An Exploration of Utilitarian Context in the Short Story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

The teachings of Mill on page 57 state that a highly endowed being would always find that any happiness he searched for would inevitably be imperfect. Yet this being has the ability to learn to bear its imperfections. If this were true, the people of Omelas would be able to bear the imperfections of the "normal" world they once lived in and, therefore, have no need to pursue the "perfect" happiness and pleasures. This thought is also backed

Utilitarianism, in the contrary, is based on the principle of utility or usefulness. Utility is what encourages an agent to act in a particular way (Tuckett, 1998). Utility can be explained as maximizing the good like pleasure and happiness and minimizing the bad like pain and evil, all leading to the greater good for all parties involved. It weights the consequences of the actions equally between the ones involved, and the ethical solution would be to follow the greater good for most if not all the parties involved.

Utilitarianism is one of the moral theories that literally only acts on gaining or developing the use for having utility, or what is also known as happiness. Pleasure is a helpful key word to define utility because it is the opposite of feeling pain. As long as there stands a high level of utility, there will be actions to obtain it and no matter how much morality is provided or taken away. Such pleasure can be from the act of the utilitarian in which... Add more examples to this paragraph.

In Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” the narrator describes a beautiful utopian society. Nonetheless, the reader quickly learns that there is something much darker about the society and the reasons for its beauty. Throughout the description of the utopia, the reader is given hints of flaws within the society (drugs, drinking, etc.). All of the minor flaws that are foreshadowed to the reader in the beginning lead into the major flaw that is later found out -- the scapegoat. The scapegoat, or the person who all the minor flaws are blamed on, is the child who is locked underneath the city. However, the point of view the story is told from is what particularly leads the reader to the theme. If told from a different point

Le Guin cannot or will not elaborate on any of the details about Omelas ' happiness but, she has no issue describing its horrors in detail from the mops "with stiff, clotted, foul-smelling heads" (Le Guin 866) to the "eh-haa, eh-haa" (Le Guin 866) noise that the captive child hidden beneath the city makes at night. She does not allow any wiggle room for the reader, who was responsible for creating Omelas, to imagine anything that might mitigate or rationalize the child 's misery. The author points out that one thing that the people of Omelas do not have is guilt, but behind this seemingly flawless city’s outward appearance, the community knowingly and willingly inflicts horrible suffering on an innocent child out of their own selfishness to ensure that they can live free of any pain or misery. Perhaps the people of Omelas are without a conscience.

Ursula le guin's the ones who walk away from Omelas brought us an issue about happiness: could the happiness built on the suffering of the other be called as happiness? morally speaking, this utilitarianism mind-set of majority's interest over the sacrifice of individuals idea is wrong because human beings can not be evaluated like an object: the life of every individual is meaningful and it is the freedom of himself to decide his own destiny. however, in the daily practice, we find that people keep calculating the strength and weakness in order to achieve the best outcome. unfortunately, we have to reluctantly admit that life is a trade-off itself.

In today’s world one of the most important things is education and they way citizens’ think. One example, of a control method in both society’s is to control citizens’ consciousness and education. In the society of “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” citizens have happy consciousness, but are educated of the child who has to suffer. Which makes citizens’ of Omelas feel bad because of the suffering the child has to experience. As stated in “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” “The know that if the wretched one were not there sniveling in the dark, the one one, the flute-player could make no joyful music…”(3) This quote shows that the suffering that child goes through is for the benefit of the others of Omelas. In contrast to the “Brave New World”

In the idea of utilitarianism, people will sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others’ lives, sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly. Ursula LeGuin, the author of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, utilizes this idea to express how the society in Omelas is able to ensure happiness and perfect lives while one child suffers. This is the price that they pay, seemingly unknowingly unless they are a certain age, to have a utopian society. When someone finds out about why they live in such bliss, they are left with a choice; stay in Omelas knowing that the child must suffer for their, and everyone’s, happiness, or, to leave Omelas unknowing of what their life might entail. Today, society shows ways that we truly fulfill the idea

Utilitarianism is a theory aimed at defining one simple basis that can be applied when making any ethical decision. It is based on a human’s natural instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

All of the narrator's questions invite the reader to place ;himself in the position of the people of Omelas. Do you need this to make you happy? Then you may have it. Once the reader begins to enjoy the city and begins to see its happiness as a good thing, then the reader, like the adolescents in the story, must be shown that on which the happiness depends. Readers must face the question of what they would be willing to sacrifice for happiness. In Omelas, the people have no guilt so they are able to sacrifice the child for their happiness with no remorse because they are happy.

