Omelas Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is one of the most common approaches for dilemmas. The goal of Utilitarianism is to maximize the overall good. This is also the approach the Omelans take in the story. In the city of Omelas, the injustice of keeping one person confined coincides with justifying those who choose to stay in the city. Those who stay in Omelas are morally justified, because although they realize the suffering of a child is wrong, they take the utilitarian approach and act according to what would benefit the vast majority. Those who live in Omelas have splendid lives in which they live in peace with one another. They ”were, in fact, happy” not simpler than others or naive but “were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched”

There is mistreatment of this child but not always. They have the door locked and it is in a room with no windows which shows how they are trying to keep the child away from the general public. Those who do see the child do so upon their own free will. They must go through this locked door to see the child. Those who do see the child are more often overcome with anger and despair when seeing this poor child. Even though they realize that the child’s suffering is wrong they also acknowledge that this treatment is necessary for everyone to be happy in their daily lives. Although they care for the child they still do what is right for the majority and act unselfishly by not making changes. It would be selfish to act upon one 's feeling of care for this child. Risking the happiness of everyone else only for the chance of happiness for one would be absurd. There is no guarantee the child would be happy. In the end those who choose to stay in Omelas are truly morally justified in keeping this child in it misery if it insures that everyone else lives happily. Without this child being locked in that room and having this awful, but beneficial reminder then life would be drastically different. This miserable child allows for everyone else to be happy. Those who choose to stay are faced with this awful paradox knowing there is nothing that could ever be changed. If anything were to be changed it could cost thousands of people their happiness. Those who live in Omelas treat their children with even more care by knowing that this child lives in misery. This child is beneficial to the citizens of Omelas in many ways and is the basis of their happiness. The well being of thousands morally justifies the need for one to