What is the point of view of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?

The point of view of this unusual short story by Ursula K. LeGuin is first-person objective. The phrase first person refers to the fact that the narrator uses the first person pronoun I as they narrate the story, and so this—on some level—makes them a participant in the events that take place in the story. In the third paragraph of the text, for example, the speaker says of the society of Omelas,

I do not know the rules and laws [...], but I suspect that they were singularly few.

It seems, from this statement, that the speaker is not from Omelas but that they have relatively intimate knowledge of the feelings of its inhabitants and a good idea about how the society was ordered. To know that Omelas required relatively few, if any, laws shows that people there were, generally speaking, peaceful and just, and they did not need to be kept in check by laws that would govern behavior.

The word objective, when it refers to a first-person narrator, means that the speaker is telling a story in which the events took place in the past, and the speaker uses predominantly past-tense verbs. You can see in the quotation I used above that the narrator says that the rules of this society were uniquely few, if they had any laws at all. To say were is to speak in the past tense as opposed to using the present-tense are.

What is the point of view of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?

The city of Omelas and everything in it is clearly fictitious. The narrator makes this perfectly clear as she's telling the story of the people who walk away from this ostensibly paradisaical town.

Omelas is purely a product of her authorial imagination, an indication perhaps that the narrator is virtually synonymous with the author. That being the case, we are never in any doubt as readers that what we are being introduced to is a fantasy and nothing more.

Yet it's a testament to Le Guin's consummate skill as a writer that such a narrative approach in no way makes the story any less interesting or thought-provoking. The moral fable that Le Guin sets before us invites us to ask ourselves the questions "What would I do in such a situation?" and "Would I stay or go?"

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" may be a fantasy, and a self-conscious fantasy at that—a kind of meta-fantasy, if you will—but it is no less powerful and morally compelling for that.

Far from undercutting the moral message, Le Guin's metafictional approach to the narrative actually serves to make it more important. As there are no real characters in the story, we are better able to imagine ourselves as the characters instead. We can easily envisage ourselves as inhabiting the town of Omelas and thinking of how we may—or may not—be able to live in such a place, knowing as we do the appalling evil on which everyone's happiness is based.

In "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," who is the narrator and what are their feelings about Omelas?

The narrator has such specific and detailed knowledge of Omelas that it seems as though he or she might have lived there once. The narrator knows what the life of the children is like, what the horses wear and how they act, the names and locations of natural landmarks such as the mountains, even what the air smells like, and how and when the bells ring.

Or perhaps the city is an overtly pure fiction, and the narrator is just the person who poses this imaginary situation? The narrator only "suspect[s]" that the laws are few, and he or she does not know what those laws are. By repeating the first-person plural pronoun, "we," the narrator seems to establish him or herself as one of "us" and not one of them. The narrator says that "[The residents of Omelas] were not less complex than us." And he or she speaks of how we view happiness, how little of it we truly seem to feel, especially compared to these individuals. In many ways, Omelas does seem like a made-up place: the narrator tells us to go ahead and imagine it however we like in some ways. They might have technology like ours, or not. The narrator tells us to "add an orgy" if the city feels too goody-goody to us. Since these details are unimportant, even unknown, then Omelas very much could be implied to be, even by the narrator, a fictional city only.

The narrator's description of the child is unemotional, clinical, and very matter-of-fact, and he or she reserves judgment. The narrator says,

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. Those are the terms. To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one . . .

The narrator presents the potential benefit and disadvantage of each possibility. In doing so, he or she seems to take a fairly objective view on the child and the situation in which the town finds itself. The narrator reserves judgment, just as those who walk away from the town seem to do.

In "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," who is the narrator and what are their feelings about Omelas?

Both of these questions are important, but they are very different questions.

The narrator's identity is the tougher question. At no point are we told if the narrator is male or female. We're not even told who the narrator is. We know the narrator has extensive and intimate knowledge of Omelas. The narrator seems to have intimate knowledge of both Omelas and our world. When the narrator uses the term "we," he or she seems to be from our society. When he/she discusses what the citizens of Omelas feel or think, the narrator seems to either be from Omelas, or, more likely, to be its creator.

