The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Symbolism Essay

Ursula Le Guin’s, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, is a dark and twisted story about utopian fantasy that slowly turns out to be more of a dystopian society. The story starts off, when the narrator is describing the Utopian city of Omelas. The town is filled with light, colors, and happy people. However, as the story progresses, the readers find out that Omelas is not this uplifting Utopian world, rather it is a darker dystopian world. The only thing keeping Omelas looking peaceful on the outside, is the suffering of a child locked away in a basement under the buildings of Omelas. The weight of everyone's happiness is solely determined by the suffering of the child. The people who can’t handle the cruel situation, simply walk away from

Le Guin uses symbolism in the story to critique modern American society. In the story, there is a child who is treated horribly. The child's living conditions are described as, “a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas,... It has one locked door, and no window. A little light seeps in dustily between cracks in the boards, secondhand from a cobwebbed window somewhere across the cellar” (3). The child is malnourished, neglected, and afraid. The child symbolizes sacrifice. Le Guin portrays that the citizens of Omelas firmly believe that their wealth is worth the suffering of an innocent child. In the town, everyone in Omelas knows about this child. A lot come and see it and others just know about it, but everyone knows the child “has” to be there. An example I can think of that relates to our world, would be people who are homeless. Many people feel bad for people that are homeless and want to help, but just simply don't. In both worlds (the story and

The people who walk away from Omelas symbolizes morality. They are the ones who refuse to take part in an unjust society. They represent the people who question the authority in the town, and are not willing to comply with the town's traditions, due to the ideas being immoral. Most people in the town are upset about the child's situation, however they just learn to live and accept it. Le Guin says, “...adolescent girls or boys who go to see the child… does not, in fact, go home at all. … a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home. These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They… walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates." (5). This quote can show that the people of Omelas have a feeling of sympathy for the child, however, the ones who don't walk away would rather sacrifice one child, for the sake of the town's overall happiness. The ones who walk away from Omelas, don’t want to deal with the cruel system, and would rather walk away from the whole dystopia in itself. An example that can relate to modern socitey would be people that grow up in low income neighborhoods. A lot of the time low income neighborhoods can have gang violence, and drug problems, so families will do anything to protect themselves and their kids, and try to get away from the crimes. This happens in places like Chicago, Detroit and some parts of California. By the