Empoword

Additional Readings 433 weapons over happiness. When a culture condemns knowledge and praises violence, their reality of happiness becomes skewed. The author continues the juxtaposition between her fictional society and ours: “The joy built upon the successful slaughter is not the right kind of joy” (Le Guin 4). Happiness is not something that can be bought, stolen, or won in battle, and joy isn’t found by means of power and pain for the people of Omelas. They don’t focus on violence and wealth: “But there is no king. They did not use swords or keep slaves…. [They] also got on without the stock exchange, the advertisement, the secret police, and the bomb” (Le Guin 2). She contrasts our society from theirs by highlighting these differences. The other main difference between the societies being the value we place on the harm and hurt of others. However, Le Guin’s society may more closely resemble our society than first thought. The child, found in the basement tool closet of one of the town’s buildings, is described by the author as “feeble-minded” or “born defective” (Le Guin 5). It is kept there solely for the sake of the town’s happiness, enabling citizens in the streets above to reap joy from the festival. This compares to today’s society in the sense that people rush through life paying no attention to the needy or homeless, only seldom stealing a glance to reassure themselves that they do indeed have it better. This is where our society generates happiness; to know that we have it better than someone else somehow brings us joy. However, it is wrong for a population to remain happy based on the suffering of a single person or persons. The story goes on to describe that everyone in the town goes to see the child at least once, not one person offering a single shred of help to the poor, withering child. The people of Omelas know if they extended any means of help or gratitude to the child, the entire town will be stripped of all the joy and happiness they experience. This is a conscious choice the citizens must make daily: to idly stand by knowing of the suffering child. Moreover, I infer that the author intended the child in the tool closet to have a much greater meaning. The child is an allusion to the idiom of “having skeletons in the closet.” It symbolizes the very thing that keeps everyone from experiencing true joy— “the right kind of joy” (Le Guin 4). As mentioned, Le Guin points out that the child is what holds this fictional town together, “They would like to do something for this child.