The ones who walk away from Omelas

Some stories or books just stay with you only to pop up once in a while when life is going on and a certain event takes you back to it. ‘The ones who walk away from Omelas’ is that kind of story. Discovered through Namjoon from BTS as I was reading some backstories to their songs and found out that one of their tracks, Spring day, was actually inspired by that same story. It was a beautiful discovea story that I find myself going back to constantly.

Written by Ursula K. Le Guin, it is a short philosophical fiction story that explores the idea of looking away from the misery of the world around us. She describes this utopian city with the name Omelas, but she also invites you the reader to imagine such a city yourself; you can add all the utopic features that you desire just to make it seem believable to you. It seems as if its citizens have reached the pinnacle of civility, peace and contentment. Everything seems all rainbows and roses, but there was darkness underneath the city. She describes the citizens of Omelas as happy, cheerful, normal people like us, as complex as us and as intelligent as us. But for this to happen, for them to be this happy, only one condition is to be met. In a small room in the basement is a child, an infant who looks about six but is, in reality, ten, boy or girl, no one can tell. This child has to bear all the torture and all the sufferings of the citizens and no one is allowed to help it. They all know that the child exists and some even go to visit them but the one rule is to not be broken;

‘They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery. ‘

They understand that for their continuous happiness the child has to suffer and considering all the options there is not much they can do about it. Some after encountering the child forget about him/her in a week or so after understanding that nothing can be done about the situation, but some eventually can not bear the reality and weight of the situation and choose to walk away;

‘At times one of the adolescent girls or boys who go to see the child does not go home to weep or rage, does not, in fact, go home at all. Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two and then leaves home. These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates. They keep walking across the farmlands of Omelas. Each one goes alone, youth or girl, man or woman. Night falls; the traveler must pass down village streets, between the houses with yellow-lit windows, and on out into the darkness of the fields. Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas. ‘

Individualism. I guess the idea here is to not be afraid to do the right thing even if you have to walk alone. Walking away represents choosing to take an unexplored road, you do not know where exactly it will lead you but you are convinced that you can not continue to live as you were before and that what you are leaving behind is definitely worth leaving. Again there is no uncertainty in the dark road ahead for those who leave but they must think that whatever may come can not be worse than living at the cost of the suffering of that child. They are rejecting the comfort, the bliss and the bonds they have with the other citizens to partake in a journey that they do not know what it will bring. Again we do not know what is beyond Omelas, but it is not easy to picture a place where no form of suffering exists. ‘However, if a person decides that the quality of life for each individual matters more than collective happiness—in other words, if a person decides that the child’s suffering is indefensible, even though it allows the rest of Omelas to experience happiness— they have no choice but exile. These people leave the city on foot, in silence, and never come back. While choosing the good of society over the good of the individual results in a life of boundless happiness, the consequences of rejecting the society that depends on the suffering of one individual remain mysterious.’ Analysis from Dillon, Sophie. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Themes: Individual vs Society." LitCharts.

Guilt to me is one of the main themes of this story, the conscience of those who walk away doesn’t let them live peacefully in the city knowing what goes on. They make a decision to walk away instead. In the end, they say that they seem to know where they are going but I wonder what good it did to walk away? At first, when I read this story, they were the representation of human conscience and the last faith in the humanity of the citizens of Omelas, but then again I wondered what did it change when they choose to not be part of this anymore? The kid will still continue to be tortured, yes they will feel lighter knowing that they are not throwing parties on top of a half-dead kid in the basement but in the end what will have changed? The kid will continue to starve and the people will go on with their celebrations.

They seem to be knowing where they are going, they say. Some can not bear the guilt of staying in this fairytale world knowing that their happiness will depend on the misery of that one child, some just learn to live with it and see it as a necessary evil for the greater good.

I imagine that those who stay also have some sense of guilt sometimes, but instead they choose to reinterpret it to fit their narrative and justify the well being of an entire city. A necessary evil.

‘Most children eventually justify continuing their perfect lives in Omelas as though nothing was wrong. They re-calibrate their moral compass, recognizing that suffering is the most basic precondition of the world they live in even if they do not experience this suffering themselves, and thus, to be a part of society requires them to participate in the scapegoating. As awful as the child’s suffering may be, it seems better (at least to the citizens of Omelas) for one person to suffer than for everyone in Omelas to give up their perfect lives. Thus, most people choose to prioritize society over the individual.’

Can you really be happy without having experienced the opposite? We live in a binary world where things exist in comparison to their opposite/contrast. Something exists in comparison to nothing, light exists in comparison to darkness and while I do believe that it is not as easy as that, I always imagine it as existing on a spectrum, that is as not as black and white as that. There is always a grey area in between. So can we really experience happiness without having experienced suffering? The children of Omelas all have to face reality at one point and realize that they have been living in a bubble and that suffering does exist. Some come to accept it as it is, others do not. Those who do not walk away eventually, but those who stay, are they evil? Will they be happy going on like this?

‘Their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it. Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of the splendor of their lives. Theirs is no vapid, irresponsible happiness. They know that they, like the child, are not free. They know compassion. It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science. It is because of the child that they are so gentle with children.’

So can you really know how good you have got it without realising that someone else has less? Can I be grateful for being alive and in a safe country without simultaneously thinking about those who were not as lucky as me? I remember when I used to go to church we would say a prayer that went like ‘let us thank God for all that we have as they are those who have less than us.’ So gratefulness comes with realising that things can be worse, and we know that things can be worse by comparing it to the suffering that we witness in the world.

This happens every day when we see pictures of people in wars or dying of hunger and it serves us as a reminder to be thankful that we are not them, as if we needed to see those atrocities to remind us that things can always get worse so we should be thankful. So did that child serve that same purpose, as an example or reminder for the people of Omelas to live as joyously and loudly as they can as they are some in this case this child who has it worse. So should the citizens feel guilty because of this, they have been favoured by luck and found themselves on the right side of the story, thanks to this their families and friends are able to live a blissful life.

Overall this has been a good read and I find myself going back to it every once in a while with new eyes and reaching a different conclusion every time.

http://sites.asiasociety.org/asia21summit/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/3.-Le-Guin-Ursula-The-Ones-Who-Walk-Away-From-Omelas.pdf -The ones who walk away from Omelas.