Omon Ra Essay

“Omon Ra”, a novel written by the Russian author, Victor Pelevin, is definitely an interesting and enjoyable story. The story deals with the central character, Omon Krizomazov, who lives up to his dream in becoming an astronaut and flying into space. Omon’s family is broken and absent which leads him in becoming a child of the state, and is adopted later by “father figures” in the Soviet bureaucracy. Such things like films about flying and a wooden airplane deeply influenced his dream. Along the way of capturing his dreams, he meets a young boy named Mitiok, who shares many of the same interests as him. The two young boys’ then stick together to make their dreams come true and are eventually accepted in both flight school …show more content…

The description of the toy as “a tin can set on eight small black wheels, with letters USSR on its side and two eye-like bulges at the front” (42) foreshadows a similar structure of the real spaceship that was used for the experiment. The whole space experiment was like a virtual game; in order to win, Omon had to complete the mission by placing the radio buoy that repeats “Lenin”, “USSR”, and “Peace” on the invisible surface of the “moon”. This “game” had to end in Omon committing suicide. A little bit after the middle of the novel, we are introduced with Omon beginning to feel as if he were in a train before he realizes that is exactly where he is. “The roaring became a steady, powerful rumbling, while the shuddering became the kind of vibration you feel in a train when it’s already picked up speed” (104). We begin to have a sense of foreshadowing as soon as the author begins describing the “powerful rumbling (…) the kind of vibration you feel in a train…” (104). This reveals the true nature of reality that Omon is in fact inside a metro/non-functioning spaceship. The only problem is that he has no idea of this at that moment. Omon is trapped in the Soviet Union’s little game of fiction at this part of the story, however in the end; the story unravels by Omon beginning to understand the true