"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" By Ursula K. Le Guin
Theme can be found in every story, movie, or play. The author typically tries to reveal a truth or a theory about life and uses the story to highlight and present this idea to the reader. In Perrine’s Story and Structure, theme is defined as a piece of fiction’s “controlling idea or its central insight”. Theme can sometimes come out as a revelation to the character, and the reader can interpret the theme through the character’s experience. Although sometimes confused with the plot or the main idea, theme is actually a broad idea that can be applied to one's personal life or a generalization about life. A theme is woven into the action and plot of the story, using the characters, setting, and dialogue.
Explaining a story’s theme can range in length from one sentence to pages. Some themes will need more than a sentence or paragraph presentation especially when multiple themes or multiple insights to life are offered. The reader should be able to grasp the theme and then reread the story to understand how the characters came about this realization. If a story has more than one theme, the reader should look at the themes in general and then select a central insight which unites all the themes together to create a general theme. Themes should not be confused with morals although they are similar. The reader should be able to apply the theme to their life, but it should be more general than a moral. So a theme about humanity or the world should be able to scaled down to a personal level. Morals are lessons about life, typically easy to recognize. Theme is slightly more subtle and tends to be paired if opposing ideas such as justice and injustice, light and darkness or good and evil.
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas was published in 1973 by Ursula K. Le Guin. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas illustrates a theme that the greatest sacrifice comes from within. There are many different instances of sacrifice in the short story by Le Guin. The first sacrifice is a live sacrifice of the child in the basement. The child had lived outside of the basement for a while, “the child, who has not always lived in the tool room, and can remember sunlight and its mother's voice, sometimes speaks”(659). The narrator does not state how long the child has been in there just a guess of its age. The narrator also does not clarify for how long the child has to remain in the basement, but it can be concluded it will probably be for the rest of its life. The happiness in the city of Omelas is gained from the cities willingness to sacrifice this child's life. This sacrifice leads to an even greater one which was the sacrifice of the ones who walk away from Omelas. The sacrifice of the child's life means nothing to them because they cannot justify the sacrifice, and to them it is not worth it. They choose to sacrifice their happiness and opportunity to be able to live in Omelas.
The city of Omelas is this magical, hidden city where everyone seems happy and carefree. The narrator has a hard time explaining exactly what Omelas is like, and encourages the reader to use their imagination. “Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion for certainly I cannot suit you all”. Omelas is whatever the reader wants it to be or whatever would be considered the reader’s paradise. The city of Omelas can be seen as representing America. The idea of America was once one came here, they could create their future, and there was something for everyone. America looked like paradise to outsiders. No one to controlled their religion or speech. They had freedoms for the first time. Omelas does not have a ruler. There are no priests or slavery. Everyone is free to do as they wish, and everyone is happy. As the narrator says, “Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time”. America is based upon this same idea, freedom of religion and speech, land of the free, and when it was first discovered it seemed almost like a magical, unreal place to the colonists. However happiness and freedom come with a price and everything has its secrets. For the city of Omelas, it was the suffering of an innocent child, who was kept isolated and mistreated in a basement. The child was being used as a scapegoat for the city of Omelas happiness and freedom.
For America however, our freedom and happiness is paid for in many different ways and we have our own child in the basement. As Americans we often close our eyes, plug our ears and look the other way when it comes to other countries being mistreated or poverty in other countries. We even turn away and do not look at problems facing us today in our own country such as the debt in America, climate change, or global warming. The national debt is reaching a point where the question is being raised if America can ever pay it all back including interest. As a country we have been moving the debt ceiling knowing there is eventually going to be a day it will have to stop, and the money will have to be paid back. However most people are not worried about it because their generation will not have to deal with what happens when the debt can not be paid back. That responsibility will be on the backs of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. The same thought process applies to global warming, climate change, and excessive waste being produced. We are all aware of these problems, just as the people of Omelas all know the child is there: Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makes, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weather of their skies, depend wholly on this childs abominable misery.
Everyone in Omelas is shown the child in the basement when they are considered “between eight and twelve, whenever they seem capable of understanding”. Just as many Americans realize the problems once they are adults, or old enough to truly understand. In Omelas, everyone knows the suffering of the child is unfair. However the consequences of setting the child free is not worth the entire city’s happiness so the majority accepts it. The bigger problem is more than one generation has had this train of thought. Eventually it will not be the next generation's problem because it will catch up to the current generations. Even though these generations do not exist yet, we are using them as a scapegoat so we can enjoy living in “the best country on Earth” and be happy and carefree just like the people in the city of Omelas. The narrator says, “One thing I know there is none of in Omelas is guilt”. Omelas has justified the child being mistreated in the basement and accepted the reality that for them to be happy, one must suffer, even if innocent. The people grieve and feel rage for a couple days but then realize that “to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one that would be to let the guilt within the walls indeed”. So the people let their guilt go and enjoy Omelas always knowing in the back of their minds this child is unwillingly sacrificing their life for every person's happiness. Similarly Americans have been living recklessly but are fully aware they are sacrificing the future of this nation and the people who will be alive during that time. Some people in Omelas cannot live with the guilt of knowing the child is suffering. “They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. ”
The knowledge of the child in the basement is more painful than the rewards of living in Omelas. So a select few choose to leave knowing they will never find any joy as they have found in Omelas and knowing full well they are walking a place more gloomy and dire. They want to remove the burden of contributing to the sacrifice of the child, and unlike everyone else in Omelas, they accept the guilt and responsibility and choose to leave. They may be searching for a place that upholds justice, and they sacrifice their happiness for equality and the thought of justice. While all of the people of Omelas could walk away, Americans cannot simply walk away from the current issues. America can put forth effort to stop creating a nation that will be hard to maintain and afford. We can accept the responsibility, like the ones who did walk away from Omelas. Americans will have to sacrifice what they think they deserve and their happiness to an extent to give the future generations of America a chance. Americans can all do their part to create a manageable country again. This is a sacrifice we will all have to decide if we can make.
