People often wonder what a perfect world would be like. What would life be like without violence, disease, famine and other hardships? Life would be better for the many who suffer around the world today. However, everything comes with a price. What would an ideal, utopian, society cost us? What sacrifice would humanity be willing to make to live in a world with no adversities? The plot of the short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula K. Le Guin, centers on this idea.
Omelas, a fair city, is introduced to us during a joyous festival. The people are happy, as Le Guin shows us;
“They were not naïve and happy children - though their children were, in fact, happy. They were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched.” (214)
Le Guin indicates that there is music in the streets and others have come from different cities to enjoy this festival in Omelas. The buildings are beautiful and the people seem to have a limitless freedom. The people are beautiful and they are healthy. Yet she goes on to describe one more thing about this jubilant city. In a broom closet in the basement of one of the public buildings in Omelas sits a child, around the age of ten, who is very much distraught and abused. The child, boy or girl, is alone in the room with only two mops and a rusty old bucket. The child receives “a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day” (216, Le Guin), a jug of water and it is never comforted. The conditions it lives in are miserable, a condition that people should never be forced to live it. “It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.” (216, Le Guin) The child once had a family that cared for it and the child stills remembers what it was like to have a mother and to be loved. However, it is stated that if the child were to be release and loved again the peace, beauty, health and happiness that has been given to Omelas will cease. This is the price the people of Omelas pay. That is the way of the contract.
Another term of the contract is that everyone in Omelas must know of the child; men, women and children. At a young age children are brought to see it in the broom closet. Most “feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all the explanations” (216, Le Guin) and would like to do something for it, but they cannot. However, most return home and, over time, grow to accept the hardships that the child must endure. The narrator hypothesizes that this is one of the reasons why Omelas is the way it is. That the citizens realize they are helpless as well and as a result do not take things for granted. The narrator also goes on to explain that some children never return home from their traumatizing trip. That they, along with adults who could no longer live with the knowledge of the child, walk out of Omelas and travel into the mountains to a place the author does not describe.
This short story raises many questions; what would humanity sacrifice for an ideal world? Would you sacrifice one for the safety of thousands? Logically, it would seem like an appropriate choice. Though unfortunate, this deal would ensure many would be safe, healthy and happy. However, the morality of the situation complicates the answer. The child does not have a choice; it doesn’t understand why it must live in utter torment. Who is to call his or her abuse just or unjust? Who can take on the sole responsibility and guilt of forcing the child into this kind of life? Though many would argue that they would be against such a decision I would beg to differ. It is part of human nature to seek safety through any means necessary. That is not to say there are people who, like in the story, would walk away from such society. Still, I think that the offer would entice many people.
Whether you agree with how the Omelas have come to run their society or not, Ursula K. Le Guin makes people wonder what the price of an idealistic society would be. She makes them question their own moralities. This discussion could go on for hours with no real conclusion met. So, the question is, what would you be willing to forfeit so you could live in a city like Omelas?
Works Cited:
1. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin.
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