In the stories "Those who move away from Omelas" and "A party down in the square", "the authors Ursula LeGuin and Ralph Ellison describe desensitized scenes in which communities show an extreme lack of empathy towards humans who receive unjustified abuse. Such bleak characterization is coupled with a lack of recognition of the issue, as nothing is done to stop such injustices. With this, both authors criticize society's role in the "bystander effect" and human rights abuses that pervade the lives of many people today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't be banned"? Get an original essay The theme of conscientious objection is present in both stories. In "A Party Down at the Square," this theme is demonstrated through the boys' response to the lynching of an African American. Although he is not as happy with the scene as the objectors around him, the boy says, "I had enough. I didn't want to see anymore. I wanted to run somewhere and throw up" (Ellison,209), but yet, disturbingly, he remains. This is similar to the sentence: "They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content simply to know it is there" (Le Guin, 200), found in "Those who turn away from Omelas." Both lines describe the awareness of the abuse that both the man and the child are suffering, but nothing is done to help them, save them, or prevent this from being done to others. This is a direct example of what John M. Darley and Bibb Latan? coined as the bystander effect or the psychological phenomenon in which individuals placed in or around large crowds are less likely to help others. Ellison creates a gruesome scene for the reader as the boy notes how he "could smell his skin burning" or "Every time I eat barbecue I will remember to never forget it. Every time I eat barbecue I will remember to that nigger." (Ellison,209). These lines have such a dramatic effect on his reader because I am able to see how they have no effect on the narrator. Using sensory imagery such as the smell of burning skin or the sight of a man barbecuing is noteworthy and causes an extremely disturbing tone to the story. This is also done with the phrase "He is so thin that there are no calves on his legs; his belly sticks out; he lives on half a bowl of cornmeal and fat a day. He is naked. His buttocks and thighs are a mass of festering sores, as he continually lies in his own excrement." (Le Guin, 200). As the reader can imagine the taste of cornmeal and grease paired with the smell of continuous, aged body excrement which is in direct correlation with the unhealthy diet of cornmeal and grease, LeGuin also created an uncomfortable and disgusting atmosphere . In both scenes, the reader has the feeling of being elsewhere and not actually in the situation. Yet both the narrator and the citizens of both stories stay and endure the sights, smells, and discomfort and do nothing to put an end to it all. Ellison and LeGuin present people who, despite injustices, are willing to make themselves uncomfortable and distressed, thus demonstrating the Bystander effect and its deeply rooted effects on humanity. These effects are shown through the characters' lack of guilt over their conscientious objections and their desensitization to the scenes' violence. LeGuin presents the idea that some in the city find themselves unable to deal with the idea that their luxurious lives are built on the pain of an innocent person. When thenarrator mentions “One thing I know there isn't in Omelas is guilt.” (LeGuin, 199), the reader can reasonably conclude that it is because he feels he has nothing to feel guilty about. It becomes deliberately clear that their lack of guilt is a calculation. Their happiness comes from their willingness to sacrifice one human being for the benefit of the rest. They know the violent and cruel conditions of the child locked in a room, but through the existence of the child and their knowledge of his existence, "which makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the intensity of their music, the depth of their science . " .(LeGuin, 199) The narrator talks about when as a child you learn about the child and at that age they want to help and do something about it, but as we age we find that most are taught to accept the situation and relatively accept knowing the child's situation. In short, they learn to reject guilt. The boy in "A Party Down in the Square" is taught the same as his uncle tells him "You get used to it in time." (Ellison, 210) Ellison constructs the boys' internal dialogue in such a way as to present it to the reader as the boy understands the physical agony that the African American man is facing. The line "It was just a night, alright. There was a party too. I was right there, see. I was right there watching it all. It was my first party and my last. God, that nigga was tough, ” (Ellison, 210) describes the lack of humanity in the boy. His lack of guilt is shown as he describes the horrific scene as a party and something he will decide not to attend. Ellison specifically uses the word party to highlight how belittled these murders were and the boy describing the event of a usually innocent African American man being tortured and the murder as a party is the symbolism of guiltlessness. The same is in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” as a “Festival” takes place at the beginning of the story (LeGuin, 198). You might think of a Festival as the act of ignoring a child being tortured in a small room because it happens at the same time. Both stories have abominable events take place, but the author purposely uses the words party and festival to emphasize the truly dark, violent, and sinister as fun, happy, and guilt-free. Authors Ursula LeGuin and Ralph Ellison both use detailed imagery, language, and setting to emphasize the dehumanizing abuses that occur within each story, particularly Ellison, who overuses the word "nigger" in his story to emphasize the lack of humanity given to the tortured African American man. This is also done through the use of her when the narrator explains the crash of a nearby plane. The plane is personified as a woman: "Then I saw her. Through the clouds and fog, I could see a red and green light on her wings" (Ellison, 208). The narrator describes the plane crashing in a mystical and glorified way that is very different from the burning of an actual human being, who is instead described as a “lifeless barbecued pig” (Ellison, 209). Since Ellison specifically gives life to non-living things, LeGuin specifically took the life of a living being. Omelas's description of the child is one of terror and almost disgust. The lines: "He is feeble-minded. Perhaps he was born defective, or perhaps he has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and abandonment. He picks his nose, and occasionally fumbles vaguely with his toes or genitals, as he sits hunched in a corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops. He is afraid of the mops. He closes his eyes, but he knows that the mops are still there and the door is closed and no one will come.",(LeGuin, 200). ) describes a child, 2017.