Taoism in Ursula LeGuin's

Taoism in Ursula LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

The utopian society fabricated by Ursula LeGuin in her short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” appears, before the reader is introduced to its one inherent imperfection, to be ideal to a point of disbelief. Even the narrator doubts that her account of this utopia, despite considering the allowances given to the reader to add or remove certain aspects of the society in an attempt to render a utopia fashioned to individual desire, is a believable one. Interestingly, it is not until one final detail of Omelas is revealed, that of the boy who is kept in isolation in wretched conditions so that the people of Omelas may recognize happiness, that the existence of the city is understood and accepted. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism, which will be explored further in its relation to LeGuin’s story, accepts that anything whether it is a tangible thing or a concept is only comprehended by its negation. That said, it is apparent that lightness implies darkness, non-being is required to understand being, and, in the case of the people living in ‘Omelas, bright towered by the sea,’ happiness can only be appreciated and known through dejection and suffering, the manifestation of which is the child who quite possibly “has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect” (LeGuin 275). The greater philosophical implication of this short piece is one that supports a way of life based upon Taoist principles, while consciously rejecting a society which ‘thrives’ upon the imbalance of polarizations, knows supposed happiness at the expense of a suffering individual and is ignorant of happiness in simplicity. LeGuin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Om...

... middle of paper ...

... yet present in all things […] something underlying the change and transformation of all beings, the spontaneous process regulating the natural cycle of the universe” (3).

This inability to define that which is considered the true way of the universe and of nature may account for this mysterious or vague ending; this ‘place’ that LeGuin speaks of is not merely another city or another geographical location, but it is into a state of mind in support of the philosophical notions of Taoism, one that rejects the ideals of the people of Omelas. I would like to note LeGuin’s statement that these people who left Omelas, whom I believe are enlightened and in tune with the natural order of the universe, left silently, may be compared with an idea shared by Taoists that is well explained by Schipper, who says, “Knowers don’t speak. Speakers don’t know” (Schipper 10).