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WIKIPEDIA

URSUKA L. LE GUIN

TEXT

DYSTOPIA

 

 

SUMMARY:

In the story, Omelas is a utopian city of happiness and delight, whose inhabitants are intelligent and cultured. Everything about Omelas is pleasing, except for the city's one atrocity: the good fortune of Omelas requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness and misery, and that all her citizens should be told of this upon coming of age.

After being exposed to the truth, most of the people of Omelas are initially shocked and disgusted, but are ultimately able to come to terms with the fact and resolve to live their lives in such a manner as to make the suffering of the unfortunate child worth it. However, a few of the citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "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 it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

 

What is the theme of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas?

Answer:
The theme is the value and responsibility of the individual. 

It is a story set in the far future in a Utopian (or Dystopian depending on how you look at it) society. Despite its setting, it is a simple ethical tale. We ask similar questions in our society? It is okay to kill one innocent person through our death penalty in order to be certain that we kill more of the guilty ones? Or is it better to let one guilty person go free in order to make sure we don't put any innocents to death? Different people have different answers to that question... just as some of the people in this story understand what their enjoyment and freedom is based on, and accept it, while others walk away, preferring disappointment and pain to the idea of contributing to someone else's suffering. 

Obviously, the story doesn't deal with all of the philosophical complexities, and the possible symbolic meanings, but it is definitely a story of responsibility and humanity... how do you gauge the value of one versus many? Is the one right to accept suffering? Is the other right to walk away? Are the many right to accept the sacrifice... or the choice of those who walk away? :)
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