Erynne McCown 

April 11, 2025 

ENGL 1120 

Stormy Stewart 

“The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas” Literary Analysis 

In the short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K LeGuin, the author weaves together various literary elements, Pathos induced descriptions, and rhetorical questions into a text about a utopian city that conveys the idea of perfection and complete joy of this society in order for the audience to understand a utopian society cannot be reached because in life, nothing comes without consequence or sacrifice.  

The story is about a utopian society where the population is filled with citizens who thrive in happiness. The citizens are described to be always happy to the point where, “All smiles became archaic” (LeGuin 3). The smiles becoming old indicates that this society lacks depth due to the constant joy all the emotions expressed are shallow.  

Not only were the people in Omelas happy, but the overall mood of the city was also filled with happiness. LeGuin describes that, “In the silence of the broad green meadows one could hear the music winding throughout the city streets, farther and nearer and ever approaching, a cheerful faint sweetness of the air from time to time trembled and gathered and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells” (2). This description of Omelas exemplifies strong imagery for the audience so they can understand what makes the city seem nearly perfect. But the author has not described the aspects of what is underlying the city that deteriorates the place.  

Just after the city is described, there is a rhetorical question given to the audience. The question was, “Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No?” (LeGuin 9). The purpose of this rhetorical situation is to grasps the audience’s attention and emphasize that the perfection in Omelas is skeptical and there must be something occurring in Omelas, so they gain the joy. This is how the author begins to open the idea of an underlying message and scene. 

After descriptions of the Joy flowed throughout Omelas, the author begins to explain the dark secret that Omelas carries. The secret is the child who is being kept in agony for the rest of Omelas to have happiness. The story states, “Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery” (LeGuin 13). This sentence states that the child is set to live in anguish so the rest of the town can be filled with a society that thrives.  

While the story goes on, the imagery continues to be powerful but what is the purpose of the excessive word usage? The purpose of both descriptions given through vivid imagery, beginning with how vibrant and beautiful Omelas is versus how dark and sorrowful the basement where the child lives is generally implicates juxtaposition. Both descriptions were very contrasting. One description exemplifies happiness while the other exemplifies sadness. A good description is seen when the child’s room is first introduces. LeGuin begins with, “In a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas, or perhaps in the cellar of
one of its spacious private homes, there is a room” (11). This paragraph begins with the idea of beautiful buildings above ground but soon ends with, “The floor is dirt, a little damp to the touch, as cellar dirt usually is” (LeGuin 11). The contrast from beautiful buildings to a dirty cellar is striking for the readers and will highlight the significance of the imagery. 

The child that withholds all the negativity for the rest of Omelas ironically symbolizes the positivity flowing through the city. The child is the heart of Omelas and if the child suffers, Omelas will continue to be a happy place. It is said that “They all know that it has to be there” (LeGuin 13). This means that the child must be there and, “If the child were brought up into the sunlight out of that vile place, if it were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing, indeed; but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed”(LeGuin 14). This outcome resists the civilians of Omelas from rescuing or taking the child out of the basement.  

Although the description of the child in the basement is sorrowful, the child is described as, “It is so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day. It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually” (LeGuin 10). The intense imagery involved in this description targets the audience's emotions in a way that causes the audience to feel bad for the child and wonder why society would selfishly put the child through this suffrage.  

Not only does the audience recognize that the suffering child is wrong but some of them do take an action. They are unable to prevent the child from being held captive, so they decide to remove themselves from the situation completely. Towards the end of the story, LeGuin states that, “These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates” (19). The moment they leave the gates symbolizes the ones who walk away from Omelas; these are the ones who put their suffrage before others.  

While the story conveys the story of Omelas and the child who suffers, the suffrage of the child deters all the aspects of a perfect, utopian society. According to Josie Munning on medium.com, “A utopia is defined as an imagined place or state of things where everything is perfect” (1). The suffering child is far from perfect and is the society's’ biggest flaw. Throughout Munning’s article, she explains that there is always a caveat when it comes to the attempt to make something that is perfect whether it affects the whole society or just one person. This correlates with the Le Guin's message she sends throughout, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” because although everyone is happy in Omelas, there is one person who is affected and that is the child in the basement.  

Overall, the short story, “The One’s Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K LeGuin is a well written story that is meant to get the attention of the audience through literary elements and pathological influence. Through analyzation, the author’s purpose is to bring the audience to understand that everything in life comes with a price. Most people in society are willing to go to the necessary lengths without harming their conscience if it benefits them. 

Works Cited 

Guin, Ursula K. Le. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. 2nd ed., Creative Education, 1993. 

Munnings, Josie. “Is a Utopian Society Even Possible?” Medium.com, 2020, https://medium.com/figuring-out-life/is-a-utopian-society-even-possible-4791ce3baaad.