On Tue, 6 May 1997, Robin Gordon wrote:
> While I'm ashamed to say I've never read The Ones Who Walk Away, from
> descriptions I've heard many times over, it sounds very similar to a
> wonderful short film I saw way back in high school, called The Lottery.
> The premise was an idyllic (utopian) town, and once a year the citizens
> took part in a lottery, by which one person was selected and then stoned
> by the other citizens. The theme of the film was the way in which the
> brutal violence of the lottery was an outlet for agression and violence
> and injustice, without which the town's utopian life would not be
> possible.
>
> Robin Gordon
>
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" and "The Lottery" (which was a great
story by Shirley Jackson before it was turned into a pretty good film)
are similar in that they book involve the concept of scapegoating, the
idea that by heaping suffering on one person, we therefore magically
evade it ourselves or, more realistically, at least avoid having to feel
guilty. Scapegoating is something human beings do all the time. Jesus was
a scapegoat. So were the Jews in WWII. So are so-called Welfare Queens today.
"Omelas" is a parable and should not be read as a realistic story. Le
Guin is playing around with the old idea about "the greatest good for the
greatest number" and taking it to its logical extreme. What if,
magically, all the evil in the world could be heaped on one person and
everyone else could be happy. Would it be worthwhile or would the
injustice done to that one probably retarded child outway the good of all
the rest. The ones who "walk away" are buying out of the system,
refusing to accept their own happiness if it comes at the expense of
someone else. On one level the story can be read as a parable about the
western world living off the suffering of the third world. On another
level it can be read as a parable about our society's refusal to accept
the legitimacy of the plight of the poor.
Several writers have commented on the ironic fact that, while the people
walk away from Omelas, and refuse to benefit from the child's suffering,
they make no apparent effort to help the child. In effect, they opt out
of the system, but don't try to fix it.
Mike Levy
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