The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Justice? The short fiction “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin is a story on following of what is right, in order to be happy, one must essentially stand up for what is right, even if it means letting go of what one is used to. Omelas is a place where relaxation and joy reign, where there are no kings, slaves, or rules, and the citizens are happy and safe. The residents of Omelas save one child to be confined in a basement or small room. The confined child has no connection with any of the citizens except for the few who are brought to feed or see the child. The citizens of Omelas ' happiness depend completely on the fact that this nameless child goes through suffering. “They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city...,depend wholly on this child 's abominable misery.”(Le Guin) You can see the irony to show the utopian society cannot exist without the suffering of the child, its seen through a simple speaker, the fact that Omelas no longer exists, and the child suffering. The residents of Omelas have the choice to ignore the suffering of a child who is held captive in a cellar, or fight for what’s right and basically leave their homes. A nameless neglected child is kept in a room in Omelas only referred to as an “it” in the story. "three paces long and two wide.”(Le Guin) The room where the child is held, has no window, only a locked door [and a dirt floor]. “It lives on a half bowl of corn meal and grease a day.”(Le Guin) “It is naked. Its buttock and thighs are a mass of festering sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually”(Le Guin). This neglected child has no friends, no happiness, and lacks health. The child brings with its misery and guilt to the city of Omelas. While in Omelas it is seen as a perfect utopian society where there is no sacrifice, and no one suffers. Unlike the child, the suffering and guilt cannot

Cited: Le Guin, Ursula. PDF. "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/rprnts.omelas.pdf.>.