The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Quote Analysis

In the story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The narrator defined Omelas as a Utopian city, where everyone in the city is filled with endless joy. The society that they have can be described as the perfect world. While everyone maintains a pleased life, there is a child that is mistreated by the town all to keep everyone happy with their lives. The child has to be locked up in a dark basement, where the child is feed every little and abused by the people in the city. If the child was not locked up and neglected the city could be in danger of losing that happiness, also in fear of the city being destroyed. Many people of the city chose to leave the city, because they didn't believe in the act of hurting that child. “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.” (Guin pg 444) This quote is meant for the audience understand what the narrator is truly saying, which she is trying to compare the Omelas society as to the society today.

Someone in a family can be chosen every year in the lottery. These people take part of a sacrifice of their town, where someone gets stoned to death. This kind of ritual was important to human culture, even if it was cruel and wrong. “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” (Jackson pg 318) The narrator uses this quote to truly define the story itself. The citizens were used to doing this kind of act for so long, they were anxious for the next lottery to happen. Both of the stories “The Lottery” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” are revolved around suffering or sacrificing, also the stories show how just one human being can affect