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” the citizens live in a utopian society, or at least they want Omelas to be a utopian society. If you go in depth of the story, you will realize that Omelas is not so perfect at all, and their surroundings are gilded. Omelas is dystopian that shows the suffering of one for the happiness of others. It is summer time in Omelas, and the city is having a festival. The festival is full of happy people, and everything is perfect. The happiness of the city of Omelas is just a coating for the suffering of a ten-year-old child. The child is locked away in a basement without sunlight, a little bit of food and no happiness at all, and this is all for the town happiness. Many people in this gilded society feel guilty

Ursula Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is a plotless, philosophical fiction. Written in 1973, Le Guin tells the dark narrative of a fictional town which lives in peace with itself. The seemingly happy town houses a dark secret, one so dark that citizen’s of the town leave to escape it. Ursula Le Guin does this by using authorial intrusion, withholding information, and encouraging her readers to think.

What is one to make of the city of Omelas? It is a fantastical place so transcendental that the author herself struggles to properly detail its majesty. Omelas has everything— it is beautiful, technologically advanced, and bears no need for organized religion. The atmosphere is rich with music, festivities, and orgies. And even with all this excessive indulgence, the people manage to remain elite: expert craftsman in every art, scholars of the highest caliber, gentle mothers and fathers, and all-around good people. However, all this prosperity comes with a price. The success and happiness of Omelas stems from the immense

LeGuin’s description of Omelas engages all of one’s senses through her usage of rich visual, auditory and tactile imagery to ‘prove’ to the reader that Omelas is undeniably a utopia. The city of Omelas can be described as a place in which the inhabitants’ senses are constantly overwhelmed by sensations which are pleasing to their eyes, beautiful to their ears and sweet to their tongues. The unchanging state of this society which is surrounded constantly by sensory delight can be found in these descriptions; for instance, the “child of nine or ten [who] sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute […] he never ceases playing” (LeGuin 275). In addition to the wooden flute, LeGuin describes, “a shimmering of gong and tambourine” (LeGuin 273). Following the narrator’s stunning description of everything which makes Omelas a utopia, her statement that the reader may, if he pleases, “add an orgy” in order to make the Omelas less “goody-goody,” makes it apparent that Omelas in many ways does not have to be concrete and limited to the previously provided descriptions. Her aim is not to describe a particular city, although it is named and its characteristics are already expressed, but to present the idea of a perfect city, a utopia in which bliss is fixed, and good fortune is wholly

In a Utilitarian world the lives and needs of the many in the society are put over the needs of the few. This idea is seen in a lot of popular dystopian movies like the hunger games, divergent, and harry potter. This is a common theme in literature and movies because it is a safe way to picture the crazy “what ifs” in life. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas ” by Ursula Le Guin, all of humanity will be happy and safe if one child is kept neglected and abused for all life. Obviously, in an ideal world the rights of every single person would be important but when not only your happiness is on the line but your children, family, friends, and the rest of the society’s happiness and livelihood is on the line I believe that most people would trade the happiness of one for the happiness of all society. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" the true purpose of the article is to debate the ethical ideology between a utilitarian vs. egalitarian society. It is uncomfortable to discuss because there is no obvious answer, no matter what there will be negative consequences. Also, it's a real life question, it’s not something purely fictional, its something a debate that occurs every day and effects the lives of many. Societies are built on the foundation that every person is equal, and in theory this is a wonderful idea.When we live in a world of over 7 billion people, the question has to be asked “if the good of the society is more important than the suffering of one person”. Take