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The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
ABOUT STORY
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
This short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" was written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin. This short story is a work of philosophical fiction. It was written in 1973. This story is packed with both vague and vivid descriptions. The narrator of the story has depicted a Summer Festival in the utopian city of Omelas, whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child. This story, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Short Fiction in 1974. It won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974. The main theme of this story is sacrifice for happiness.
MAIN SUMMARY
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
This story begins with a description by the narrator of a Summer Festival in the seaside town of Omelas. The atmosphere is festive and reverent, with bells ringing and the boats in the harbour displaying hanging flags. The people of Omelas are marching happily through the streets of the beautiful town as swallows fly above them. Music is playing, and people are dancing in some parts of the city. Women are holding their children in their arms, and children are running here and there in the sun. Everyone is walking towards the Green Fields, where young boys and girls, all naked, are standing with horses ready to race. The horses are excited and decorated with colourful ribbons and very little riding gear. The clear air reveals the snow-clad mountains around Omelas. A light breeze flutters banners around the racecourse as the city's happy crowds approach.
The narrator pauses here and starts considering the details of the festival that he has just given. He wonders about an important question regarding how to describe the joys and the citizens of Omelas and notes that there may be some assumptions in the festival's description. For example, one may believe that the people have a king, but this is not the case. Nor do they have many, but they have laws. One might also assume that since the people of Omelas are happy, they are simple. The narrator regrets the notion that many people hold in this sense that happiness is always soft and only evil can be complex.
But if we try to praise evil as interesting, that makes it even more difficult to rejoice. So it is difficult to describe the people of Omelas because, despite their happiness, they are not ordinary people. Just because they don't have any of the trappings of our modern world, like the stock market or the nuclear bomb, doesn't make them any less complex than us. The narrator then wishes they could explain to the reader the complexity of the people of Omelas and admits that their description will not satisfy doubts of everyone.
Next, the narrator invites the reader to imagine the details of Omelas, asking a series of questions and proposing various possibilities. What sort of technology does Omelas have? The narrator answers that particular question by saying that there probably would not be flying cars or helicopters because these things aren't necessary for happiness, and the people of Omelas are joyous. Instead, the narrator suggests that Omelas probably has other great technologies, such as floating light sources and a cure for the common cold. Then the narrator backtracks, saying that it could be all of these things, or none of them, and it doesn't really matter.
Next, the narrator speculates that most people from other towns in the area have been coming to Omelas by train for the past few days to attend the Festival. The narrator also believes that the train station is the grandest building in the town and that there is a wonderful farmer's market. After this last bit of speculation, the narrator worries that the reader will think Omelas is too goody-goody and invites the reader to add orgy to the mix. The narrator brings up the idea of beautiful naked people walking around and offering sex to anyone who passes by, even during the Summer Festival Parade. But the narrator warns that this cannot be a religious type of orgy with naked priests; that there may be religion, but not clergy because there is no crime in Omelas.
The narrator later asks what else should happen in the city. They suggest drugs, but not too destructive, and imagine a drug called Droz, which brings ecstasy and happiness but is not addictive. The narrator again asks what else should be there, and suggests that an appreciation of bravery and a sense of conquest are present in Omelas, but without any war or soldiers. The narrator suggests that the people of Omelas celebrate life, not death, and feel so satisfied that they rarely need to use Droz.
The narrator then begins to describe the Summer Festival procession that has arrived at the Green Field. People have started eating delicious food and the race is about to start. A woman is distributing flowers and at the edge of the crowd sits a young boy playing a wooden flute. People stop to listen him, and when the boy ends his song and puts down his flute, the race begins for the official start of the Summer Festival.
Here the narrator pauses their description again. The narrator asks the reader if they believe the story so far and if they accept the joy of the people of Omelas. Then they say that they will describe one additional thing to make it more believable. The narrator describes a basement in one of Omelas' buildings or houses. In this basement, about the size of a closet, is a small, damp room with a dirty floor. Inside the room, which is behind a closed door, are some dirty mops, a bucket, and a young child.
The child is ten years old. It looks younger, and was either born with an intellectual disability or has become disabled due to neglect. The child seems scared and completely sad. It is never allowed to leave this room. Sometimes, someone opens the door and kicks the child too to make him stand on his feet. The person fills the food bowl halfway with corn flour meal and grease, fills the water jug and leaves. The child can remember what the outside world looks like and begs to go outside. The child is naked and covered with wounds, and it wails in its misery at night.
Everyone in Omelas knows very well about the child in the basement. They all know that everything good about Omelas, from the abundance of food to the good weather, depends on the suffering of the child. They all understand this because when the children are between eight and twelve years old, they are brought in to see the child, and this agreement is explained to them. During this particular experience, Omelas' children are disgusted. They want to help the child, but they are told they can't. If anyone helps the child by clothing, feeding or caring for him, Omelas' entire happiness and abundance will be lost. That's why no one can even talk lovingly to the child.
Although the children who are shown a suffering child at first are very upset, after a while they begin to justify the suffering, telling themselves that freedom would probably not help the child. They tell themselves that the child has known suffering of closed room for so long that it no longer knows how to feel happiness and that he will miss the filth of a closed room. So the children who are shown the suffering child come accept this as a fact of life in Omelas. In fact, once they overcome their anger and sadness, they begin to attribute their happiness to the wisdom of the suffering child. Without this knowledge, they would not have been able to appreciate life as much as they do. Their music, their architecture, and even their freedom would not be as good as it was if the suffering child had not existed.
At this point, the narrator pauses for the last time to ask the reader if what they have just learned does not make Omelas more credible. Next, the narrator shares another piece of information. From time to time, the person who is shown the suffering child breaks the usual pattern. They do not get angry and then calm down and accept it. Instead, they leave Omelas altogether. They walk alone down the road, and go out the gates. They go into the fields and mountains, and they never come back. The narrator admits that they don’t know where these people go, but those who walk away from Omelas know exactly where they are going.
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