Resistance and Agency in Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” are two famous American works of literature that, although similar in theme and published around the same time, have never been studied together. This thesis examines resistance and agency in the two selected works by leaning on previous work by scholars such as Raymond Olderman and his concept of the waste land. John Pennington’s metafictional analysis and, more recently, Annabel Herzog’s political study of Omelas are also of importance for this analysis. Firstly, I apply Olderman’s terminology to analyze the flawed power constructs of these two fictional societies and what maintains them. Additionally, I examine acts of resistance in both works and draw comparisons between them. Finally, I discuss incentives for reaffirming or rejecting agency within both stories and how this affects their outcomes. I argue that the narrative of The Last Unicorn propagates for resistance with the goal of reform through belief in a better world and reclaiming of agency. The citizens in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, however, struggle to find a way out of their morally compromised system.