Doing the right thing is not always painless, and, to some, the right thing is simply less people getting hurt. Many people believe that following their perspective of righteousness vindicates them of all outcomes, but, in reality, following each individual’s belief results in inevitable suffering. The tone and mood of Ursula LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” shows that harm is caused by what people perceive as right, especially when the people induce the sorrow of an individual, because in their minds, the sacrifice of one’s happiness in exchange for the mass’s joy is the right thing. Similar to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” the husband’s tone depicts how he affects his wife’s health. John continues to blindly …show more content…
Although most people have good hearts and try to do their definition of the right thing, they cause some form of harm even if inflicted on a single person. The tone found in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” excellently describes the harm inflicted on the child locked in the basement. The narrator’s tone sounds cold as the reality of the child is described, but the mood established by the tone quickly changes when the suffering child is depicted. The tone begins with, “It is the existence of that child…that makes it possible the nobility of their architecture,” (LeGuin 447) then takes a darker turn when the child is described as “feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect.” (LeGuin 446) The tone helps portray the peoples’ realization of …show more content…
John uses a condescending tone when he talks to the narrator as if she were a child, because he believes that his wife is incapable of understanding her own well-being. After the narrator begins to doubt her diagnosis, John quickly intervenes, “There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (Gilman 137) The tone comes off as concerned but nonetheless ignorant to the obvious complaints that the narrator has. John’s wife is clearly concerned about her health, and she realizes that her condition is only worsening, but John continues to implement what he thinks is right. His ignorant tone prevents him from acknowledging any pleas, because he refuses to recognize anything other than what he knows as right. Therefore, despite his many experiences as a physician, John continues to harm is wife and worsen her health. John had no idea that the procedure he saw as absolute was actually detrimental to his wife’s health, but, as a result, he caused his wife to literally go