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The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas By Ursula Le Guin

844 Words4 Pages

The Ones who walk away from Omelas Essay Omelas is said to be a perfect society where everyone is happy, so happy in fact that smiles have become archaic, but underneath all this happiness is a dark truth of why Omelas has become the way it is. Ursula le Guin is the author of “The One who walk away from Omelas” and in her story she has presented us with a static problem and three possible solutions each with their own pros and cons. She presented us with this problem: In omelas there is a child, it is very young, but it is being tortured in unimaginable ways such as getting little to no food and beaten while it pleds to be better and this is all for the sake of everyone else’s happiness (all the people of Omelas). The horrible part is everyone knows about the child! So our choices are as follows: We can remain in Omelas and eventually forget about the child's suffering, we can save the child but at the cost of Omelas no longer retaining it’s perfect stature and becoming like every other place on Earth, or we can leave without know where we may end up though it says “The place they go is even less imaginable to …show more content…

You should stay in Omelas because it’s wrong to ruin a society of many over one child, the child would get very little benefit from being saved, and nothing

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In ""Omelas"," the narrator describes that the child faces agony so that the rest of the population can live happily, but no rational clarification is given as to why this should be so and thus, Collins writes, Le Guin is able to make her reader question "a similar failure of Western capitalist theodicy": there is no good reason, despite the "historical, economic, political, racial-genetic-physical, geographical and religious elements" that Western readers may use to describe the "radical inequalities" of "`our ' world," as to why certain groups must suffer so that others can have a high standard of living. Le Guin 's ending, in which some individuals leave Omelas for a place "even less imaginable to most of us," points out finally that the

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How can it be a real utopia when there is unhappiness? This is why some people choose to leave Omelas. They are too fearful of ruining the utopia feel of Omelas. They are unable to live knowing that they can’t do anything for the child so instead they leave. This is just as bad as if they were to stay and live without doing anything for the child.

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“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin exhibits many mythic qualities by incorporating glorified fantasies with grim reality. Omelas is a city made of happily ever afters happy endings, where felicity flows from the foundations of society and is steeped in custom. Although While ignorance coupled with harsh law enforcement do not dictate delight, the happiness of Omelas comes with terms even more awful and absolute. From the loathsome existence of a contemptible child springs the bliss of Omelas. Nevertheless, the rules stand: if but a single act of kindness is extended to the child, all the joy of Omelas would perish in that instant.

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The basic needs in life are considered as water, food, and reproduction, and the simple wants are “central heating, subway trains, washing machines, and all kinds of marvelous devices” (p.2). The destruction to society could be one’s remorse for the child’s suffering. If one shows sympathy for the child and it is released from the basement, the city’s beauty and happiness will vanish. The child could represent selfless because its sacrifice is for the prosperity of Omelas. Le Guin explains that the society is a bargain between happiness and

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