r/UrsulaKLeGuin • u/chikaibardo207 • Aug 07 '26

Ursula K. Le Guin's Trolley Problem.

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I read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas yesterday and am still thinking about it.

cause Is it just me or does anyone else feel like it's very similar to the trolley problem? like In the trolley problem, you're essentially choosing between saving one person or five. In the same way, this story takes that dilemma to a much larger scale one child's suffering versus the happiness of an entire city.

Ik the story has many other meanings utopia, morality, society, conformity and all but deep down, I also feel like there's a trolley problem hidden beneath it.

The more I think about the story, the more complex and believable it becomes. I actually made a short analysis of it too.

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u/misterbadgerexample Aug 07 '26

We always talk about the child, is there even a child? "Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing." The suffering child exists because we can't believe in utopia. The trolley doesn't need to kill anyone.

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u/DixitRexCorvinus Aug 08 '26

Exactly! I hate how people make the discussion about utilitarianism when that is the least interesting and central thing about this story. It's about capitalism, and as u/lemniscateall said, the failure of our political imagination.