girl took hold of her mother’s hand and squeezed it tightly.
“I always forget what I see every year,” Marcus said to his sister. “Then we come back up here the next year and I don’t know what we’re looking for.”
“We’re not looking for anything,” said Joanna, correcting him. “We are just looking.”
My story ends here, or, with this,…..
And together they peered over the railing, their yearly pilgrimage complete, enjoying the once-a-year view of the outdoors, of the network of connecting passageways and bridges, all wrapped in opaque, tube-like covering. Marcus and Johanna silently gazed at these bridges, in the direction of their windowless schools and their friends’ masked apartments, grateful for this glimpse of sky and country.