Philippine E-Journals

HUMAN RIGHTS: WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF LE GUIN’S OMELAS?

Ufuk Ozen Baykent

Discipline: Political Philosophy in Literature

 

Abstract:

Utopia has always been a political concept and utopian fiction establishes a link between the illustration of a desirable world and the condition of politics. The imaginary, desirable, yet attainable societies described in utopian fiction bring us face to face with our mental imprisonment. Utopia provides us with the ideal world of justice, human rights, freedom, and equality. Illustration of an ideal world in fiction is a step towards the establishment of a just, equal, and free world. The present focus of this study is on Le Guin’s short story entitled “The ones who walk away from Omelas,” which pictures an untraditional kind of utopia and in which Le Guin criticises human rights, justice, freedom, and morality via a scapegoat motif. The analysis of the story directs us to the political concept of utopia while depicting the boundaries of the utopian genre.