Omelas: Utopian

Towards the end, Le Guin explains that some people leave Omelas after seeing the child, no matter where it brings them. In the very last paragraph, it states, “At times one of the adolescent girls or boys who go to see the child does not go home to weep or rage, [they do] not, in fact, go home at all. Sometimes also a man or a woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home….[they] walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates.” (The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 736). The people who found displeasure in the system just got up and walked away, so they would not take place in it anymore. The fifth to last sentence is “They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.” (The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 736), which tells the reader how the less selfish people will be willing to walk straight into the unknown, into the darkness, just to prove how much they truly believe something is

The people who leave Omelas who don’t want to deal with the child’s suffering, they simply cannot justify why it happens, these people can’t live happily knowing that their happiness comes from the cost of another’s humanity. The ones who walk away from Omelas have rejected the terms of this perfect society and walk away.

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, a short story by Ursula Le Guin, the scene is set in a beautiful near Utopia called Omelas. The youths and girls have prepared their horses and are about to begin the opening ceremony for the Festival of Summer. This festival is to show the true beauty and majesty of the great city. All is well and the citizens of Omelas are excited to celebrate such a joyous occasion. On the surface everything seems fine but beneath the surface there lies a child locked away in a cellar. The citizens know there is nothing they can do to save the child but the knowledge of it allows them to live on and have happiness in their lives.

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.

Guin allows the reader to understand that the characters are disgusted with the treatment that the child is going through. “Often the young people go home in tears, or in a tearless rage, when they have seen the child and faced this terrible paradox” (LeGuin 3). The Sacrifice of this society was the sacrifice of one's own freedom and happiness for the greater good of others “ but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships… depend wholly on this kid’s abominable misery” (LeGuin 3). The author also uses the memories of the captive kid to further show the sacrifice given by showing what the child has given up “but the child, who has not always lived in the tool room , and can remember its mother’s voice” (LeGuin 3) At the beginning of the short story although the author did sound at the beginning like the society was a utopian society Guin writes “ But we do not say words of cheer much anymore” (LeGuin 1) which leaves the reader to think that maybe the society is not a utopian society after

These people believe that it is not right for everyone to experience happiness on a daily basis only because there is someone holding in anger and depression for the whole city. “One thing I know there is none of in Omelas is guilt” (Le Guin 2). The people who walk away from Omelas believe in guilt. They experience guilt after seeing this child trapped. They feel guilty for living their life without a care in the world. This is because they now know every secret to their city. These people think back to their careless decisions and delightful emotions, then register that this child has been forlorn that whole time. They do not want to go back to Omelas because this feeling with follow them and hang over them anywhere they go. They will never be able to look at their life as the same way it was before. “Perhaps it was born defective or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect” (Le Guin 3). This child is not even referred to as male or female. People are too nervous to investigate because more information means more guilt. The author uses words like imbecile, and malnutrition to describe the state of this human. This is implying the child is idiotic and has been deprived of

From their youth, most people discover a rather disappointing truth about reality that is best expressed in the words of a popular proverb: all that glitters is not gold. Ursula Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” reminds readers that sometimes situations really are too good to be true. The city of Omelas is cunningly portrayed as the embodiment of a utopian society; however, the roots of this seemingly perfect community seem to be firmly planted in a foundation of evil. The unceasing happiness, intelligence, and health enjoyed by the citizens of Omelas are only able to exist because a single orphaned child is kept in absolute solitude and misery in a basement below the sunny streets of the city. Through the use of the allegorical utopia Omelas, Le Guin urges the reader directly to explore the principles of morality in a personal manner that can be applied to real world contexts and inspire change.

