When reading “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” I started out by thinking that this would be a story of happiness, hearing about all of the energy and life surrounding the Festival of Summer; “In other streets the music beat faster, a shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing, the procession was a dance.”(1)
As the story continues, saying of the people of Omelas that “They are not simple folk”, “They were not barbarians” “They were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched”, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that Omelas was a paradise. That is until you discover that the price of this happiness lies in the imprisonment and beating of a child who is caged up, one who “perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect”. It is because of the neglect of this child accompanied by the odd beating, “One of them may come and kick the child to make it stand up”, that produces the happiness for Omelas yet few people care to think about what the cost of their happiness has on the poor child.
Before reading this short story I was to ask myself at the end my “avatar’s decision to either remain in, or walk away from Omelas”. Now having read the story I can safely say I wouldn’t decide to pick either of these options. If I was placed in Omelas, or if my avatar was I would try my best to free the child and take it with me, letting the people of Omelas who have prospered from the child suffering feel the consiquences of what would happen as a result.
The story also begs the broader question we all need to ask ourselves both online and in real life. If you knew that your happiness was built on the suffering of another, would you ignore that suffering? Even in small doses, we all cannot say that our happiness throughout our lives hasn’t caused the pain of another even if it happens inadvertently.
References
(1) Ursula Le Guin, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" From The Wind's Twelve Quarters: Short Stories
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