Jason Valledor 4/26/2024

Philo 25 EB - 3
Story Report on: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas written by Ursula K. Le Guin
begins with a description of the townsfolk of Omelas, gathering and preparing for
the celebration of their summer festival. The narrator describes the seemingly
perfect city full of a diversity of people from the old, the workmen, the women and
even the children running in the streets, Omelas appearing full of life and beauty.
The narrator continues on describing the happenings of the city but then shifts the
scene in such a way that takes one aback upon a first reading.
The narrator begins by describing a wretched and disheveled child thin to the
bone, full of sores and sitting on their own excrement. It turns out that the
continued suffering of this child entails the prosperity of Omelas as a city. Though
we are not told how this works, it appears similar to a “binding vow” of some sorts
as releasing the child from the agony entails what is essentially the ruin of the
prosperity in Omelas. As shocking as this information seems, the residents of
Omelas, though starting off disgusted by the information, eventually come to
accept the reality of the child’s suffering. Though not all residents continue to abide
by and live under this condition, most do as explicitly stated in the previous pages
of the book. Now, as readers, we see how inhumane the situation is, depriving a
child of life and allowing it’s continued suffering is against our very nature as
humans. Our paternal/maternal instincts dictate us to care and provide for our
young. Our success as a civilization was aided by nurture and survival of our
young, thus the continuation of our species. Therefore, the very act of going
against this instinct in itself is “inhuman”. Furthermore, starving the child, and
treating it like a caged animal are all things the residents of Omelas exhibit in the
book. But that begs the question, would you be willing to sacrifice a life for the
benefit of all? In the grand scheme of things, does a seemingly perfect city full of
intelligent scholars, skilled craftsmen, and cared for children not outweigh the
sacrifice of a single individual? One cannot avoid the connection to Christianity
with the imagery of a salvation/ “eternal happiness” at the cost of an individual’s
suffering, but I digress.
I will be honest in saying that I wouldn’t mind living in the city of Omelas. Why?
Realistically speaking, now, at this very moment there are children in the streets of
Cagayan de Oro without a home, possibly even parents, living day to day with
empty stomachs. Even outside of Xavier University there are street children
running around begging for coins or food. If one can akin the child in Omelas to
these children and say “I cannot in my right mind allow myself to live in that city/ It
would be inhumane to do so”, then they are merely appealing to the “righteous
answer”. I am not using these children’s suffering as a means to justify my choice,
but simply as a way to demonstrate how we are in fact living in a city just like
Omelas, just not as perfect with a similar freedom of ignorance.
Overall, the book “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” was an
interesting read and provokes the mind into thinking about the justifications of a
utopian society in exchange for the suffering of a child.