Dec 2, 2008

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas | Critical Overview

Although "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" won a Hugo Award for best short story in 1974, it has not received much scholarly attention. The critics who have commented on the story have focused on its complex themes, including scapegoatism, morality, the duality of human nature, and political ideology. For example, Jerre Collins wrote in Studies in Short Fiction that "The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas'' is "a critique of American moral life," while Shoshana Knapp observed in The Journal of Narrative Technique that Le Guin's subject is "the proper morality of art itself."...