The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

To be happy, one must take the happiness of others. That’s just how it works, right? In most cases, joy is brought by other’s despair. Author Ursula K. Le Guin took this into a more literal level, in her short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Le Guin tells a story about a town of fueling all of it’s happiness through one child who must suffer.

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.

At a young age it’s difficult to grasp the concept of death, but as time passes, the youth turn into the old and the old turn into the deceased. Whether people like it or not, death plays a role in their lives and it’s something no one can escape. Child soldiers are forced to kill, and if they don’t then they too are killed. Young children are trained into fierce warriors every day, and stopping this action has proven to be difficult. It can be argued from a recruiter that brings in children that children are disposable, easy to train, and almost infinite. Most of these kids never receive a chance to do what they want in life, furthermore it seems like children, especially in Africa, are being picked off the streets they’re grapes on a grapevine. The International Justice System appeals to cases like this everyday, as it can be a struggle to understand if a child is truly remorseful, and if they deserve amnesty. Children who are forced into crime should be given a chance to redeem themselves, as they generally have no intention to cause harm.

Visualize men with guns breaking down your door and pointing them at your family. Now imagine these men taking your children, forcing them to serve in their military force. In only an instant, your children are gone and you are left with no knowledge of the fate of your kids. As terrifying and seemingly impossible as this imagined scenario may be, it is a stark reality for many families in third world countries. Where families fear not if their children will be taken but when those doors will be broken down, and their screaming children will be dragged out through the front door. The parents know that they cannot not stop these men even if they attempt to. Yet, in an unreasonable twist becoming a child soldier is not only a gamble with the reaper, but it is also a chance to survive. Enough food to survive is more or less guaranteed, while back at home the odds of surviving are insurmountably against them. Becoming a child soldier is a double edged sword that is neither ally nor enemy to the children. These children are abused and coerced into staying with the men who ripped them from their families. Those that attempt to escape or resist are torn down brutally in order to be rebuilt, while those that embrace it sacrifice their humanity and risk the onset of psychologically damaging PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Militias and rebel forces, strained on man power, turn to child soldiers as a cheap and readily available replacement source. Trained to become war hardened

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.

Our America by LeAlan Jones and LLoyd Newman makes readers feel bad about children deaths in Chicago which inspires people to help even though it makes readers feel bad.

According to, “11 facts about child soldiers”, Children who are poor, have bad education,are displaced from their family, or live in a combat zone are more likely to be forced to join their local army or militia. This proves that they use them to their advantage because they don’t want to take the kids that are rich because their parents are probably paying the government more than the poor people. So the government needs a favor from the poor people so they take their children to fight. The rich kids might also put up more of a fight because they aren’t used to being told what to do and they have things to make their lives easier. Some kids are required to kill a family member (Child Soldiers). If their parents are rich and are paying the government a copious amount of money they won't want to cut them off. They still want to receive that money to pay for weapons for the soldiers or other things that will benefit

In both works, “The Ones That Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K Leguin and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the authors show sacrifice. This essay will compare the differences and similarities in the stories, and how these sacrifices add to the fulfillment of their lives, success, and happiness.

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” By Joyce Carol Oates it show: Visions of America, Sexuality, and Youth. In Visions of America it gives us a look on how some family’s live in America. People who might not be from the United States they might see the vision of a happy family with both parents and their children eating dinner at the dinner tables. However that is not how everyone who lives in America lives like. Or that if a person moves to the United States they can have their American dream of having nothing in life to tomorrow being the richest person. But it is not as easy as saying as it happening, because in fact most people’s American dream might never start. American’s families are not as perfect as what people from around the world might see it. There is problem in every family from big to small, but everyone deals with it. I believe that Connie really shows what happens back doors in an American family. Joyce Carol Oates really buts Connie as this character that many people do not see who are not from the United States, that a daughter talks and doesn’t like her mother or doesn’t have a good relationship with her father. “Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over. “She makes me want to throw up sometimes,” she complained to her friends. She had a high, breathless, amused voice that made everything she said sound a little forced, whether it was sincere or not.”(pg. 506) Or

Through the course of this paper the author will try to demonstrate, depicting both sides of the argument, the reasons in which a follower of John Stuart Mill 's "Utilitarianism" would disagree with the events taking place in Ursula Le Guin 's "The One 's Who Walk Away from Omelas."

“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, by Ursula K. Le Guin, uses multiple elements to forge morality issues. Also, the author successfully implemented aspects of folklore by the use of these elements. There are two specific elements that are most noticeable in the story. The first element is atmosphere and the second element is theme.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world right now, both good and bad. For instance, we have North Korea and their nuclear missiles to pollution and overpopulation. Along with this, there is a long standing problem of child soldiers. Child soldiers are children who are in some military or fighting group, and many of them are either recruited by force or are abducted. These child soldiers are made to or even choose to do terrible things, like massacring innocent people.

Some kids are even getting taken from their home and from where they play, like playgrounds and soccer fields. To the young ones, those places are their safe havens and where most of them spend their time. As these kids are taken, they have no say so in what’s going on. Often times, the kids either don’t fight back and train to become a solider or their family and their lives are on the line. Essentially meaning that the groups the kids are being stolen by threaten to kill you and your family. Others claim that these kids are volunteers and they have the choice to join. Others may also say that as they grow older, the begin to enjoy what they are doing but many forget that these kids are being bribed and drugged at a very young

For years the use of children in both conflict between states and civil war has been evident, children are being forced by bad people and throughout their false promises. Even this getting too far people don’t know what to do they’re afraid to defend themselves because they know what the commanders could do to them. They think they don’t have a way out. And even the parents are giving out their own children because they

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.