The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Ursula Lee Guin wrote a short story called The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. This story is mentally overwhelming. It is considered a thought experiment to cause the reader to contemplate what is ethical. Moral principles differ from person to person, and society to society. This story takes what you think you believe is ethical and challenges it. Is it noble to make one child suffer for the sake of an entire towns happiness and wellbeing? To start the story, Guin tells the reader to imagine this perfect place. Whatever is most appealing and would make their definition of a perfect city. In this Utopia, nothing ever goes wrong. No one experiences pain, anger, depression, or anxiety except for one child. Behind the face of perfection, there
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is a reason this city is able to exist. When a child is between the ages eight and twelve, they are shown the truth.
A lonesome child is the reason this utopia is able to exist.
One child, of unspecified gender, is forced to live underneath a city building or a large home. In this room, the only light comes in through the cracked boards. There is a window on the other side of the room and a locked door. He is tortured and scared of everything. The kid is feeble-minded. It has no clothing and is forced to sit in the darkness, alone on a dirt cellar floor in its own excrement’s. it is malnourished from only getting fed one bowl of cornmeal and water a day. The door is always locked except on the occasion a few people come to see him. It is usually the children being shown his existence. This child has not always lived a life as such. it remembers its previous life, its mother’s voice, and the feeling of sunlight on its skin. At the beginning of the torture, he screamed and cried for help. Now it only resorts to whimpering and occasionally asking the strangers for help and telling them it will be good now.
All of the citizens of Omelas know that the child is there. Most of them willingly accept it for the sake of their happiness. Others can’t seem to justify it. There are the few that wish to do something, aid the poor kid somehow. However, this is not an option. If the child is brought out of the darkness, cleaned, and comforted, the entire utopia would be doomed. The town would have no beauty or delight, and all of the prosperity would be gone. Would it be worth it “to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one”? (Lee Guin
4)
As time goes on, most of these preteens will go home, brood over it for a few weeks than get over it. “They begin to realize that even if the child could be released, it would not get much good of its freedom.” (Lee Guin 4) Occasionally, there is a child who cannot look past the evildoing. They do not go home to weep or be angry. They simply head down the streets and out of the city headed north or west towards the mountains to never return. These few choose to leave the city due to the unethical actions. Although, when walking away from the city of Omelas, they appear as if they know exactly where they are headed.
is a reason this city is able to exist. When a child is between the ages eight and twelve, they are shown the truth.
A lonesome child is the reason this utopia is able to exist.
One child, of unspecified gender, is forced to live underneath a city building or a large home. In this room, the only light comes in through the cracked boards. There is a window on the other side of the room and a locked door. He is tortured and scared of everything. The kid is feeble-minded. It has no clothing and is forced to sit in the darkness, alone on a dirt cellar floor in its own excrement’s. it is malnourished from only getting fed one bowl of cornmeal and water a day. The door is always locked except on the occasion a few people come to see him. It is usually the children being shown his existence. This child has not always lived a life as such. it remembers its previous life, its mother’s voice, and the feeling of sunlight on its skin. At the beginning of the torture, he screamed and cried for help. Now it only resorts to whimpering and occasionally asking the strangers for help and telling them it will be good now.
All of the citizens of Omelas know that the child is there. Most of them willingly accept it for the sake of their happiness. Others can’t seem to justify it. There are the few that wish to do something, aid the poor kid somehow. However, this is not an option. If the child is brought out of the darkness, cleaned, and comforted, the entire utopia would be doomed. The town would have no beauty or delight, and all of the prosperity would be gone. Would it be worth it “to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one”? (Lee Guin
4)
As time goes on, most of these preteens will go home, brood over it for a few weeks than get over it. “They begin to realize that even if the child could be released, it would not get much good of its freedom.” (Lee Guin 4) Occasionally, there is a child who cannot look past the evildoing. They do not go home to weep or be angry. They simply head down the streets and out of the city headed north or west towards the mountains to never return. These few choose to leave the city due to the unethical actions. Although, when walking away from the city of Omelas, they appear as if they know exactly where they are headed.