![the ones who walk away from omelas the ones who walk away from omelas](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000519631557-2mc7ia-t500x500.jpg)
Commodities are not fetishized overnight, “A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood” (Marx 1). Marx argues that human powers and products become alienated from their original intended purposes and become autonomous when humans ascribe certain values to those commodities. Commodity Fetishism is an inherent quality found in …show more content… Forster, within the short story, “The Machine Stops” addresses the many complexities of the idea of modernity and how it affects alienation within a society dominated by a Machine. The futuristic worlds that both authors set up in their short stories deal with the ramifications of modernity in societies in both worlds the threat against individual and collective life of humans is what drives them into developing values that keep such threats at bay. Both texts, set in Dystopian and Utopian futures, present the Marxist ideas of commodity fetishism, alienation and modernity as it relates to the human need for happiness, security and spirituality and/or religiosity. As a result, they start believing that there is nothing that can be one, that, “it is too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy.” This reminds me of what we were talking about in class, by saying how we tend to blame others rather than ourselves, such has how ‘It’s not that I didn’t try helping or felt bad for it, it’s that the child has been in darkness for a time that is too long for it to understand true happiness again.’ This evolves into the belief that this is the right thing, that is reasonable, because they would rather have one person suffering their whole life, than each person having their own share of sadness and bitterness. No one will ever feel pain as long as the child remains in the basement.Show More Forster and Le Guin, in their short stories “The Machine Stops” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” respectively make many assumptions about human nature in regards to what people seek and value most. But in the end, they would realize there is nothing they can do, since bringing good to the child would ruin their own lives. The people believed that “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.” As the majority of the people go down to see the truth behind this society, where there is a suffering child, taking in all suffering instead. Between eight and twelve, many of the citizens would feel anger, and would want to do something about the child. So throughout the story, I stumbled on a few beliefs and truths held by the citizens in Omelas.