Ambiguity In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

We are living in a world where the ideal society needs to be filled with “happiness” in order to be perfect in the eyes of others. Sacrificing the perks of one's life in return for the unlimited perks of an entire society. Letting one brave and worthy individual live a life of suffering, misery and pain so the entire society can drown themselves in happiness. This almost sounds like a biblical story where one man took all of his people's sins as his own, in return for their never ending faith and happiness. Societies have long strived for the opportunity to achieve a utopian status within their lands and amongst their constituents. These societies never made it far, but rather, they proved that the ambiguity of a true utopian society is unachievable.

The short story began with a yearly summer festival in which the entire city joined together to celebrate the season. Dancing, singing, racing, marching and so much more flooded the seaside city of Omelas. The narrator makes it clear that the people of Omelas were “not simple folk, you see, though they were happy. But we do not say the words of cheer much anymore. All smiles have become archaic,” (Le Guin, 23-24). Omelas was described as a place where everyone was filled with happiness and all the necessities that they would ever need, yet, the preceding lines incorporates a sense of doubt in all of this happiness. How can a group of people be filled with such gargantuan amounts of happiness and not have their cheers or smiles heard and shining throughout the land? This observation should be kept in mind as the narrator continues to explain that they do not live in any kind of fairytale land but they are living without guilt. “O miracle! But I wish I could describe it better. I wish I could convince you,” (Le Guin, 40-42). The narrator fights themselves as they try to support their claim that Omelas is indeed a utopia and the reader just needs to imagine and believe it on their own. When the narrator or any writer “tries too hard” to persuade the reader of a controversial belief such as “utopia or happiness,” one

They leave to a place in which the author states, “only they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas,” (Le Guin, 166-167). They leave because they can not experience the “happiness” that their so called utopia set out to give them. The child continues to suffer, but the ones who leave Omelas are able to use this a lesson of humanity and how to not run a society. Omelas is indeed a utopia but at the same time it will always be a dystopia as long as there are individuals that don’t feel comfortable or agree with the suffering of this child. Omelas tests it's people by aiming to make them understand and learn to weigh the value of their happiness compared to a single child's suffering. This communities utopian foundation is and always will run on the idea that the suffering of one will always lead to the happiness of all. If they don’t agree and cannot be convinced, man or child, they know that they must follow their hearts and leave. The ones who leave Omelas have a higher chance of forming their own utopia because they all have that one common value of self worth, humanity, and drive to be happy without