A story where a small child takes on the pain of the world












7















I think this was a short story, and I have no recollection of where or when I read it. It had a dystopian disguised as a utopian feel.



From what I remember, the world was at peace and everyone was happy, except for one child who was kept in a dungeon or somewhere horrible. This child was neglected and abused.



For some reason this was necessary for the rest of the world to be happy.










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    7















    I think this was a short story, and I have no recollection of where or when I read it. It had a dystopian disguised as a utopian feel.



    From what I remember, the world was at peace and everyone was happy, except for one child who was kept in a dungeon or somewhere horrible. This child was neglected and abused.



    For some reason this was necessary for the rest of the world to be happy.










    share|improve this question









    New contributor




    Cherie is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.























      7












      7








      7








      I think this was a short story, and I have no recollection of where or when I read it. It had a dystopian disguised as a utopian feel.



      From what I remember, the world was at peace and everyone was happy, except for one child who was kept in a dungeon or somewhere horrible. This child was neglected and abused.



      For some reason this was necessary for the rest of the world to be happy.










      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Cherie is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.












      I think this was a short story, and I have no recollection of where or when I read it. It had a dystopian disguised as a utopian feel.



      From what I remember, the world was at peace and everyone was happy, except for one child who was kept in a dungeon or somewhere horrible. This child was neglected and abused.



      For some reason this was necessary for the rest of the world to be happy.







      story-identification short-stories






      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Cherie is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Cherie is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 1 hour ago









      Buzz

      36.6k6125200




      36.6k6125200






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      asked 1 hour ago









      CherieCherie

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          1 Answer
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          This is actually a commonly occurring plot motif. However, the most explicit example of this would be "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin. The titular "ones" are those people who refuse to accept the suffering for one child as a necessity to preserve their utopia.



          Per Wikipedia:




          The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring young people on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal (rather than private) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio-politico-economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader cannot be sure of every particular.



          The uncertain narrator reflects that "Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all." Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon the final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.



          Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."







          share|improve this answer





















          • 3





            I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

            – Buzz
            1 hour ago











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          1 Answer
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          1 Answer
          1






          active

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          active

          oldest

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          active

          oldest

          votes









          6














          This is actually a commonly occurring plot motif. However, the most explicit example of this would be "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin. The titular "ones" are those people who refuse to accept the suffering for one child as a necessity to preserve their utopia.



          Per Wikipedia:




          The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring young people on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal (rather than private) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio-politico-economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader cannot be sure of every particular.



          The uncertain narrator reflects that "Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all." Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon the final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.



          Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."







          share|improve this answer





















          • 3





            I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

            – Buzz
            1 hour ago
















          6














          This is actually a commonly occurring plot motif. However, the most explicit example of this would be "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin. The titular "ones" are those people who refuse to accept the suffering for one child as a necessity to preserve their utopia.



          Per Wikipedia:




          The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring young people on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal (rather than private) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio-politico-economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader cannot be sure of every particular.



          The uncertain narrator reflects that "Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all." Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon the final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.



          Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."







          share|improve this answer





















          • 3





            I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

            – Buzz
            1 hour ago














          6












          6








          6







          This is actually a commonly occurring plot motif. However, the most explicit example of this would be "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin. The titular "ones" are those people who refuse to accept the suffering for one child as a necessity to preserve their utopia.



          Per Wikipedia:




          The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring young people on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal (rather than private) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio-politico-economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader cannot be sure of every particular.



          The uncertain narrator reflects that "Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all." Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon the final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.



          Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."







          share|improve this answer















          This is actually a commonly occurring plot motif. However, the most explicit example of this would be "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin. The titular "ones" are those people who refuse to accept the suffering for one child as a necessity to preserve their utopia.



          Per Wikipedia:




          The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring young people on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal (rather than private) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio-politico-economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader cannot be sure of every particular.



          The uncertain narrator reflects that "Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all." Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon the final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.



          Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."








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          edited 1 hour ago

























          answered 1 hour ago









          BuzzBuzz

          36.6k6125200




          36.6k6125200








          • 3





            I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

            – Buzz
            1 hour ago














          • 3





            I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

            – Buzz
            1 hour ago








          3




          3





          I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

          – Buzz
          1 hour ago





          I had a surprising amount of difficulty remembering how to spell "Omelas" for this answer, in spite of the fact that I grew up in Salem, Oregon.

          – Buzz
          1 hour ago










          Cherie is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










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          Cherie is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













          Cherie is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












          Cherie is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















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