Should I Stay Or Should I Go – English Essay (100 Level Course)
If I was a citizen of the city of Omelas, and saw the child in the closet, I would not walk away. I do not see any good that could come from walking away. The problem would still exist in the city and I would have nowhere to go, and going nowhere alone doesn’t sound like a smart thing to do. However, at the same time I wouldn’t just stay in the city and not do anything about the child in the closet.
I wouldn’t go on living my life like I did before I saw the poor child locked in a closet. Witnessing the horrible situation in which the child has to live would affect me in a way that wouldn’t allow me to live my life in the happy manner that I previously lived in. I would try my best to help the child so that he or she could also live a happy life.
First of all, how can running away even begin to solve any problems? I don’t understand what the point of leaving is. If you disapprove of something you should not just walk away. You should voice your opinion and try to make other people see things the way you do. Walking away wouldn’t be a good idea because the things that you are walking away from will still be the same. If I was in Omelas I would have listened to the crying and pleading of the child when it said “I will be good, please let me out. I will be good!” The people of Omelas just ignore the crying of the child, late at night it screams and whines for help. How anybody could be so lacking of compassion that they would not help a young child that is in so much pain is unbelievable to me.
They say that “they would like to do something for the child, but there is nothing they can do.” That is absolutely unacceptable. They can do a lot for the kid. They can take it out of the closet, bathe it, feed it, clothe it, love it, and take careo f it. That is not hard for them to do. They say that if they did all those things then “the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed.” How do they know that if they never tried to take care of the kid. Where is the logic behind that arguement? There is none. It makes absolutely no sense that there has to be a kid locked in a closet for the rest of the city to be happy.
I can in no way appreciate the argument that “assuring the happiness of one would throw away the happiness of thousands.” For this reason I would help the child. Once I saw how thin, hungry, and alone the child was I would do the best I could to help it. I am not a believer of superstitions and the belief that helping the child would cause the city a lof of pain is a kind of superstition.
Any person that has even a little bit of compasssion for other humans would have the same answer that I do. There is no way that one could go on living life the same after witnessing such a horrible situation. If I saw the child and heard his cries for help I would never be the same. I could not live with myself if I knew there was something I could do to help the child and I didn’t do it.
In order for a city to be happy and free every citizen needs to be treated equally. This is not a quality that Omelas has. Even if it is only one person that is treated unfairly it ruins the image of the city. If I was there I would do my best to make the city I live the best place possible. I also wouldn’t walk away because I would have nowhere to go. The people in the story that walked away all walked away “alone, into the darkness, and never came back.” Walking away would not help myself, the child, or the city. The only way I would even consider walking away is if I was going to take the child with me, and that would not be walking away alone.