Breaking the Mold of Utopian Thinking.

After reading “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” written by Ursula K. Le Guin my idea of a possible utopia changed. In this story, Ursula describes Omelas as a place where the environment is beautiful and everybody is happy. At first I thought what she was describing a place that was in Canada, those Canadians are very jolly people. All stereotypes aside it seemed like this place had everything figured out. They didn’t have a ruler, police, war, slavery, a competitive economic system, nor even a lot of rules. “Yet I repeat that these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. They were not less complex than us” (pg. 1). These people weren’t anything special they were just like you and me. The only difference is that we have a lot of bad habits such as procrastination, being envious of others, stealing, murder, and the worst of all picking your nose. You may think these people have better morals than us because they choose a tissue over a finger, but that is not the case. A deep dark secret resides beneath the city of Omelas.

 

In a basement underneath one of the beautiful buildings of Omelas is a child. “It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect” (pg. 3). This utopian society can’t exist without this child’s suffering, if someone decides to release the child then within the hour all of the happiness, and perfection goes away. That is why people walk away from the city of Omelas because they don't want to live with the guilt of being happy only because of somebody else’s suffering. Many people including myself after reading thought that this can’t be a utopia if this child is suffering in a basement. After reflecting on this story it occurred to me that the child could represent all of the bad habits that we have, and in order to keep their society perfect they need someone to suffer with those qualities and be locked away. At least that’s the way I interpreted it. I don’t know why but this story reminded me a lot of a Twilight Zone episode, a strange place that seems great, but has a strange and horrible twist to it. Then I thought that this place is still a utopia.

 Whenever the word utopia comes up in a conversation some people automatically think of this perfect place where nothing goes wrong, and everybody is happy. Most people believe that a utopia is not possible because everyone has a different definition of utopia. But, isn’t that what people want to eventually change our society into? Then by saying a utopia can’t be obtained then why bother keep trying to create one? If utopia is truly in the eye of the beholder, then why can’t it be imperfect? The way that I see it is that we are all imperfect beings so our utopia can only be imperfect. Now, some haters will say “if its imperfect then it’s not a utopia, look at the definition”. First of all as of now a utopia is a imagined place so we can imagine it to be anything, take that haters! Then I think the definition should change into something that is actually obtainable. As humans we constantly make mistakes and in a utopia I don’t see why it would be any different, somebody is going to mess up that’s inevitable. Someone could steal from others, or accidentally kill someone, these things happen. A utopia can still exist even with all of these imperfections.

We rise together or we fall together.

 A utopia should not be this perfect place where everyone has to be perfect in order to live in it. It should be a place where everyone has flaws and people are happy and willing to work together to make the entire community stronger. One of my former baseball coaches said this to our team “You guys are only as strong as your weakest link”. That saying is true not only in sports, but in our communities as well. People need to help the weakest link in order for the entire community to prosper. In my eyes a utopia is a place where everybody can be their imperfect selves and live the life they want to live without any restraints. The most important thing is when somebody slips up and falls down people will work together to pick them back up so everyone can live happy lives. I believe that we all can come to an agreement on a utopia, it just takes some compromises, and I also think that people will be willing to cooperate to make a place where everyone can live a happy life. To me the utopian dream is still alive, people just need to change their view of utopia from a Disney fantasy into something realistic.

Works Cited
K., Le Guin Ursula. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Hove, South Aust.: Townsend School, 1996. Print.    

Nick Y.

Word Count: 823