The people of Omela suffer but they do not express their suffering in real terms. Instead, they choose to be happy and hold celebrations about their situation much as they also have things to mourn about. Celebration is the order of the day and people have chosen to accept and live this kind of life as it makes them feel better. There were no rules in the society and if they did exist they were very few (Le Guin 231). This denotes that they are responsible for their happiness and they do not need supervision to make sure that one’s happiness stands in the way of another person’s happiness. It is an organized society. Besides, these people live like they are always celebrating to an extent that people from other places have been coming to the little town which has not made some significant technological advances as compared to their own The simplicity of the town makes the place very attractive. However, the constant celebrations and happiness raises questions as to whether this kind of life is possible.
The wellbeing of this town depends on every person who lives in it. Basically, there is nobody in charge of any person and throughout the entire excerpt the author does not talk about the presence of some central authority. Even in the celebrations, everyone is allowed to join at their own free will. Since every person who lives here is responsible for their own happiness as well as for their neighbors, they believe in having some sense of collectivism. The author confirms this when he states that religion is acceptable but a clergy is not accepted here (Le Guin 232). They believe in doing things as a society rather than as individuals. Having a clergy means that they will have to be directed or compelled to listen to those who are in such authority at some point, contrary to how they work. Everybody takes part in ensuring that the entire community is happy by taking care of their neighbors’ happiness. Taking care of another person’s happiness means that they also have to ensure that they protect children from any poor upbringing that they are likely to experience, especially given that they are always in celebration and in some cases nudity is part of the celebration exercise. That author claims that there should not be temples from which beautiful nude priests and priestesses already excited to get intimate. This means that everybody was responsible for everybody’s happiness.
A utilitarian is one who finds an act useful or practical instead of being attractive. It denotes some sense of being perceived as important although what is being done is definitely unacceptable in a moral sense of view. The utilitarian in this excerpt would argue that the treatment of the child is morally unjustified. This is because hiding the child from adult content during the celebrations is right but denying the child basics such as food and the right to grow and live a normal life is totally unacceptable. The fact that the door is locked and the room is dimly lit (Le Guin 233) denotes that the child is being kept captive. The room is untidy and the child is alone. There are also suspicions that the child is born defective, raising even more questions as to the why he or she has been kept under lock and key in their situation. The utilitarian’s answer does not take into account the moral justifications for locking up the child in this particular context, but rather focuses on the fact that the conditions under which the child has been locked up are not justifiable.
Works Cited
Le, Guin U. K. The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2012. Print.
