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In Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” describe a city that appears that is almost like a utopia. The people there are continuously happy and appear to live a pleasure-filled and decadent lifestyle. The people of Omelas appear to live life to the fullest and have the opportunity to engage in risk behaviors, such as sexual promiscuity and substance abuse, without having to deal with any consequences. However, the writer shows a significant drawback about living in the city of Omelas: the people’s happiness is dependent on the misery of one child. In presenting this truth about the city, the utopian presentation of the city is destroyed. Hence, it can be argued that Le Guin’s is using her story to explore the themes of joyfulness and living a pleasure-filled, decadent life versus living a life of sadness and misery, and the theme of unfairness of life versus the fairness of life. Furthermore, it can be said that Le Guin uses the themes in the story to show that one of the reasons living a utopian or perfect life will always be truly attainable is that the choices of others have the ability to negatively impact others, thus allowing them to live a miserable life.
In Le Guin’s story, the happiness of the inhabitants of Omelas is contrasted starkly to the miserable existence of the child, whose misery allows the residents of Omelas to live a joy-filled life. The narrator mentions that the inhabitants of Omelas “were happy” (Le Guin 1). The people of Omelas are able to find happiness in simple pleasures, such as listening to a child playing a wooden flute or going to watch the “processions” at the “Festival of Summer” (Le Guin 1). However, the people of Omelas do not only find joy from simple pleasures, but also by living a decadent and hedonistic lifestyle. Omelas’s inhabitants freely engage orgies and substance abuse without experiencing any sense of “guilt” or any other consequence (Le Guin 2). Nevertheless, there is a dark side to the city, which relies on the misery of a child, who lives in a room located in the basement of a public building. He is kept there “naked” and in his “own excrement” while being under-fed (Le Guin 3). The inhabitants of Omelas need to keep him there because “their happiness” is totally dependent “on this child’s abominable misery” (Le Guin 3). When the narrator describes the living conditions of this child, it appears to contradict the idea that the people of Omelas are enjoying their lives without experiencing any consequences. The consequence of their joyful life is the poor and miserable living conditions of this child.
The situation described in the story mimics the current state of the international community that depends on the forces of globalization, which ensures that goods and services are sold to consumers living in developed countries, at affordable prices. Companies, which are usually located in industrialized nations, have factories in developing countries that provide cheap labor and compromise workers’ safety and health so that they can create products for markets in the developed world. The workers are under-paid and work in miserable conditions so as to create goods and services that better the lives of those who live in industrialized nations. The happiness that people in the industrialized world find in materialism and consumerism is facilitated by the misery of workers living in developing nations that work in objectionable conditions and are under-paid.
The writer in her story explores the theme of the unfairness of life versus the fairness of life. After “the young people” witness the malnourished, naked, and filthy child in the basement, they “go home in tears” or in a “tearless” rage (Le Guin 4). Later on they attempt to rationalize the suffering of the child by thinking that since he is unfamiliar with living a life of happiness, then will not be able to experience “real joy” once he has been released (Le Guin 4). When they rationalize the situation in this manner then the young persons’ “tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality” (Le Guin 4). This paradoxical statement shows that despite the child’s situation being perceived as unjust at first glance, it reveals that their happiness is not “vapid” and “irresponsible” (Le Guin 4). These young persons’ realize that it is the “acceptance of their helplessness” that is the “true source of the splendor of their lives” (Le Guin 4). They realize that life is indeed fair because they are in bondage like the child in the basement. The young people of Omelas realize that their happy existence is bound to the miserable existence of the child. They are able to realize that it is nothing that Omelas’s residents have accomplished that has allowed them to be happy but their happiness is based on the objectionable existence of the child.
In conclusion, Le Guin uses her story to illustrate that a perfect life cannot be achieved because an individual cannot escape the consequences of their choices that can have a potentially negative impact on others. Therefore, this means that happiness cannot be experienced without considering the responsibility that everyone has to ensure that persons are treated with respect and dignity. However, the present world does not always bear this in mind as most individuals are focused on gratifying their own desires even if it means depriving another person the opportunity to be happy.
Work Cited
Le Guin, Ursula. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” University of Massachusetts Boston. University of Massachusetts. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://engl210-deykute.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/omelas.pdf>.
