Discrimination in Harrison Bergeron and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

The basis for the stories Harrison Bergeron and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is discrimination. Discrimination is when someone is hated or acted upon negatively for the reason of race, sex, or nationality. The author's feelings of discrimination are expressed differently through the characters in each story. These stories were written in the early sixties and early seventies and it is shown by the theme of discrimination.

In the story Harrison Bergeron, which takes place in the year 2081, everyone is equal. "They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way" (eFictions, 140). The equality is due to the 211^th, 212^th, and 213^th Amendments to the Constitution. These Amendments made it so nobody was stronger, quicker, prettier, or smarter than anyone else. This made it so no one "...would feel like something the cat drug in" (eFictions, 141). Hazel Bergeron, mother of Harrison Bergeron, is considered to be "perfect" in that society. She wears no handicaps. She is average in every way. If there is a woman more attractive than another, she is required by law to wear a mask. Ballerinas, for example, "...were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked" (eFictions, 141).

Harrison, who is only fourteen years old, was taken from his parents and is "...held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government" (eFictions, 143). He is considered a genius and an athlete. He stands seven feet tall and his handicaps are made of scrap metal. This is because "He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up" (eFictions, 143). He finally escapes from jail and revolts. He declares himself Emperor on a national news TV station. He is killed soon after by Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General.

The story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is set in the city of Omelas, a beautiful city by the sea. The city was celebrating as "...the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas" (eFictions, 146). The city can be considered a utopian paradise. The people in the city were happy and everything seemed perfect. Everyone was able to live in peace because of a dark secret the town hid. Everyone in the town knew about "it". A nameless child that is locked away "In a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas" (eFictions, 148). The room is basically a small broom closet, but it holds something other than mops and buckets and dirty rags.

There, "In the room a child is sitting" (eFictions, 148). The sex is unknown and the child looks to be physically around the age of six, but is actually ten. It is a scapegoat for the town's indiscretions and sins. That child's misery is what keeps "the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies" (eFictions, 149).

The children of the town are taken to see this poor creature. Once they've seen it, they "...feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all the explanations" (eFictions, 149). There is at times "...one of the adolescent girls or boys who go see the child does not go home to weep or rage, does not, in fact, go home at all" (eFictions, 150). Then, there are "Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home" (eFictions, 150). The ones who leave often go to places "...even less imaginable to most of us than the city happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does exist not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas" (eFictions, 150).

Throughout these stories the theme of discrimination is shown through the characters and the plot. The time frame in which the authors wrote these stories also had a strong influence on the story line. All of the examples of discrimination were different in the stories. In Harrison Bergeron it was a wide spread act. In The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas the discrimination is against one child. No matter the type of discrimination, it is enough to attract the reader's attention to it.