As far as the narrator's feelings toward the tortured child, that's almost as complicated. I'd say the best summary is distant compassion. Look at the actual description of the child, and the level of detail is amazing. It could easily nauseate a reader, or break a heart. At the same time, some of the words are formal ("excrement," rather than something cruder), and the tone is speculative and tentative: the narrator says "perhaps" this happened, and "perhaps" that.

The narrator seems to be at once withholding personal judgment and forcing the reader to make one.

What is Omelas's connection to real life in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

One way to think about the story is to understand it as a comment on modern society and the imagination. In this way of thinking, the narrator assumes that the reader will have a hard time believing that Omelas is a real place because it is a kind of utopia; it only becomes "real" when we understand that its perfection is made possible by the misery and subjugation of a single child. This can be read as a comment on the developed world, the comfort and wealth of which is based on the exploitation of the poor.

In another sense, Omelas is a commentary on the liberal impulse to imagine a more perfect society; in this case, the story is about the hollowness of such fantasies and impossibility of imagining happiness without some form of misery for comparison. This is why the destination of the ones who leave Omelas is unknown: presumably, unable to live in a place made possible by the exploitation of others, they leave to go to an indescribable place where such compromises are not necessary. In this sense, the story is connected to real life not only by critiquing modern society, but by suggesting that the only way to eliminate subjugation is to "leave" Omelas, or to invent a truly radical, completely different way of life.

What is Omelas's connection to real life in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursala Le Guin explores the theme of scapegoats. Within the text, the suffering child acts as a literal scapegoat for the rest of the town's happiness; since the child permanently suffers, the rest of the town can live in utopia. While this supernatural balance does not translate to the real world, the greater ideas of scapegoating do.

Historically, scapegoats have existed for centuries with anything from ritualistic sacrifices to genocide "cleansings"  to blaming leaders/politicians for the pitfalls of whole-societal issues. For more examples, see this Huffington Post article, "The Blame Game: 11 Scapegoats In History." 

Le Guin brings up this issue to invite the reader to think about his or her own choices and ways of thinking. For instance, is scapegoating moral? If you go along with scapegoating, are you a "bad" person? Is the idea of the "greater good" moral? Is your happiness worth the cost of someone else's? Is your life and happiness more valuable than someone else's?

The beauty of the way Le Guin portrays this debate lies in the way she leaves the answers to the above questions in the hands of the reader. She does not condemn either the townspeople or the walkers for their choices, and therefore does not guilt the reader into one mindset or another.

How is "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" an allegory?

To answer this question, we first need to establish what an allegory is. In a nutshell, an allegorical story is one that can be unpacked to reveal a hidden meaning, moral, or deeper truth. There is no doubt that "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" contains hidden meanings and deeper truths.

At face value, this story is about a town filled with people who get to live an idyllic life of happiness, where nothing goes wrong and everyone lives in a state of perpetual harmony. The price of this happiness, however, is paid by a child of indiscriminate gender, who is permanently locked in a closet. The child lives in a state of squalor, with only corn meal and grease to eat, and never gets to see the light of day.

Allegorically speaking, this story is referring to the privileged people of the world who have obtained their wealth and freedom as a result of the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears of others.

The fact that some people in the world care about the suffering of others while others do not is alluded to by the fact that when the people of the town discover the existence of the child and visit "it," some choose to kick the child, while others take a sympathetic approach and choose to leave Omelas.

This poignant short story makes the point, using allegory, that wealth and freedom come at the expense of the enslavement of others.

What literary devices are used in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

Polysyndeton refers to using several conjunctions in a row to achieve a dramatic effect. That can be seen in this sentence about the child:

The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, "eh-haa, eh-haa," and it speaks less and less often.

Comparing this long string of clauses to the ones above it show a much longer sentence structure. It is at this point that the child is dehumanized, moving from actual speech in the sentences prior to losing the ability to communicate due to lack of human stimulation. Therefore, polysyndeton is used to mimic this loss of semantic control as language devolves in structure as well.