Author focuses on the single day where they were having a festival and goes into deep details about it: how fan it was, how happy people were. Omelas is a city with mature and intelligent adults. The story is not finished at that point though. The city has a guaranteed happiness, but at the expense of what? There is a dark room with a child inside; with a scared, half-starved child. All the people know about it and have an ability to see him or her if they wish. No one may talk to a child though, and no one stays with him or her for too long. If there was no child, there would be no Omelas with its perfect happiness, and everyone knows it. There are some people though who after seeing the child go right through the city gates to the mountains and do not

As we suspect due to the lack of laws, kings, bombs, people are all immersed in enjoying happiness, they ignore the child who is suffering as the scapegoat. Throughout the story, the author uses an ironic way of describing the child’s life in Omelas to reveal the negative side of the city: “The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes, except that sometimes-the child has no understanding of time or interval---sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there” (para. 8). This quote depicts a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of the Omelas. One child stays in a dirty and harmful environment, and he barely talk except whining sometimes. It is undeniable that he is also the member who live on the community. People there have a guarantee of happiness, but at the same time, none of them are allowed to get close to or speak to the child. It seems like that child is separated from the world, although they exist really. The city’s happiness, splendors, beautiful scene, all are dependent on the misery of the children. This innocent kid suffer pain for the benefit of Omelas population: “They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all know that it is has to be there” (para. 9). No one rescues

If this story is to be taken literally, then who’s to say that the children who leave do not have the same possible defects as the child in the basement. All the children and adults eventually see the child, and there could be a reason why. They want to keep their city ‘happy’. This could be a scare tactic to keep the city a utopia. When they see the child, and think that they possible have the same defects as it, they begin to wonder, and think that leaving may be the only way to escape possible hell they might be put through. They would have to sacrifice their freedom for everyone else’s, and when they leave, they, in a different way, do

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.

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin, the informally-speaking narrator depicts a cookie-cutter utopia with perpetually happy citizens that sing and dance in the music-filled streets during the Festival of Summer. However, under one of the beautiful public buildings lays a child, no older than ten years-old, who lays in its own excrement. Although the citizens know the emancipated child is there, they refuse to act upon the child’s suffering, for their happiness depends entirely on the child’s abominable misery. Through ethos, the narrator illustrates this utopian society with a casual tone and frequently asks the audience for their input. Le Guin’s fairy-tale introduction of the story establishes her credibility through her extensive knowledge and understanding of the people of Omelas. Le Guin utilizes logos through the narrator’s second person point of view which incites the audience to draw their own conclusions about the city of Omelas and question their own justifications of the child’s existence. The concept of the happiness of many relying on the necessary suffering of one forces the reader to question their own morals and their justifications for the child’s physical and mental condition. Through ethos, logos, and pathos, Le Guin presents the contrast and divide between the citizens of Omelas and the child in the cellar in order to challenge the reader’s capacity for moral self-conception.

The freedom of the child in Omelas would have consequences, in accordance with the perfect utopia in the story. I imagine the child's misery would be like a pie, and every citizen of Omelas would get a small slice of the pie. In that way, no one person would have to take the whole portion of misery by his or her self. But, in accordance, every individual would have some small share of the problems, worries, and guilt. Guin's story, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", points to many aspects of human society.

There are times when the suffering of some can bring greater happiness for others. A small example, would be when one individual loses a job, another can gain a job. However, this is demonstrated unfairly in the city of Omelas. Locked in a damp, dark basement exists a child bereft of all love, care, and opportunity. "It has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect" (260). Its ' gender is left unidentified to emphasize its ' destitute and feeble state. The child embodies all the hallmarks of extreme poverty, including the lack of proper nutrition, health, education, as well as poor economic and social standing. "The others never come close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eyes" (261). "They all know [the child] is there, all the people

Bentham, credited for founding the utilitarian theory, believes that pleasure and pain govern us all. He claims that we are “naturally drawn to pleasure and repulsed by pain”, meaning that as humans, it is most likely that we rather feel good. He also is saying that we tend to act negatively towards pain as well. I believe he is correct because this is what our body naturally does. Rarely does a person find joy in being in pain.