What is Disobedience? Analyzing Ursula K. Le Guin’s Short Story
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
There are various ways disobedience can be defined. In the article of Erich Fromm, entitled “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, he mentioned that there are varieties of obedience, wherein others are life affirming and others, destructive. Fromm proves that there are psychological and moral problems attached to obedience. From this comes the question: what exactly does disobedience mean? This article analyzes the short story written by Ursula K. Le Guin, entitled “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, using the essay of Erich Fromm. It appears that there are three main definitions of disobedience, as reflected in the short essay written by Fromm. First, disobedience is about being alone. Second, disobedience is having the courage to say no. Third, disobedience is turning back from the fear of force. In the end, it is evident that disobedience is about using one’s freedom to search for the truth and all the good qualities rooted in the heart of humans.
Disobedience Is Being Alone
Somewhere in the end of the short story written by Ursula K. Le Guin, she mentions how adolescent girls and boys, who goes out to see the child locked inside a basement building in Omelas, would choose not to go home. As Le Guin mentions in the story,
These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates. They keep walking across the farmlands of Omelas. Each one goes alone, youth or girl man or woman Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave Omelas (Le Guin 4)
It appears these people have decided to disobey the rules of the crowd or the trend taking place within the society. Instead of ignoring the child locked in the basement, they leave Omelas, just like Adam and Even who had to abandon the Garden of Eden and yet, set them free and then opened their eyes. It is through disobedience that these people recognized the hostility taking place within the town of Omelas, so that by turning away and never coming back, they “broke the primary bond with nature and made them individuals” (Fromm 683). By not obeying the trend, they freed themselves from sin and thus, became fully human.
Disobedience Is Having the Courage to Say “No”
For disobedience to take place, one must have the courage to say no. It described those few people who chose to turn their backs against the town of Omelas, however beautiful and grand it was. Most of them however, turned their backs not on Omelas but on the poor child locked inside the basement of the abandoned building. As written,
Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendship, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery. (Le Guin 3)
more of a virtue instead of a vice. This is seen in the acts of all martyrs, who choose to disobey the ones in authority, so they can obey their conscience and the dictates of humanity. There are times when the ones in authority choose to sacrifice the life of one poor individual, instead of sacrificing all of those living in Omelas, who does not have the courage to say no.
Disobedience Is Turning Back from the Fear of Force
There is force used in irrational authority when the interests of the master and the slave appear to be antagonistic. As seen in the article of Fromm, it is stated that
The superiority of the one over the other has a different function in each case; in the first, it is the condition for the furtherance of the person subjected to the authority, and in the second it is the condition for his exploitation.
(Fromm 686)
The comparison mentioned has something to do with rational vs. irrational authority, wherein rational authority is chosen in the name of reason, while irrational authority is for the sake of exploitation. As stated, “obedience can be established by sheer force” (Fromm 686), but it offers a threat to the many, that they will be overthrown by force. It is disobedience from this irrational thought that can free them, the same way that the few others in Omelas chose to turn their backs from their town and leave it in the hands of those in authority. They have to turn their backs from the fear of force and choose to do what they believe will save them from irrational authority and exploitation, even if it means being ignored by the society.
Conclusion
In the article of Erich Fromm, disobedience was defined in three various ways. First, it is defined as being alone. Second, it is defined as having the courage to say no. Lastly, it is defined as having to turn back from the fear of force. All things considered, it can be said that disobedience is about using one’s freedom to search for the truth and all good qualities rooted in the heart of humans. Because there is the desire to search for the truth, humans turn their backs from the trend of the society, using their freedom to seek for what is good and just in the eyes of both God and man. Still, one must turn away from the norms of the society to seek for what is right. With that comes the act of disobedience, in which one should accept the challenges of being alone, saying “no” and ignoring the fear of force. Through disobedience, they are able to search for what they desire most in their hearts and in doing so, become wiser and more knowledgeable on what can change the lives of men.
Works Cited:
Fromm, Erich. Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem. 1963. Feldmann’s Class. 23 June 2016 <http://feldmannsclass.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/4/4/37448315/erich_fromm_disobedience_essay_pdf.pdf>.
Le Guin, Ursula. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. N.d. Web. 23 June 2016 <http://engl210-deykute.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/omelas.pdf>.
