I like the concept of fiction as a route to approaching issues of social justice and feminism. While I haven’t read much that relates to this, I greatly enjoyed Ursula Le Guin’s story of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. I feel like science fiction offers a unique perspective when thinking about oppression and discrimination in our society. In relation to the discussion we had in class over the last couple of weeks about imagining the “impossible” as possible, I feel like science fiction is a fitting outlet to do so. While science fiction is viewed as separate from reality, maybe it can be used as a way to explore what is clearly not reality now, but could possibly be true one day in the future.
Le Guin begins the short story describing the city of Omelas, which is a utopia where everyone is happy and fulfilled, where there are no armies or militia, no powerful rule, and no pain. Le Guin also states that these are not ignorant or dumb people; they have orgies and take drugs, therefore they are not naive. Rather, they are smart and still happy.
The twist that Le Guin incorporates is that there is a child that the people of Omelas keep in a closet in a basement, alone and unclothed and poorly fed. Le Guin says the people of Omelas need the child there to maintain the utopia they have. Most people of the city look at the child, feel guilty, but then move on with their happy lives. The last twist that Le Guin offers is that some people, a very few, who visit the child do not go on with their lives in the utopia fashion; they leave the city, going somewhere else, somewhere possibly worse, possibly not.
I enjoyed this story in terms of the writing style as well as the subtext. I am still somewhat confused about the meaning behind it; does the child stand for the people in society that we leave uncared for, the people that we oppress and harm again and again? Do people need to have an “other,” who is worse off than us, for us to maintain our own happiness? I am not sure of the message yet, and am eager to discuss this story in class.