Omelas

Omelas The Dystopia of Omelas “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin. Omelas is a place where joy and leisure reign, where there are few rules, no kings or slaves, and the citizens are safe and happy. All citizens save one; a child imprisoned in a small room in a basement. The child has no contact with anyone except for the few who are brought to see or feed the child. The citizens’ joy rest entirely on the fact this child suffers. Le Guin uses irony to show a utopian society can not exist. She portrays this through a naïve narrator, a child in misery, and the fact Omelas no longer exists. The narrator thinks Omelas is a great society. She describes it as joyous. The narrator states no “drooz” is necessary; the people celebrate a victory of life. She brags how happy the people of Omelas are, how the city is filled with “grave master workmen, quiet, merry women […] chatting as they walked […] people […] dancing […and children’s] high calls rising like the swallows’ crossing flights over the music and omelas, child, city, suffering, society, one, narrator, walk, possible, people, joy, happiness, child’s, utopian, town, place, misery, life, leave, joyous, happy, guilt, go, few, everyone, citizens, children, 272, understand, through, suffers, sacrifice, room