Ursula K Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

In my effort to celebrate the short story form, I have come across a piece I think especially relevant for today. It strikes me that “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” written in 1973 by Ursula K Le Guin, surfaces as a

story for our times. Not only does the piece reveal the skill of a master craftsperson, it offers a moral dilemma worth examining. It entertains and enlightens, the best of all worlds.

In the town of Omelas, a fictitious city “bright-towered by the sea,” it is the annual Festival of Summer. People come from far and wide to enjoy the festivities. Although life in Omelas is joyful year-round, festival day is special with dancing, music and singing, children dodging in and out of the fun. Pleasures even include healthy debauchery for those so inclined.

If this all seems too good to be true, it is. There is one more thing, a condition on which the happiness of the majority depends: One lone child must be kept prisoner in the dank basement of a public building to wallow in its own filth, without even the barest essentials. Not even a kind word is allowed. That child, aged six or so, takes on the suffering of all. The miserable being is not a secret. Everyone in the village knows of its existence as a condition of citizenship. Even the other children. Somewhere between the ages of eight and twelve, they are taken to see the sacrifant in person. They are not allowed to speak to the child, only to observe it from afar. In this way, they learn the price that is being paid for their beautiful lives. It is explained that their happiness depends on the continued suffering of the child. Although horrified at first, most are able, over time, to push away what they have seen in order to enjoy their lives of abundance. They learn to rationalize. Even if the child were rescued, they think, even if released and feted, the being was already too dehumanized to experience real happiness. What good, then, of making a fuss?

Still, there are some, young and old, who cannot accept this as a condition of their happiness. For them, the suffering of even one child is too high a price to pay. Can there be true happiness at the expense of a wretched few, they wonder. They are the ones who walk away from Omelas, alone, never to return. That is the dilemma, the moral question that has led to discussion ever since the story was first published.

Ursula Le Guin is a master storyteller. There is a pace to her writing that carries the reader along. The author calls it rhythm: “Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words,” she says.

On the craft itself, she says, “A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

This is the gift of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”  The story helps us understand the choices we make.

Le Guin is the author of twenty-three novels, twelve volumes of short stories and more. “Omelas” was originally published in New Dimensions 3, a science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg. The story was reprinted in Le Guin's The Wind’s Twelve Quarters and has been frequently anthologized. 

Read the story at: https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf