The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Utopia Essay

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Evil in the Utopia: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” In her short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Ursula Le Guin places the story in what sounds like a utopia. In the beginning of this story Omelas is described as a happy and perfect place to live. Towards the end of the story we realize that Omelas really isn’t the perfect place after all. Utopian societies cannot truly exist. We need to have some sort of evil so we know what is good. Knowing about this evil turns some of the city’s citizens away from Omelas. The Festival of Summer has hit Omelas, and all of its people are in the city streets having a good time. During this time the weather in Omelas is nice, and the people living in the city are dancing, talking, and listening to…show more content…
The gender of the child is unknown, but he or she starves in a little closet. The child gets very little food and sits in its own excrement. The child is 10 years old, but due to negligence it is unable to grow normally. Without the addition of this evil the setting would be considered a utopia. The narrator calls Omelas “a city in a fairy tale.” The author did not want to create a fairy tale setting for her story. This evil addition is needed to make a setting like Omelas sound like a real world place. The happiness in the city depends on the child’s terrible state of being. If the child is helped in any way the city would be destroyed. Omelas needs to have evil in the city so its people know what is good. The suffering of the child keeps most of the citizens satisfied. The citizens ignore the child to continue living happily. All of the citizens know the child is there and in a miserable condition. Some people that live in the city see the child and leave because they are disgusted. The ones who leave don’t ever return to the city of Omelas. These people don’t believe happiness should be given while somebody else has to
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