The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin first published in 1973 in the anthology New Dimension 3 , which received the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974 . The narrative offers no plot; Called “psychomyth” by the author, it describes the utopian-looking city of Omelas. According to Le Guin, the central idea, that of the “scapegoat” who has to suffer for the happiness of the many, is taken from Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and the essay The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life by the philosopher William James . She found the name of the city when she read the city sign of Salem, Oregon in the rearview mirror .
Synopsis
At the beginning, the reader is asked to imagine the first day of summer and the celebration that goes with it in the beautiful city of Omelas. The city's residents are described as simple but happy. In their wisdom they have limited their technique to what they need for happiness as a church. No hierarchical structures are described. Instead, the text indicates that we generally perceive happiness as simple, even stupid, and instead occupy suffering and struggle as positive values: "Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. "
The reader is then asked to imagine what life would be like for them in a happy church, what joy might mean. Communal orgies are also proposed.
After describing the happy character of the city, the secret of Omelas is revealed: it is a lone child, either retarded or dumbfounded by his miserable existence, who is kept in a cramped, dirty room. It sits there on its own excrement and spends its days in pain and fear. This injustice, this suffering, guarantees, in an undescribed way, the happiness of omelas. Once the town's children are old enough, they will be taken to the room to see the creature inside.
But the city's ultimate secret is that some citizens who know the secret leave the city. The place they go, so the text, is even more indescribable than the happy city of Omelas: "It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."
effect
The text is often used in educational institutions and then presented either as a criticism of the "first world" which, in its prosperity, accepts the distant suffering of others, or as a warning against a utilitarian view of man.