The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Symbolism

When it comes to setting, Omelas is the perfect place to live. A utopia that seems to possess every single person’s dreams of happiness and comfort. However, that idyllic setting comes at a price. It is when we learn about the characters who reside in Omelas that we learn what that price is. We learn of the character, character in the sense of both physical and psychological, which is sacrificed in order to achieve this utopia, this perfection. In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, it is the characters and setting that make this story a dark and profound story of what we will or will not do for the pursuit of happiness, security and serenity.

At first, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas could be perceived as a travel guide written by Rick

“They were not simple folk, you see, though they were happy. But we do not say the words cheer much anymore. All smiles have become archaic” (Le Guin 346). We gain even more of an understanding of this forced and false happiness as the story develops the most important character of all. Omelas is a utopia because of one naked, afraid and alone child. A child that remains alone in the tool room of a basement in an unknown beautiful Omelas home or building. A child that has been so broken down, and neglected that no one knows if this child is a girl or a boy (Le Guin 348). A child so starved that they look to be the age of six when they are actually nearing the age of ten (Le Guin 348). A child that no one knows if they are feeble minded and defective because of birth, fear, malnutrition or neglect (Le Guin 348). A child that once tried to plea for help, and made promises of being good, but now speaks less and less often (Le Guin 349). It is a child that all this small city’s people above the age of twelve know of or have seen and is what creates this utopia of

It is known that this knowledge of this throw away child has to be known in order for the city of Omelas to remain its utopia. Both reactions of the people who obtain this knowledge is justified. I cannot feel bitterness towards the people who remain to reside in Omelas, for they do so for the happiness, security and serenity of their family and neighbors. I cannot feel bitterness towards the people who choose to walk away from Omelas, for they do so because of their own understandable disgust and anger of where this false happiness, security and serenity comes from is too overwhelming to bare. It makes one question their own self on how they would comprehend and react to the gaining of such atrocious