Omelas Dilemmas

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In life everyone experiences dilemmas that may cause making a decision either a good one or a terrible one. When making the final decision and you notice that you have made a bad one you go back and realize that you wish you had chosen the other option. Then there are other instances of dilemmas that involve the opponent not wanting to choose either of the options. As a result it causes one to be in a troubled situation. In relation to “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin there lived a nameless child who was tortured. The torture of this nameless child had a positive impact on the city of Omelas. The people in the city always had a positive outlook on life and everything in their eyes was perfect as long as this nameless …show more content…

The people whose thinking is consequentialist are always looking at the consequences of the action and believe that if they stay in the city they will benefit and their life will be in perfection. The other people whose thinking is rational believe that it is not right to torture the child in return for their happiness. One can agree that the dilemma LeGuin is revealing is the rights of an individual versus the collective and personal choice to justify small evil for a greater good through her descriptions of the city from those who stay and from those who go.
The way one can express certain things in life gives one a first impression on their emotion and how they react to it; whether good and proceeding with their action, or bad and diverging from the act. According to Lakeoff and Johnson language is of great significance and gives the person a great first impression. Le Guin uses language in her story to emphasize the different moral aspects in staying or leaving the city of Omelas. Lakeoff and Johnson state, “metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"—metaphors that can shape our perceptions …show more content…

The meaning of a metaphor in one person’s eye may not be the same meaning in another persons. The same applies to the city of Omelas and its people on which side is more just to choose from. Lakoff and Johnson clearly stated “that metaphorical language is influenced by culture, through their examples of different cultures: one culture viewed argument as war and the other saw argument as a dance”. Lackoff and Johnson also stated that “that although other cultures might view argument as a dance we would probably not view them as arguing at all: they would simply be doing something different”. It is said that metaphor is what better creates a better foundation for a person actions and their reasoning on what they believe is correct and just and what is incorrect and injust. This relates to the citizens of Omelas and how each person believe what is more just. The option to stay and enjoy their life in the utopian society it is currently due to the torture of the child or rather flee from such a society and go somewhere else where the happiness of the citizens of a city is not depended upon torture of another individual. Another thing that plays a major role in the making the decision to leave the city or to stay is the pressure from the other citizens in the city trying to convince one another how the city cannot get better then this and that by fleeing from the city that they will not find anything better then the city of

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