The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas By Ursula K. Le Guin

908 Words4 Pages

In the short story of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula K. Le Guin tells the story of a beautiful city name Omelas. Where only happiness exists, but it exists only at the cost of one little boy’s happiness. It is something that happens in the real world maybe not at the cost of a little boy’s happiness, but at the cost of a larger population. The sacrifice and misfortune of people who do the hard work that others do not want to do, to provide the peace and happiness of others. The purpose of this essay is to analyse how Le Guin “Justifies” violence, by analyzing how people react after coming face-to-face with the child. Some of them decide to accept and stay, others decide to leave (Rochelle 100). How sacrificing the life of one child for the life of thousands is acceptable. …show more content…

The city of Omelas is describe as an utopian place, where the citizens of Omelas are out in the city celebrating the summer with happiness and joy. Nothing is wrong in the city. There is nothing physically or materialistic that the citizens are missing everyone has everything they need. Until later on in the story you can describe it as a “flawed utopia and refers to works that present what appears to be a good society until the reader learns of some flaw that raises questions about the basis for its claim to be a good society” (Moylan and Baccolini 225). In the story, what makes it a “flawed utopia” is when the boy or girl that is locked away in the basement of a building in the city is mentioned (Le Guin 457). It reveals that the city remains as beautiful as it is at the cost of one person’s