The Ones Who Stay And Fight Analysis

The media text I am doing is called The Ones Who Stay And Fight. I first read this short story In middle school, I didn’t understand much at first but I knew it was deep. In early high school I got a chance to analyze the text again and It is safe to say that I was very intrigued with it, so when I first heard of this project this was the first thing that came to mind.

In N.K. Jeminsin's short story, The Ones Who Stay And Fight (1973) shows a utopian city called Um-Helat. However we quickly realize that all ideas of superiority and greed are quickly flushed out. The reveal of Um-Helat’s history, the idea of media corrupting someone, the equal treatment of every citizen and the sudden reveal of the father being slain for this thinking is prevalent in tomorrow's (future) society and climate which gives the persistent reader a chance to compare our world and our flaws compared to Jeminsin's world using discourse analysis to see what it takes to make a perfect utopian society. Readers will find sociological examples of media consumerism, war, status-quo and more.

While many believe that killing the father was unethical for an utopian city we have to realize that it works the opposite way. The result of this near-utopian city is for the extermination of that ideology of greed and superiority. In the story It says “Ah, but they did not choose this battle, the people of Um-Helat today; their ancestors did, when they spun lies and ignored conscience in order to profit from others’ pain. Their greed became a philosophy, a religion, a series of nations, all built on blood.” Based on that text alone we can see that from Um-Helat’s past were wars, greed becoming a “philosophy” profiting from others' pain, and we as readers quickly realize that this thinking is similar to our society. Or a look into our future society. Our society has progressed to where racism, discrimination, sexism is known as a symbol of hate, evil and is generally outlawed. Where wars are not known for the benefit of a country, but for the havoc inflicted on that people. If we realize it or not, we are slowly turning into this utopian society. To support this claim, another consumer Rhonda Watts talks about this In her blog. https://rhondawatts.medium.com/the-ones-who-walk-away-and-the-ones-who-stay-and-fight-social-justice-in-science-fiction-3849f933da2 “Um-Helat is not in another universe after all, but rather the future of our universe, built on the ruins of our societies after centuries of war and upheaval. The Um-Helatian policy of eliminating anyone who has harmful ideas before they can spread is presented as an artifact of our time” This shows anti war sentiments and basically how it is slowing down progress as a society as we know it and also supporting my claim that Um-Helat Is the future America. By saying Um-Helat was the future, and the predecessor of America/our society, N.K Jeminsin is reproducing these ideologies of anti-war. For us to be like this society we all have to get along, unlike nowadays with Russia and Ukraine.

In the short story, we can assume that the father was killed because he looked into our world, our society. N.K Jeminsin generalizes our world today. “He has watched our television. He has followed our social media, played our videos, liked our selfies. We are remarkably primitive, compared to Um-Helat. Time flows the same in both worlds, but people there have not wasted themselves on crushing one another into submission, and this makes a remarkable difference.” This depiction of our media is considered a bad thing in Um-Helat. We as people who use media everyday, juxtaposed to where media is most likely banned In Um-Helat. We can assume that the key to happiness is to disinclude the media. Further into this paragraph, media is portrayed as something criminal. Things that cause cities to be destroyed. The spreading of this information causes uproars and “evil” spreads. If we take a look back Into our world we can feel the same way these Um-Helatians are feeling. In the news, the unlawful death of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor caused riots and stands for these unjustified killings, as the media spreads, the more and more people are outraged and the whole country is fighting, the same could be said for the Um-Helatians, hence why the father needed to be killed, why the spreading of information needed to be stopped. This all leans into the fact that N.K Jeminsin resists media consumption because it spreads violence In which it harms a city. It is very harshly implied that media = violence.

N.K Jeminsin also makes another point that interests the fact of -again pointing out our flaws of our society. She says “you will think of Um-Helat, and wish. Now you might finally be able to envision a world where people have learned to love, as they learned in our world to hate. Perhaps you will speak of Um-Helat to others, and spread the notion farther still, like joyous birds migrating on trade winds. It’s possible. Everyone—even the poor, even the lazy, even the undesirable—can matter. Do you see how just the idea of this provokes utter rage in some?” Jeminsin shows the reality of it all. People live off of superiority. Or even something called a superiority complex. In our society people will think they are better than each other, whether it comes to money, intellect, race, looks or religion.In an article by Classics of Science Fiction, https://classicsofsciencefiction.com/2020/04/11/a-philosophical-conversation-between-two-short-stories/.”Success and happiness in this world come from the failure and suffering of other people. Hatred and misery in this world come from inequality. We’re all like those citizens of Omelas who willingly accept the torture of a child” This supports the thinking that we are all like this, In our world especially In America, where there is a class system, specifically the working class and the upper class. In that article, she talks about the first book, the actual America, and by saying that you could claim that we are like the people they claimed. You could say that this Is also a response to the “there is no rich without the poor '' in Le Guin’s story, but if the class system were removed, If everyone were rich, how would it affect our economy? I.e inflation. What if our perception of superiority is gone? That however, could be easily answered. In third world countries like In s.e Asia or Africa, where everyone is of equal wealth. The people there usually don't have the same tropes as people In America have, like nice cars, designer clothing or even a good job. We can all agree however that people there are happier since most families live with each other or across the street and many other factors. In a study by latimes.com, they claim “Rich people are different from the rest of us — and that includes the way they experience happiness. Instead of feeling positive emotions that involve connections with other people, their happiness is more likely to be expressed as feelings that focus on themselves.” This proves that while the rich feel some sort of happiness In their lives, It's more self centered because money doesn’t buy happiness, at least towards a degree. Further on In the same article, It states that while their situation is hasrh, there is a focus on family and people around them. We can agree that the latter is more preferred. To wrap things up, N.K Jeminsin is trying to say If everyone was of equal wealth there would be happier societies, families and people coming together more often. Like a utopian city. Jeminsin meanwhile shows the reality side of America and its need for people living off of trying to be better than everyone, whether it comes to wealth or something else, which creates this Scrooge-like mentality.

In conclusion N.K Jeminsin creates a world where she criticizes our society, specifically America by providing a near utopian city. With aspects that are the complete opposite of America, like for example. Um-Helat is - non-warmongering- everyone is equal whether money wise or social wise. Greed Is also a thing of the past. All these points basically make the persistent reader feel immediate change, or provoke action, and when I start connecting dots with the story, I feel more enlightened In these problems I have never heard about and by doing all these things not only does she give insight on our society, N.K Jeminsin also makes the audience feel the will for change. To change the norms of our society In every way. To make us want real change.