Contextual Symbols

Yesterday in class, we talked more about the story of Omelas (read previous blog before this if you haven't already). We had a class discussion and my professor mentioned something that related the story to real life. Like I said, the author seemed to be criticizing something about society, and that is exactly what my professor talked about.

He mentioned that the happiness of the people of Omelas depending on this one child's sacrifice to live miserably was no different in some aspects of our own lives. The author used this example as a contextual symbol in both a religious and a social aspect. My professor compared the sacrifice of one for the sake of all to Jesus Christ. Christ died for everyone's sins so that they may be forgiven. Again, one person's sacrifice for the betterment of everyone else.

Next, my professor asked a question: Who owns a pair of Nike shoes? Most raised their hands. He went on to say, "How did you feel when you first got them? First wore them? Real happy, right? Well, there was someone out there who had to work to make you feel that happiness." And I understood what he was trying to say. Even the small things we have, the ones that make us happy and comfortable, had to have come from someone doing labor and hard work to make it happen. These material things that are "Made in China" could have came from a factory using human labor for all we know. Maybe not in the literal sense that someone actually suffers to keep us satisfied, but the social aspect that people work hard for others.

To generalize it further, the people of Omelas are aware that there is this child suffering for them, but choose to ignore it. In real life, the wealthy also realize there is such thing as poverty, yet most do nothing and ignore that because helping the poor would mean less for them.

It's actually kind of sad. The way the world works. That maybe there's a little bit of nonfiction to Omelas in our lives.