The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas' by Ursula Le Guin Analysis Essay

📌Category: Books, Literature
📌Words: 426
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 17 January 2022

In the story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'' by Ursula Le Guin, the author argues that happiness doesn't come without suffering. She presents a utopia city, Omelas, with green grass and air sweet, and joyous music playing throughout the city. This place is set up to seem perfect, and yet the author unveils the skeleton in their closet, which ultimately brought the community closer together. 

Our definition of community is questioned by this story, and we start asking ourselves whether or not these communities build themselves off something unpleasant, even if the community itself is positive. In this story, their ‘secret’ is a child locked in a broom closet, with minimal food and water. The citizens recognize that the child is suffering, and yet they can't do anything about it. “No matter how well the matter has been explained to them, these young spectators are always shocked and sickened at the sight. They feel disgust, which they thought themselves superior to, They feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all the explanations. They would like to do something for the child” says Guin (10). Everyone in the city acknowledges that it's not a good thing to have this kid locked in this closet, but they agree that it needs to stay where it is. This kid represents hope and compassion, even though what is going on is bad. 

The way other children in this town learn to be empathetic is through the kid locked in the closet. When comparing the life of the child to their own lives, the citizens of Omelas learn to appreciate what they have and find happiness in small moments. They know that if they free the child, there won't be anything to feel compassion for. The child permanently suffers for the sake of the people in the city. “To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed.” Guin states (10). 

The author clearly shows that the joy of the majority of the city is dependent on the kid being in a perpetual state of unhappiness.  Without this child, the citizens wouldn't learn to appreciate the things they have, and they wouldn't learn to be understanding. Without an unpleasant thing, people couldn't fully enjoy the good things in their life. The community in this story is accepting this, and that brings them closer together. They know that they should take time to appreciate their life. 

The author implies that the message of the short story is that there is no happiness without suffering. This child embodies the empathy that comes from enduring the severe situation.

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