Imagery is used to show the contrasting lives between the citizens of Omelas and the child held captive. Consider the following imagery used to describe the processions:

A marvelous smell of cooking goes forth from the red and blue tents of the provisioners. The faces of small children are amiably sticky; in the benign grey beard of a man a couple of crumbs of rich pastry are entangled. The youths and girls have mounted their horses and are beginning to group around the starting line of the course. An old woman, small, fat, and laughing, is passing out flowers from a basket, and tall young men wear her flowers in their shining hair.

The imagery here connotes a lightness, a carefree existence of friendly faces and hair adorned with flowers. Of course, this carefree lifestyle is only possible because the townspeople are willing to sacrifice one child. Consider the contrasting imagery provided to show the life of this child:

It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect. It picks its nose and ... sits hunched in the corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops. It is afraid of the mops. It finds them horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come. The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes, except that sometimes—the child has no understanding of time or interval—sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there. One of them may come in and kick the child to make it stand up.

These two scenes are juxtaposed with only authorial intrusion (when the narrator steps away from the story and speaks directly to the reader) between them to bring into sharp contrast the startling ways the townspeople are able to live at the expense of the great suffering of one child. The close proximity of these very differing images show the reader both all the people have gained and at what expense they have achieved it.

What literary devices are used in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

Le Guin writes in a poetic style in this short story. In the opening paragraph, as the narrator describes the beauties of Omelas, she uses alliteration to create a sense of rhythm with repeated "p" sounds in the following:

past great parks and public buildings, processions moved.

Throughout the story, she uses similes (comparisons using the words "like" or "as"). For example, she likens the voices of children at the festival in the opening scene to:

high calls rising like the swallows' crossing flights, over the music and the singing

Later she compares nudes to soufflés:

Surely the beautiful nudes can just wander about, offering themselves like divine souffles

The horses are personified when it is said that they:

boasted to one another

Le Guin uses an exclamation as she writes of the people of Omelas as "not wretched. O miracle!" Additionally, the word "wretched" is an example of an archaic term in the context of 1970s American English.

The narrator also steps into the text to directly address the audience, pointing to the fictiveness of the story. The direct address below also uses repetition, a literary device that adds emphasis:

If so, please add an orgy. If an orgy would help, don't hesitate

The poetic diction of the story's description of happiness has a tongue-in-cheek or ironic quality, foreshadowing that the fact that all of this happiness is founded on a horrific crime.

What literary devices are used in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

In the second paragraph, the narrator describes the way we tend to think of happiness as "something rather stupid." We think that pain and evil are more intellectual and more interesting. The narrator says, "This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain." Thus, the narrator uses a metaphor to compare the tendency of artists and writers to depict pain and suffering rather than happiness as a kind of treason against their fellow human beings.

The narrator employs another metaphor when they say that the citizens of Omelas are "not naive and happy children." The narrator compares these "mature, intelligent, passionate adults" to children—whose happiness is often thought of as the result of their innocence and naivety—to show that the citizens' happiness is more legitimate somehow, that it isn't a default state that results from their ignorance (because they are not, in fact, ignorant).

The narrator uses a simile when they describe the "beautiful nudes"—people that can wander around, offering themselves "like divine souffles to the hunger of the needy." The narrator compares these people to an elegant and often beautiful type of food.

The narrator also uses metonymy when they say that "A boundless and generous contentment . . . is what swells the hearts of the people of Omelas." Now, the citizens' hearts do not actually swell up and get bigger, but rather, the citizens feel emotionally filled up, satisfied, and happy. As hearts are often connected to emotion, they stand in here, figuratively, for those feelings.

What literary devices are used in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

The opening paragraph of this short story has a few good examples of various literary devices. When the story begins, readers are introduced to a large celebration that is happening. It is called the "Festival of Summer." People are gathered and having a great time, and music is playing along with their procession.

