Short Story 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'

Le Guin’s philosophical short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” brings to light the unvarnished truth of how society’s success is fundamentally based on the unceasing sufferings of others in order for the greater majority to prosper. Similarly to how Kanye West says in his song “Take One for the Team,” “Your girl a queen, my girl a thing, you know what though, I’ma take this one for the team;” this can be related to the situation of the one suffering child in Omelas. The feebly neglected child hidden away from the populace is starved to only half a bowl of cornmush a day, can barely speak, and is abandoned to continuously hunker in gruesome conditions of its own feces and filth. The emaciated child is involuntarily forced to take one

Mankind has continuously fostered suffering onto the environment for their own welfare. However, for our society to evolve, it is necessary for development to occur through the quick extraction and utilization of the Earth’s resources. Our economic system has progressed at the hands of the environment, just like the society of Omelas has progressed at the cost of the martyrized child in the cell. For example, deforestation allows us to expand on communities and contributes positively to businesses and finding working jobs for people, but causes suffering onto the environment through climate change, loss of habitats for species, and an abundance more of environmental issues. Being aware of the unhealthy methods we greedily enact at the expense of the Earth, I mindfully recycle and reduce the consumption of non-eco friendly items. Furthermore, I am aware of the negatives we cause for the greater good of people and the global economy, so I try to contribute back to the environment to help what I know is being hurt. For example, when I shop for my groceries at Publix, I always opt for the reusable grocery bags over the plastic bags; or when I go to Starbucks I bring my reusable cup which is much more environmentally friendly to use than constantly throwing away the paper cups. In return, Starbucks rewards me with a $0.10 cup discount which promotes me to be more ecologically aware and continue making positive environmental changes. This is another promotion to the idea of not just sitting and abiding to the suffering of others for our greater good. As a society, many stand up to what is being negatively affected for our sake and try to make more positive changes or encouraging others to do so as well, just like the Starbucks including