Many people believe that slavery in North America ended with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in the late 1800s. Yet, although slavery is no longer commonplace in Western countries, few realize how much our society depends on unpaid and underpaid workers in countries with low development rates. In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, a utopian short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, everyone is happy and no war or violence exists. Its one flaw is a neglected young child living in a public building’s basement, without which Omelas cannot enjoy its freedoms. Omelas' freedom paradoxically depends on the sacrifice of their own and other people's freedoms, serving as an allegory for Western society. External society’s expectations do not limit Omelas’ citizens, who …show more content…
The narrator explains “Their [Omelas’] happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery.” (Page 971) Just as Omelas’ happiness is dependent on the child’s sadness, so is Western society’s development dependent on the poverty and abuse of those living in the Third World. Omelas is not impervious to the child’s plight, but “their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it.” (Page 971) Like Omelas’ citizens, many people in Western society internally dedicate themselves to stopping poverty, slavery or hunger in the Third World. Yet, few people try to change their own or their community’s behaviour. The author's intention in writing this story was for Western society to understand their actions’ consequences and consider how their freedom results from societal