Two roads diverged in Omelas I took the one less traveled by, did it make all the difference?

For 45% of us bright shiny faced first years our initial reaction to The Ones who walked away from Omelas would be to walk away from this so called utopia. However, after further analysis in class and an opportunity to deliberate the facts, many had a slight change of opinion. By the end of the story there were three possible choices and our task was to choose one; to stay, to save or to walk.  My options were laid out as follows, I could stay and possibly convince others of the city of the wrong doing so it could be corrected, save the child and raise it as my own, or become a wanderer and walk away from the so call “utopia” of Omelas. I was part of the original 45% that opted to walk, and even as others changed their minds and decided to stay, my gut kept telling me my original decision was right.

If I made the grand heroic gesture of rescuing the child there would be no end credits of a happily ever after that would begin to play as theatre lights came on, rather I would be awarded the blame of making a whole city doomed of possibly never being happy and send it into sheer chaos. To me that seems to carry, if not the same then a greater, amount of guilt. A decision like that would take planning and thoughtful attention to detail. The people of Omelas had no right to place the “innocent” child in a room to have to forever endure torture but where is my right to take the child and make the whole city enter a state of unhappiness. What makes it my right to do such a thing? When I asked myself this question I drew a blank so I continued to think through my last two options. 

To stay or not to stay? Staying doesn’t present itself as being any more practical a decision than saving the boy.  Finding out that the life you’ve been living is a lie, as observers in Omelas did when they saw the boy, would be damaging and quiet soul crushing. If I was flooded with a wide variety of emotions such as guilt, anger and fear as those in Omelas were, I would be left paralysed and unable to help the boy further. With my head glowing warm and my insides turning out I would not understand where this horrid feeling was arising from and therefore be left unhappy.   I would feel pain, something that has never happened to the people of Omelas.  How, therefore, does one feel true happiness without feeling true pain? Looking back, my happiest moments have been those when I have accomplished something where people have come together and as a group and created even the smallest successes out of seemingly impossible situations.  It is moments like these, where I felt at least a tingling of pain that I wouldn’t trade for the world or in this sense Omelas. Why would I stay and continue to live a life of false happiness and utter confusion in a procession forced upon us since birth.  The sense of a perfect city, utopia, is not truly perfect if even one child lives a life of disgust. Maybe it would be the price I would pay until I could gather the people of Omelas together and free the child. However, what are the likely possibilities of me staying in the city and convincing them that the tradition their society and their happiness is built on is wrong and disgraceful. Asking them to drop everything and change their “perfectly happy” lives for the life of one child. This may sound selfish but I don’t believe I would have the significant majority I would need to accomplish such an act as to free the child. I would be looked at as crazy and incompetent.  To me, staying feels more like ignoring the problem and admitting nothing should change. I strongly believe I could not bring myself to stay and feel like David without a sling shot in the battle against Goliath.

If I walk shall I be looked upon as pitied or admired? I believe I should be neither.  To walk away from Omelas would be to walk away from the procession and the false Utopia. To stay would be to think that difference can come by pretending that all is fine, however, to leave the procession does not have to be a sign of cowardness or weakness. Rather, it can be a sign of strength. Those walking away into the “darkness” are those willing to seek new answers and a new way of life, rather than following the simplicity and security of the mindless known entity.  Those who have walked away in society have proven to have profound effects on changing the very society they walked away from. Therefore, to leave the procession is to make a greater impact, just as the the French resistance during World War two.  They did not blindly follow the utopian society of Hitler that was being supported by the masses. They  walked into the darkness of the unknown in order to make a difference.  Similar to this, Jem, Scout and Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird,  stepped out of a racist procession in Maycomb County in order to help the Afro-American community, and as a person in an abusive relationship steps out of the procession of that relationship in order to better help his/her children. In Omelas the procession was seen by the people to be the reason for true happiness but if what they have is only perceived to be happiness, then the procession is causing more harm than good.  Leaving the procession of a society to journey into a darkness is to walk away, and for some, the way they can truly help the situation they are walking away from.   I would leave to escape the city of Omelas and find the truth to erase the lies I have been taught.  With a head filled with anger and disgust I would be in search of a better world, not necessarily a perfect one. This would not be a utopia, as defined by those in the procession in Omelas, but a place where mistakes and sadness can be corrected.  A new norm would be created where I could find my own way outside of the procession and, no matter how long the battle, answers to a happier world for all.