Power Of Choice In Mario Pepper's Life

The Power of Choice

In the TV series Gotham, Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of both of his parents. Powerful and affluent individuals in the community, the Wayne homicides became a high profile case. A case the police could not let go unsolved. Mario Pepper, a petty criminal that would not be missed from society, was framed for the murders. The police looked like heroes, the mob did not have extra attention from the police, and the mayor was painted in good light for taking control of the rising crime rates in Gotham. Pepper’s life was irrelevant to the masses. What was one person’s misfortune compared to the positive benefits that would be reaped by many?

Standards set in place by society are ingrained into our minds as children. Normalcies

established at a young age, we cycle through our entire lives merely accepting the standards placed before us. It is as if invisible strings compelling our motives govern our minds. These invisible strings guide us in our drive to protect our own self from misfortune, even at the hand of another’s suffering. In The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, the author utilizes irony, metaphor, and symbolism to convey the message of choice. One can either let the invisible strings, coarsened by societal standards and tradition, guide their actions or they can cut themselves free from the entanglement of string. Arriving at a choice: to blindly follow the crowd or to forge a unique self-made path.

Scapegoating has been practiced since the beginning of time. By human nature, people do not like to place blame on themselves, but rather project their anger, guilt, or blame on another. Society, when seeking a scapegoat, becomes worse than the blood thirsty Puritan’s at the Salem Witch Trials. Society preys on the weak and the defective; an individual who is unable or unwilling to fight back and speak up.
In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Ursula Le Guin uses irony to illustrate the bitter reality of the world and man’s acceptance of injustice. “Their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it.” Inherently, mankind recognizes and understands the act of scapegoating is wrong. Often though, the fear of being unable to change a situation, to speak up and stop an injustice, impedes intervention. Individuals settle rather than deviating from the opinions and actions of the many. They allow the invisible strings to manipulate their motives as they continue following societal tradition. It is the power of choice Le Guin conveys through her writing— to surmount fear and demand justice or to continue with the crowd, submissively accepting society’s standards.
It is difficult to stray from majority opinions and actions. As humans, we enjoy the sense of security that is conveyed by fitting in, following the roles and standards we were reared to obey. In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Ursula Le Guin uses symbolism to extend a metaphorical connection between the utopic City of Omelas and the real world. The child in the short story symbolizes society’s less fortunate individuals, the judged, chastised, and scapegoated. From a pragmatic perspective, these individuals are not regarded as members of the majority– they are ostracized and viewed as lesser.

The nature of our capitalist system fosters the requirement of human suffering and socioeconomic separation. “They know that they, like the child, they are not free. They know compassion. It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their [city].” Realistically, there is no possibility to rid society of human suffering and like the people of Omelas we recognize this shortcoming. Ursula Le Guin writes with a purpose to convey as a whole, we do not have to accept society’s traditional perspective of suffering and though we may not necessarily stray from the crowd, we are not inherently uncompassionate. “Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of the splendor of their lives.” It is within our power to better the world. Though we may feel powerless to radically change the world, we have the ability to better our lives and society by spreading joy and generosity.
The child, a symbol of innocence and the worlds suffering, for no fault of its own, lives in deplorable conditions.

In society today, if we were to travel across the world or walk down the streets of Cincinnati, the injustice and suffering of many people is apparent. We acknowledge suffering exists yet, in protecting our own self from misfortune and deviating from the crowd, we tend to feel bad for a moment and then move on. Merely allowing strings to guide our motives, accepting the suffering that these people face is the fault of their own. The purpose for this short story is to encourage a turning away from conventional standards and to recognize the innocence of suffering.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is written as a metaphor, providing a thought provoking view of the real world and the power of our choices. Ursula Le Guin begins the story establishing a connection between the short story and the real world, “These were not simple folk… they were not less complex than us.” Metaphorically, the people of Omelas embody humanity as a whole. In our world, there are individuals that are far worse off than others. For our present society to exist, must this conventional standard be accepted? Ursula Le Guin writes with the purpose to convey man has the power to

choose.
In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, there are people who do not accept the city’s normalcies. “Each one goes alone… They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back… The place they go towards… is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going.” Only few veer away from the crowd, the ones that do often walk alone. The ones who stay within the crowd allowing string, coarsened by societal standards, to guide their motives display the ineptitude that is imbibed within the masses. Blindly, they cycle through their lives following the same path, closing their minds to the possibilities of the world. Though it is rare for an individual to separate themselves from the crowd and they may walk alone, by freeing their mind from the stringed controls a new perspective is founded.
Individualism is fostered through the power of choice. Man’s compliance to follow standards set in place by society resembles the mechanisms of a puppet being manipulated by strings. Through the development of irony, metaphor, and symbolism, Ursula Le Guin conveys a message of choice. We as individuals have the freedom to choose, we can either accept conventional ideals or we can forge a unique path. Deviating from the majority is difficult, but by taking a stance and recognizing injustice we can better the world.