The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” raises several questions: Why is the destruction of this child so crucial to the happiness of the people of Omelas, is the life of a human being a fair price for Utopia, and is it any less immoral to walk away?
I found shed little light on the purpose of the tortured child in Le Guin’s story, but I gained some understanding by looking at the story from a few different perspectives. The first article, Nicholas Ruddick’s “Breaking Out of the SF Box: Recent Studies of James Blish and Ursula K. Le Guin,” did not mention “Omelas” directly, but did give a little insight into Le Guin’s motives for choosing such a weak character for the story’s hero. Ruddick states that “Le Guin’s protagonists are, typically, lonely, isolated, out on the edge of things” (Ruddick 105). His statement is an accurate description of the neglected child in the basement in Omelas. Ruddick also provides a theory that could be applied to Le Guin’s creation of Omelas: The artist is someone with no strong sense of identity or land, hence she must constantly create and recreate variations on the rudimentary identity theme which was established in the earliest days of her existence. what is at issue here is the work of a female a
Related Questions
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" raises several questions: Why is the destruction of this child so crucial to the happiness of the people of Omelas, is the life of a human being a fair price for Utopia, and is it any less immoral to walk away?
- If my child receives a nasal spray vaccine, should they stay away from people who have cancer or other medical conditions that suppress the immune system?
- Do people walk away and say, "Brian McLaren does not believe in hell"?
