The Ones Who Walk Away From The Omelas

The short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, written by Ursula Le Guin, is about a so-called perfect society where the sacrifice of a child is what provides harmony, equality, and prosperity to the citizens of this city. As a reader, one is invited to create and visualize their own utopia, so that one is emerged with the reality of a moral dilemma: the happiness of many for the unhappiness of one. The symbol represented in the story reflects current and past society issues such as military sacrifice, slavery, and injustice.

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” the author Le Guin establishes the idea that one can not enjoy happiness that results from the immoral, discriminatory victimization of someone else. Upon first look, the city of Omelas seems like a fairy-tale utopia where everyone is happy, yet underneath this veil of splendor, there is a child that is neglected and abused to the point of where some people are so sickened that they must leave Omelas. All of Omelas’s glamour and joy depends solely on the suffering of this child, and if the child were to be rescued, all goodness in Omelas would be destroyed. The people of Omelas know that “theirs is no vapid irresponsible happiness. They know that they, like the child, are not free” (47). The passage reveals that the people fully understand the terms of the child’s misery.

“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is an award winning short story that takes place in a utopian society called Omelas. Omelas is described as a beautiful city next to the sparkling sea and full of intelligent and complex people. Underneath the city however there is an underfed, abused child about 10 who is locked in a dark cellar. If people were to say a nice word to the mentally ill, starved child they would lose their entire lavish and happy lifestyle. This story was published in the year 1973, and looking at the history of what was going on in

As previously stated, the narrator is the one who describes and foreshadows the scapegoat use of the child. The narrator described a lack of guilt in Omelas which leads to the idea of scapegoatism. Once the narrator reveals the child and the harsh conditions in which it lives, the narrator also reveals uses of the child. In fact, the narrator makes the reader aware of the scapegoat by stating, “They all know it has to be there,” (252). After the narrator explains how the people of Omelas know the child has to remain in its tortured cellar, he/she explains that their city and its beauty depends on it (252). The depiction of needing the child for the ultimate happiness of the utopia basically describes using him/her as the person to blame. Basically, the child is giving the people of Omelas someone to blame for all the minor flaws, so that they can continue their happy life. Lastly, the narrator explains the theme of ignorance being bliss when he/she describes, “Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there,” (252). Since the narrator tells the reader that not everyone goes to see the child, he/she is telling the audience that some choose to not see it. If they don’t see the child suffering then they can pretend it is not, and they can

Omelas is supposed to be the perfect city. It is stated that the people there know no suffering “Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How is one to describe the citizens of Omelas?” This perfect world makes it difficult to dispute that anyone should leave. Then, we are faced with the more problematic aspects of Omelas. This refers to the suffering child. “To exchange all of the goodness and grace for that single, small improvement…” This aspect of Omelas is appalling to most people. However, not all would be willing to exchange that for the ideal society that is Omelas.

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”

Some of the most well-known literary works depict dystopian societies. A dystopia is a community that is built on squalor, oppression, and human misery. Two of the most powerful depictions of a dystopia are Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” and Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” Both stories are alike in which they contain a scapegoat, one who suffers to keep the town’s utopian façade intact; however, each story has a different scapegoat and the characters have different methods of torment.

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

“The one who are walking away from Omelas” is written by Ursula K. Le Guin in 1973. This story is written with the inspiration from "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life" of William James (Brandt). The whole story is in a second person perspective, the narrator is recognized as one of the characters as well. It is recognized as a utopian literature as Omelas is described as a perfect society. Behind this perfect society, it is often had a philosophical, social or political motive behind (Literacy Device-Utopia ). The story described Omelas as an idyllic and beautiful place which was celebrating the Summer Festival. Everyone who lives there seems to be delighted and have no worries. However, the fact is all their happiness, peaceful life has depended on a miserable child who had been kept in the basement or rooftop of the house. The narration describes everything out but it does not give judgments to the moral value and allow the reader to make their own decision (Laurie). Most of them understand they could not live without the child, therefore, even though they were angry at first, they will choose to accept it when time passed.

In comparing Ursula K. Le Guin 's "The ones who walk away from Omelas" and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 's "Harrison Bergeron", the authors describe utopias wherein each society relies on another 's misfortune. In "Harrison Bergeron," George and Hazel watch their son 's execution when he publically rejects the laws of society. In "The ones who walk away from Omelas," the narractor describes a city of wonder built upon the pain and suffering of a single child. Through these stories, the authors attempt to convey the following points: everyone desires happiness, not everyone will achieve happiness, and the happiness of some may depend on the unhappiness of others.

“The Lottery” and “The Ones Who Walked away from Omelas” definitely falls in with the utilitarianism theory that I learned from my philosophy class. The theory is based on maximize happiness. Like in “The Lottery” the people believe that their annual ritual of sacrificing one of their people will wash away the sins in the society and that it will help prosper their crops. Tessie Hutchinson pleaded for her life as the villagers were getting ready to stone her. Of course no one listen to her because everyone was taught to believe that it was necessary and for the ones who wanted to say that it’s wrong, they couldn’t for they too believed they will be sacrificed.

Sacrifice is a hard concept to grasp within oneself because some people only think of themselves or just like how everything is already and would rather not change anything. Authors Shirley Jackson who wrote “The Lottery” and Ursula LeGuin who wrote “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” both focused on the idea of sacrifice in their short stories. Both authors came to a sense where change is inevitable but whether you take change and make the best of it or lie in the shadows determines what your outcome will be. There are some differences and similarities between these short stories including immorality, tradition, the sense of right and wrong, and anti-utopian.

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

The utopian society fabricated by Ursula LeGuin in her short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” appears, before the reader is introduced to its one inherent imperfection, to be ideal to a point of disbelief. Even the narrator doubts that her account of this utopia, despite considering the allowances given to the reader to add or remove certain aspects of the society in an attempt to render a utopia fashioned to individual desire, is a believable one. Interestingly, it is not until one final detail of Omelas is revealed, that of the boy who is kept in isolation in wretched conditions so that the people of Omelas may recognize happiness, that the existence of the

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.