The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin
Omelas is a utopian city where people live happily in the best sense of the word. The narrator is focusing on a day when the people of Omelas are celebrating the summer festival. Children are exercising their restive horses before the race. The day is bright and clear, music of all kinds fills the air, bells ring and the air itself is sweet. The narrator describes joy, as discriminator of what is necessary, neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. The people of Omelas could have it all, or maybe not: it does not matter. The story invites its readers to add as much as he/she needs to perfect the city of joy at his/her own understanding of what would bring happiness to an entire city. The …show more content…
The only thing you could not find in Omelas is guilt. This picture of the city is not the end of the story. One thing marks this city special in another way. It has a guarantee of happiness; it has struck a bargain, although how and with whom it is not clear. The bargain is this: under one of the most beautiful public buildings or perhaps in the cellar of a spacious private home, there is a room where a frightened, half-starved, imbecile child is stunted and all the people of Omelas know it is there. The child is shown off to those who whish to see it. It is fed half a bowl of corn meal and left to sit naked in dirt and its own excrement. The child barely talks except for a whining and a plea to be let out. No one is allowed to speak to the child or even stay with it long. The irony is that, the great happiness of the whole city lays on the misery of this one child. If it was rescued from its cell-like closet, the city of Omelas would falter, and its possible happiness would be set against the sure failure of the happiness of the many. Thus, the people have been taught the terrible reality of justice, and on this, they base their lives. Inexplicably, however, sometimes young people, or even adults,
Omelas is a utopian city where people live happily in the best sense of the word. The narrator is focusing on a day when the people of Omelas are celebrating the summer festival. Children are exercising their restive horses before the race. The day is bright and clear, music of all kinds fills the air, bells ring and the air itself is sweet. The narrator describes joy, as discriminator of what is necessary, neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. The people of Omelas could have it all, or maybe not: it does not matter. The story invites its readers to add as much as he/she needs to perfect the city of joy at his/her own understanding of what would bring happiness to an entire city. The …show more content…
The only thing you could not find in Omelas is guilt. This picture of the city is not the end of the story. One thing marks this city special in another way. It has a guarantee of happiness; it has struck a bargain, although how and with whom it is not clear. The bargain is this: under one of the most beautiful public buildings or perhaps in the cellar of a spacious private home, there is a room where a frightened, half-starved, imbecile child is stunted and all the people of Omelas know it is there. The child is shown off to those who whish to see it. It is fed half a bowl of corn meal and left to sit naked in dirt and its own excrement. The child barely talks except for a whining and a plea to be let out. No one is allowed to speak to the child or even stay with it long. The irony is that, the great happiness of the whole city lays on the misery of this one child. If it was rescued from its cell-like closet, the city of Omelas would falter, and its possible happiness would be set against the sure failure of the happiness of the many. Thus, the people have been taught the terrible reality of justice, and on this, they base their lives. Inexplicably, however, sometimes young people, or even adults,