The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 

by Ursula Le Guin.

This novel is very well rounded short story. In this short story, they talk about a nice town called Omelas ( The Utopia, every story seems to have one ). Everything is going good except the situation with a deformed child. The people of Omelas are thinking " hey if we let this child be free we can't be perfect " selfish of them right? I know, I guess this is the price they pay for wanting perfection or this is what happens when a society is brought up on perfection. The standards that outline "perfect" cloud the fine line between what's right and wrong. Obviously this is a clear case to the reader, we know this is wrong and now after reading that I have this animosity towards the perfect town, kind of ironic if you think about it. The town that has everything going right for it and yet I have a problem with them already.

This really reminds me of things that go on in today's world. Giving someone else freedom doesn't take away from your own freedom, not like there is this limited pool of freedom and there isn't enough to go around. Anyways back to the story.

 In the town of Omelas, there are people who see the captive child and walk away from the town. They know what's going on but choose not to help, we see that all the time in today's world, everyone is guilty of it at some point. Its like a social standard thing were we keep on with our daily routine and the outside world doesn't influence us. When really it does, I bet if one person did do something then others would join in and support that individual. All it takes it one.

So I went from reading about this nice town and thinking the best about them, to uncovering the truth about the towns true nature. The figurative mask the town wears while this child is in a room suffering really talks to me about the type of society they are.