The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin

The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas

The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas is a short story written by Ursula Le Guin. In her story, Le Guin creates a model Utilitarian society in which the majority of its citizens are devoid of suffering; allowing them to become an expressive, artistic population. Le Guin’s unrelenting pursuit of making the reader imagine a rich, happy and festival abundant society mushrooms and ultimately climaxes with the introduction of the outlet for all of Omelas’ avoided misfortune. Le Guin then introduces a coming of age ritual in which innocent adolescents of the city are made aware of the byproduct of their happiness. She advances with a scenario where most of these adolescents are extremely burdened at first but later devise a rationalization for the “wretched one’s” situation. Le Guin has imagined a possible contemporary Utilitarian society with the goal to maximize the welfare of the greatest number of people. On the contrary, Kant would argue that using the child as a mere means is wrong and argue that the living conditions of the child are not universalizable. The citizens of Omelas must face this moral dilemma for all of their lives or instead choose to silently escape the city altogether.

My central thesis is that Kant would give the child’s life inherent value and advocate that Omelas’ citizens abandon their practices. In this essay I aim to examine the story of Omelas through two opposing filters. One perspective that I will take in my essay is a pupil of Kantian ethics, so that I may use Kantian principles and ideas to critique Le Guin’s work. The second position I will take is that of a Utilitarian. I will respond to criticisms of each frame using points that its opponent raised.

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... citizen undergoes their own moral awakening “alone,” they adopt the conviction that every individual’s life has value. Their realization departs the citizen from Omelas and into an altogether new ideology.

Conclusion:

Recapture what you’ve done in your paper

highlight important considerations your analysis opened up

Convey the importance of the issues you’ve just addressed

Reflect briefly on whether you believe Omelas is an apt metaphor for our society or for the contemporary world

If so, what moral implications does your own position on Omelas have for the real world?

Works Cited

Midgley, Mary. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature. 5th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. 231-235. Print.

Lecture hand-out, Classical Utilitarianism, Jan. 29, 2014, p. 3