“Imprisonment within a positive environment should still be viewed as imprisonment.” HANNAH NUNAN
What Price Would You Pay For Happiness?
good. According to this principle, the people of Omelas are right to ignore the suffering of the child in order to protect the peace of their city. The combined happiness of the entire population, if it can be quantified, would arguably outweigh that of the child if it were to be released and cared for. The narrator asserts that ‘one thing [they] know there is none of in Omelas is guilt.’ The citizens, in trying to deal with the knowledge of this atrocity, create ways to justify the ‘terrible justice of reality’: they argue that ‘it has been afraid too long to ever be free of fear’. In possessing this knowledge, it could be argued that their happiness becomes more precious. It is ‘no vapid, irresponsible happiness’: in knowing what must occur for this emotion to be perpetuated, there is a contrast created between pleasure and the potential for pain. Without this, the contentment of Omelas loses all meaning.
For an unknown reason, the prolongment of peace and contentment in Omelas depends wholly on the suffering of this individual. It is clearly established that all citizens of Omelas are aware of this child, the suffering it experiences, and above all, that it is necessary to sustain their own happiness. Some ‘come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there.’ This scenario introduces the philosophical theory of utilitarianism, the idea that the morally right action is the action that produces the most good, posing the question of whether an individual’s suffering can be justified by a greater overall happiness. Utilitarianism has been a prominent family of philosophical theories throughout ethical history. Predominantly developed by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century, this theory presents decision-making as a matter of producing the greatest overall
HANNAH NUNAN Ursula K. Le Guin poses this question in her short story, ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’.
In this fictional city, the population experiences perfect contentment, epitomised in the celebration of the Festival of Summer. The ‘joyous’ people of Omelas parade around the streets, revelling in the festivities, carefree and satisfied. However, there is a sense of unreality established; the narrator frequently interjects, questioning whether the reader considers this society to be
credible and whether they ‘accept the festival, the city, the joy’. After this last interruption, the narrator reveals the conditions under which the happiness of Omelas can be sustained. In order for this idyllic society to exist, there is a room in which a singular child is kept. This child is starved, beaten, neglected, and imprisoned, with its only human contact characterised by violence and debasement.
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