The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.
What many of our group members took away from this passage is that Guin is drawing attention to the fact that regardless of how many privileges we are afforded, we will always want more. Regardless of how happy we are, we cherish and are fascinated by negativity. Society finds the evil and shocking interesting, while happiness is something short lived. Have people gotten into the habit of "considering happiness stupid"?
Relating closer towards the framework of human rights issues, we can see that many of the material things that our generation desires in order to be happy have a dark side behind them. We scarcely think twice about our shoes, clothes, or technological devices. In reality, the systems that make these things so affordable to use utilize slavery, child labour, unliveable wages, dangerous work conditions and more. It seems that for everything we consider good, everything that brings us happiness, there is a "child in a cellar" behind this.
So, what exactly does Guin's story suggest that we do about this? It seems that one solution may be to stop feeling like we need to be better than others. The desire to always have the newest phone, or nicest laptop, at the lowest price just encourages and perpetuates the necessity that we take advantage of each other. Instead of putting a child in a cellar, we allow children in other countries to bear these burdens. Similar to how the citizens of Omelas are initially shocked by the child, but then justify it to themselves, we as consumers are able to justify anything.
When we compare Hunt's hypothesis that novels have a unique ability to cultivate empathy, it seems that Guin proves and disproves this point. If we compare a novel to Guin's child in the cellar, we can see that the citizens of Omelas initially have a shocked reaction, and feel sadness and pain on behalf of the child. Yet, eventually, most are able to justify this feeling, as they consider it beneficial to the greater good of maintaining a state of happiness. Similarly, the initial effects of the novel, the call to action, can elicit a strong empathic response. But for most, this empathy will be short lived. As some of the citizens of Omelas walk away, perhaps this serves as a reminder to walk away from the unjust doings of the world.
Guin uses powerful and descriptive language throughout the story. Although very descriptive, the narrator leaves much of the details to the reader's imagination and also leaves the reader to fill in these details. The mood appears joyful, optimistic, bright and heartwarming. The narrator describes 'merry women" and the "sweetness in the air". People in Omelas are enjoying life and seem to be very happy people. This is not for long as the narrator switches to talk about the abused child, a contrast to the mood set in the beginning of the story. The tone here changes to dark, somber and heavy when the child in the basement is introduced. The narrator describes the room the child is kept in before revealing that there is actually a living soul in there. This seems sudden and almost had built suspense as to why the narrator had described the room in such detail. The tone continues to be distant and heavy.
The narrator of this short story makes excellent use of the metaphor "If you can't lick 'em, join 'em". Essentially pointing out that if you are unable to beat or best your opponent, you might as well join them. In relation to this analysis, it surely means that if you can't have the best of everything, the happiness that every person undoubtedly craves, then your best option is to join the swarm of the masses who look the other way when faced with the evils and cruelties of this world.
In conclusion, this selected passage most definitely invokes a sadness and a sense of empathy from within. A sense of longing that the world could somehow be as beautiful as the city of Omelas but knowing that where humans are concerned, nothing can exist without sadness because then, how would we know what joy is?