The Omelas society is a fictional one that is narrated to have great beauty. The author narrates of the beauty using well selected English words; for it is stated that the city was “bright-towered by the sea” (Le Guin). Additionally, the narrations indicate the beauty to be fascinating. For instance, the author writes that “boats sparkled with flags… avenues of trees past green parks” “people in long stiff robes of mauve and grey” “the horses were braided with streamers of silver, gold and green” (Le Guin). This creates an implication that the Omelas’ society was beautiful. But what about its people, individuality, the source of happiness and government structures. This essay aims to highlight some aspects of the Omelas’ community.
The government structure that ruled the Omelas community is not well defined. It is evident that the Omelas did not have kings because it is written “but there was no king… there were no barbarians… they did without monarchy or slavery” (Le Guin). But people are reported to live in harmony and in great happens. The other issue is about crime; there is no specific form of crime that is described but the author mentions that “to embrace violence to loose hold of everything” and “happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary and what is destructive. In terms of religion, it was mostly unimportant as there were neither temples nor clergy though people claimed they were religious.
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Drooz in the Omelas society is a form of a drug. It is stated that “the faint insistent sweetness of drooz may perfume the ways of the city. Drooz ... brings a great lightness and brilliance to the mind and limbs… and a dreamy languor and wonderful visions and… exciting the pleasure of sex beyond belief” (Le Guin). Therefore drooz would be a hallucinogenic drug. It is necessary for making the people happy and supporting the party like lifestyles.
Initially the society of Omelas I described as all bright, joyful and attractive. However, there is a dark side to the story; they get their happiness at the expense of a child who is locked in a cellar at a basement. The child is suffering “fear, malnutrition, and neglect and he or she is very young—between six and ten years. The child lives in a miserable state ‘so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes, lives on a bowl of cornmeal… it is naked… buttocks and thighs a mass of festered sores sits on own excrement continually” (Le Guin). However, no one is willing to rescue the child because their wealth, success, prosperity and happiness “depends wholly on this child’s abominable misery” (Le Guin). I am of the opinion that happiness cannot be achieved at the expense of an individual. Thought people might do it as ritual or sacrifice there are other noble ways to achieve happiness rather than create misery for an individual.
The one who walks away from the Omelas’ society are people who get fed up with the idea that the community is enjoying happiness at the expense of a poor soul which is hidden away in a cell at the basement. The people who decide to live in the community are described as: “one of the adolescent girls or boys does not go home at all” “a man or a woman … then leaves… they leave Omelas’ and they do not come back” (Le Guin). Their gesture is somewhat an act of cowardice because they have not solved the fact that the child at the basement will continue to suffer. It would have been useful if they came out and rebuked the act openly so that the child might be freed.
The society and its happiness is a great priority among the Omelas. They can make an individual, a child aged less than ten, to suffer so that they can enjoy maximum happiness. Most of the community members are aware of the suffering of the child at basement but no one is willing to rescue him/ or her because they fear they will lose happiness and the celebrations. The author writes “they know that if the wretched one were not there sniveling in the dark the other one the flute player could make no joyful music” (Le Guin). Therefore they let the individual suffer their happiness’ expense the society can, therefore, be described as ritualistic and hypocritical.
References
Le Guin, U. (2017). The ones who walk away from Omelas. New Dimensions, 3.
