Examples Of Parallel Guilt By Ursula Le Guin

Parallel Guilt
The short story by Ursula Le Guin is set in what, at first, appears to be a utopian society. This later turns out to be untrue as the only way for the citizens of Omelas must live with the fact that they essentially torture and abuse a young child to keep this perfect way of life. For those who cannot take the harsh reality of this utopia, they leave Omelas and go somewhere even more unimaginable, nobody knows where they go but the citizens of Omelas seem to. There are many parallels between Omelas and America, both when this story was written in the 1970’s and modern day. One such parallel is the way in which we treat the lowest and most vulnerable in our societies.
Treatment of the child in Omelas is paralleled to American society in how the abused child

is symbolic of the lower tier citizens in our society, whether they be the ultra-poor, homeless, veterans, or anyone disenfranchised and not taken care of properly by the more privileged of the society. The people of Omelas are aware of the atrocities perpetrated on this innocent child, is the same for American society as we are completely aware of the way less fortunate people are forced to live and do nothing about it or simply wait around for someone else to take charge. “They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas … content merely to know it is there” (Guin 3). In this way, nothing ever truly gets done in an effort to help those lower than ourselves on the rungs of society’s ladder. We as a society can see how beat down and pitiful those below us are, but do not feel inclined to help. In the short story it says, “They would like to do something for the child. But there is nothing they can do” (Guin 3). Even though they understand how wrong it is to let someone live this way, they are led to believe by their society that nothing can be done.
American society is one that can be described as proud, patriotic, and supposedly believing in equal rights and opportunities for everyone that lives in this great country.

While this rings true a large amount of the time, when it comes to the lowest and most desperate of us, we seem to turn a blind eye and do nothing to help. We act as if these people did something to be born into a struggling family or environment which leaves them little room to improve their social and economic standing. “They begin to realize that even if the child could be released … vague pleasure of warmth and food … too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy” (Guin 4). In America, some of us have this same mindset when it comes to the poor, we could try and help them succeed and have better lives but the common misconception is that they must have done something to deserve their current situation. Another way of thinking in America today is that those less fortunate have lived in poverty and obscurity for far too long and would not be able to adapt properly to a new way of life. These are just two examples of how some in our society view the idea of helping those deprived of the opportunities to

succeed.
Even some of the youngest of American citizens are aware of the head butting between the super-rich and ultra-poor in this country but are many times lead to believe that this is how society must operate and to simply get with the program. “This is usually explained to children when they are between eight and twelve, whenever they seem capable of understanding … They feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all the explanations. They would like to do something for the child. But there is nothing they can do” (Guin 4). The way in which the children of America and Omelas are led to believe that there is nothing we can do to save these less fortunate people is eerily similar and simply leads to a vicious cycle of nobody taking responsibility and passing down these morals to our own children. This cycle leads to nothing ever being done for those in need in our own country. We see those people struggling in third world countries and war torn areas, but never look close enough at the atrocities being committed in our own back yard.
Those who cannot handle the truth of their seemingly perfect lives in Omelas parallels to America as some of us cannot stand the issues in our own country and leave to set up shop somewhere else. It can be argued that this is even more selfish and hypocritical that instead of staying and helping the less fortunate as the ones who leave their cities seem to believe, they themselves leave and delegate the job to someone else. “Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home. These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates” (Guin 5). When they can no longer take the truth of their societies, they simply walk away and leave the problem to fester like a sore, hoping that someone else takes charge and changes this massive moral issue.
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and America are two parallels with frightening issues in both societies. The way in which both societies treat their lowest members, whether it be a child locked in a closet or the homeless and extremely poor, is deplorable and many of those who disagree with this treatment merely get upset by it and leave. They do nothing themselves to change this, complain about the issue, then simply leave the problem to someone else. If we were to all take charge on issues, then there would be better quality of life for everyone in the cities and not just those at the top of the ladder.