Guilt. I would like to make the assumption that everyone in the world has, at one point, felt guilt. I recall when I was child, I would behave bad and feel guilty all the time. But what does feeling guilty all the time really mean? When we are young we are exposed to television shows and books such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" where guilt manages to manifest and causes beloved characters to suffer an abnormal amount of guiltiness. The idea of feeling guilty constantly about the misery of others is hard to fathom. I believe that it is impossible to constantly feel guilty about others’ misery. But in order to truly understand the concept of the mind, the masterful workings of Sigmund Freud must surface. Freud was an influential thinker of the twentieth century; he was a medical doctor, psychologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. The theories that Sigmund Freud articulated ranged from the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression to a tripartite of the mind’s structure. Through the comprehension of Sigmund Freud’s id, ego and superego; “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” By Ursula K Le Guin demonstrates the mind constantly jumping from rationality and remorse.
Id is the primary component of personality, and the only component of personality that is present from the day of birth. Id is determined by the need for immediate satisfaction of all desires, wants and needs. If these needs are not met, a state of anxiety or even tension may arise. This however was not the case for those who lived in Omelas. It becomes clear that those in the society were given all their desires, wants and needs. This is a utopia consisting of “old people…, merry women carrying their babies…” and children, but what of the other mid-aged adults (Le Guin 1)? Have they walked away from Omelas out of constant guilt? The child in the basement is 10 years of age. This means that many children were born into society with luxuries and many before were not. The people who were born before the utopia was set were rational and exposed; meaning, that they too lived in a society much like our own. Ego is the component of personality that deals with reality. When the adults are exposed to the child in the basement an alarm sets off. Through ego, the adults are able to see the suffering that the child in the basement must undergo in order for their lives to remain pleasant. Id and ego are components that do not tend to morality; however, superego is the aspect of personality which develops morals. Which also means that superego provides a guideline for making judgements. I would like to refer to Marshall McLuhan who so brilliantly stated: “the medium is the message.” Quite simply the “message” indicates to think outside of the box, and find the non-apparent changes or affects. In the case of “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” this is the suffering that the child must endure in order to provide a utopia. The “medium”; however, “is anything from which changes emerges” (Federman 2). Think of the child as a medium. Once exposed to this medium, the message becomes clear to the public, but not all of the utopians allowed themselves to visit this child they "all know it is there…" and many “are content merely to know it is there” (Le Guin 3). With only being content and not witnessing the inhumane treatment of the child, it is clear that their superego is unable to argue against the rationality of their ego. Without superego being tapped, there may not be any guilt in Omelas (Le Guin 2). But for those who do dare to tap into their morality, a battle occurs between rationality and morality. Emotion eventually takes control which results in the outcome of the ones who walk away. When we are angry, we act out. Not because we rationally thinking act out, but rather because we feel the need to, this is when superego dominates ego. Once we complete acting out, all that is left to feel is regret, why did I do this?Those who dared to witness the child felt “anger, outrage, impotence…” a mix of emotions that no one in a utopia could have felt before. They say the first cut is the deepest, but cuts eventually heal, just as guilt dissipates.
This is why I feel that guiltiness cannot be constant, but rather served in portions. Even in today’s society, with the knowledge of all the suffering children undergo in sweatshops and kilns, we still indorse companies that employ such working conditions; and for what? A cheap pair of shoes and maybe some shirts, but as we strut in these shoes, does every footstep remind us of the child who suffered to make them?
Work Cited
“Freud’s Personality Theory.” eSSORTMENT. Demand Media. <http://www.essortment.com/all/freudpersonalit_rkjd.htm>
Stephen P. Thornton. “Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).” July 8, 2005. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/>
Kendra Cherry. “The Id, Ego and Superego.” About.com. <http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/personalityelem.htm>
Dennis Duffy and Kate Johnson. “Findley, Timothy.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Dominion. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002815>
Mark Federman. “What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message?” July 23, 2004. <http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm>
Great revision! Nice to see so much work and thought going into these post. AND, you managed to incorporate other texts and thinkers from the course. Well done.
ReplyDelete- Patrick
Thank you, but this was intended to be my first entry. The entry prior to this was merely a draft.
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