"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin has a similar theme to Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson; in both works, a community is happy, but their joy is contingent on an unjustified factor.
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" tells the story of a community full of people free of injustice and unhappiness...but their joy comes at a cost. All of the suffering in the community is redirected toward a single child that is locked away in a cellar and abused. Most of the community chooses to ignore the fact that the child is there, and, rather, focus on their own happiness. However, the notable characters of the story are those who decide to walk away. They recognize the injustice that is taking place and, despite their happy life in the community, are overcome by guilt because of the suffering the child must endure. They leave Omelas behind, and, although their destination is not specified, the theme is that true happiness cannot be achieved if there is a condition on which it is present.
Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson features Evan Hansen, a socially anxious teen who is given an assignment by his therapist to write a letter to himself about his feelings. Evan writes, "Dear Evan Hansen, turns out this wasn't an amazing day after all. This isn't going to be an amazing week or an amazing year, because why would it be?..." The letter continues to fully express his depressed feelings, and, when he finishes writing it, it ends up in the wrong hands. Connor Murphy, an equally depressed individual finds the letter and puts it in his pocket. After Connor commits suicide, his parents find his body, along with the note in his pocket that reads "Dear Evan Hansen...". Connor's parents assume that the letter is Connors suicide note written to Evan. They reach out to Evan, and when Evan sees how distraught Connor's family is, he cannot bear to tell them that their son did not leave a suicide note at all and that he wrote the letter to himself. The book is about how long Evan can continue the lie that he and Connor were best friends.
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and Dear Evan Hansen both involve conditional happiness. In the same way that the community of Omelas is happy when the child is locked away, Connor's family is happy when they hear Evan's stories about his and Connor's friendship. Le Guin exemplifies the positive results that that community has had as a result of the child's suffering by writing, "It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science" (Le Guin 4). If the child was not locked away and abused, the community would not prosper as it does, and its people would not be content. The child in Omelas and Evan's lie play their respective roles in the stories; they are the condition for happiness. In both situations, it is exceedingly tempting to continue with the contentment and ignore the condition on which it is present. Evan becomes engulfed by his lie and overwhelmed by how rewarding it has been. In a conversation that Evan has with his mom, he discusses the better life that he has found with Connor's family: "They like me. I know how hard that is to believe. They don't think that there's something wrong with me, that I need to be fixed, like you do" (Levenson 134). Through is lie, Evan has gained the confidence to defy his mother who, he believes, has been disrespectful to him and his condition. He has found a new family that accepts and appreciates him. Thus, the child rewards the community of Omelas and Evan's lie rewards him.
Dear Evan Hansen also explores the school environment after Connor's suicide. Connor and Evan's classmates are suspicious of the fact that none of them ever saw Connor and Evan together, and, yet, Evan claims to have been Connor's best friend. The classmates that don't speak up about their suspicion are parallel to the residents who stay in Omelas—they would rather not address a situation if their ignorance yields happiness. Evan is content with his lie and the happiness that it provides for a while—but it later begins to haunt him. A vital realization happens during a conversation that takes place in his mind: "'They need you!' 'Need me for what?! To keep lying to them?' 'That lie is the only thing that's keeping them together'" (Levenson 139). The residents of Omelas have a similar mindset. Le Guin writes, "Even if the child could be released, it would not get much good of its freedom" (Le Guin 4). Both situations share the attitude that the negativity has gone too far to be fixed, so continuing with the unjust reality is the most logical option. The characters' unwillingness to acknowledge the need for change exemplifies the mental burden that accompanies conditional happiness—it causes a short-term outlook on the future and blocks out the injustice that is taking place.
At the end of the book, however the guilt becomes too much for Evan to bear, and he confesses to Connor's family: "I never meant to make it such a mess. I never thought that it would go this far. So I just stand here, sorry, searching for something to say. Words fail. Words fail. There's nothing I can say" (Levenson 153). During and after his confession, Evan becomes parallel to the residents who walk away from Omelas. Regarding those who walk away, Le Guin writes, "They seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas" (Le Guin 4). Neither Evan nor the ones who walk away know what comes next for them—they know only that they cannot bear the guilt any longer. Both stories propose the moral question of whether or not conditional happiness is happiness at all, and in both cases, guilt overrides happiness. The morals of the stories coincide: conditional happiness should be left behind and genuine happiness should be sought. After his confession, Evan leads a new life of honesty and morality, while those who walk away from Omelas begin a life free of guilt and full of new opportunities for unconditional happiness.
The subconscious burdens that the characters in "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and Dear Evan Hansen experience are indicative that conditional happiness is a fleeting occurrence. It cannot be sustained because guilt overrides even the strongest of characters. Not by force but by their own choice do the characters in both works leave their happiness—because it is, in fact, not happiness at all. Conditional happiness is a slow-moving bearer of guilt that will inevitably drive characters away from its source. In their own time, everyone in Omelas will walk away and start a new beginning, just as the characters in Dear Evan Hansen learned to live without the false reality that Evan had created.
