The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Analyzing “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin, is a surprise-ending short story that shows how society can create traditions and ways of thinking that very few people can stand up against. The story takes place in an imaginary town where the people are happy and simple. Le Guin constantly reminds the reader that people are happy, but there is phoniness. She says, “All smiles have become archaic.” The author gives the reader a basis for the town’s setting. The story takes place during a summer festival. Then she lets the reader’s imagination create what the he or she thinks is a believable, “perfect” town by giving him or her options. The options are small details like whether there is or are not religion, technology, drugs, alcohol, and even sex without inhibition. The reader is given these options because she wants them to participate in the story. Le Guin does not want a king, monarchy or any person who thinks that they have power over the other townsfolk in Omelas, because that would create rebellion, which would ruin the ending of the story. The overall tone in the story is sarcastic. LeGuin makes the town out as too good to be true and in fact,

The reason for these excuses is fear of the unknown and weaknesses in the next generation. People make excuses every day to justify unacceptable actions that they took to make themselves feel not as guilty. Hopefully, that society will grow out of their closed frame of mind and realize that they cannot thrive happily on the inhumane treatment of a person and open their eyes to change. The real facts that make up that person are unknown, but as a human, there are assumptions being made inside our mind. The emotion that would be felt if these unspoken truths are discussed would be embarrassment or shame. In every society there are unspoken truths in a culture. In Omelas the people never spoke of the child, they just knew it had to be there. The child has no concept of time and does not ever see light unless a few people come to witness the child"tms suffering. When they are able to understand the reason for why the child has been locked up. " The definition of that perception basically means making a lot of money and buying a big house and a nice car. In America, there is a concept called "the American Dream. Some of the people would go home and make excuses to themselves why the child should stay in the room; others would not speak for a couple of days and just walk out of town without saying a word. They went off to look for true happiness, but rejected the responsibility for the suffering of the child by not setting him or her free. The old saying, "Don"tmt judge a book by its cover" could be relevant to the facade of Omelas.