My Thoughts Last Night

Last night I read Ursula Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away form Omelas."  I found it fantastically thought provoking.  Her literary language kept my mind rapt.  Le Guin's award winning piece questions the possibility of a utopian society with out the existence of suffering.  The terrible paradox Le Guin presents spurred my own thoughts.

A Brief Summary

The narrator presents a fairy-tale utopia: a place of bliss and perfection called Omela.  If the descriptions of gold and cheerfulness aren't enough, the reader is asked to imagine "it as your own fancy bids."  As if to perceive the reader's disbelief in such a fantastical land, the narrator requests the consideration of one more thing.  The narrator proceeds in depicting the horrific suffering of a child.  Neglected, malnourished, and physically abused, the child's suffering enables the happy utopia for all Omela.  The happiness, health, wisdom, etc. of the society "depends wholly on this child's abominable misery."

The final paragraph provides the purpose of the story's title.  Some people reject Omela.  "They walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.  This darkness can not be described by the narrator.  It is too "unimaginable," even non-existing.  The ones that leave, however, seem to internally know where they  are going.  The reader is not given a particular reason for their departure; only that "they go on."

My Thoughts Last Night

While reading this story I saw the two different interpretations: suffering or sacrifice.  The first being the intent of the author, and the second being related to my personal convictions.  The author clearly uses the child to symbolize suffering.  The "ones who walk away" see this suffering and, out of repulsion, leave the city.  The chose not to place the cost of their happiness on an innocent victim.  They retreat into the darkness where no solution exists.

I see this paradox parallel to my word-view.  In my story, I see the child representing sacrifice.  Like the child of Omelas, this child's suffering provides the grounds for his people to live.  My child is different.  He suffers out of compassion for his people.  He was not forcefully imprisoned, he sacrificially gave himself to his people's happiness.  His radical compassion didn't just end with suffering.  He rose out this death victoriously.  This child no longer suffers, but he has conquered through his sacrificial act. He did all this to provide his people with hope, joy, purpose, and paradise.  In my story, the "one's who walk away" see this sacrificial suffering but are repulsed and full of doubt.  They reject this story and walk away into darkness.

Those were my thoughts last night.