Readers are told a great metaphor here. We are told that the "procession was a dance." The very next sentence has a simile that further develops the happy gathering of people. The children's calls rose "like the swallows' crossing flights." A little later in the same paragraph, the author provides readers with some personification of the horses that are in the procession. We are told that they wear minimal gear and have manes braided with streamers. They look amazing, and the horses know it. They flare their nostrils and "boasted to one another." Horses are perfectly capable of flaring their nostrils, however, boasting and bragging is a human trait, so this personification provides a great, concrete image to readers of how the horses are behaving.

What literary devices are used in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

The main rhetorical or persuasive device Le Guin uses in "The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas" is pathos, or an appeal to emotion.

Le Guin would like us as readers to have an emotional response of dislike and revulsion to the idea of Omelas, a city based on the ideal of "the greatest good for the greatest number."

Imagery is the best rhetorical strategy to use for eliciting an emotional response. Imagery is description using the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. We tend to react to details we can specifically see, hear, smell, and feel.

Le Guin first describes the beauty of Omelas, drawing us in to perceive this land as a lovely place, such as in the following quote:

With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved.

She then shows us what all the happiness is based on: the suffering of an innocent child. But she doesn't simply tell us that all of this is based on the suffering of an innocent child. She shows us the child and provides vivid details of its life:

The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, "eh-haa, eh-haa," and it speaks less and less often. 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.

The details repulse us and cause us to have an emotional reaction. Suddenly, all of Omelas seems stained and tainted by the existence of the cruel truth of an abused child at its core. Le Guin wants us to feel that it is not all right to base everyone else's happiness on the suffering of one person, and descriptive details are the main way she makes her case.

What is Omelas in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

To the untrained eye, Omelas seems like a utopia: an ideal state in which everything is just as it should be. The people are happy, the weather is wonderful, and there is a constant round of festivities in which everyone joyfully participates. For many people, this would be their ideal of what a community should be.

Yet what appears to be a demi-paradise is in actual fact based on a monumental act of evil and injustice. As we soon discover, the happiness of Omelas is wholly dependent on the ill-treatment of a small child, chained up in a squalid basement like a wild animal, starved, and regularly beaten. We're never actually told how or why there is a causal link between the misery of the child and the happiness of the citizens of Omelas, but it's there all the same, and for a minority of people in this town, it presents them with a huge moral dilemma.

A small number of people decide that they can no longer live with this evil in their midst, so they walk away from the town altogether. But a much larger number decide to stay, unwilling to give up their happy lives, even if their happiness depends on the deliberate infliction of cruelty upon an innocent child. Some of these people, it would seem, try to deal with their guilt complexes by taking drugs. This is about as near as they will get to walking away from Omelas.

What is the narrator's attitude toward "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin?

Ursula K. Le Guin in her story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” created a philosophical dilemma for the people of Omelas. Omelas is a utopian society that provides the perfect life for its citizen. What is the dilemma? The utopian society can only exist as long as a child is tortured and isolated.

The narration of the story is first person point of view.  The narrator not only tells the story unemotionally, but she asks the reader to provide what he thinks would happen in this kind of society.  This is before the reader is told about the child.  The narrator even inserts what she believes would be in this kind of city.

The narrator is an observer of the story not a character; yet, she is free to comment on the events and does not have to be objective.  From the narrator’s frame of reference, she is able to see the right and wrong of the people and the isolated child. The narrator does not tell the reader about the child until she has portrayed the wonders of this society.  The narrator offers an assortment of glimpses into these joyous people and their Festival of Summer, and then adds:

Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing.

While a pathetic child sits hungry in a horrific environment, the Omelas continue on with their lives.  They know about the child, and accept it as a part of living in Omelas. The larger moral question is can a child be sacrificed for the sake of society. After sharing the child’s plight, the narrator asks this question of the reader: Are they not more credible? The people of Omelas have to learn to live with a terrible injustice in order to survive.

 A boundless and generous contentment, a magnanimous triumph felt not against some outer enemy but in communion with the finest and fairest in the souls of all men everywhere and the splendor of the world’s suAmmer: this is what swells in the hearts of the people of Omelas.

Nothing comes without a price.  The Omelas' price was one child.

After sharing the child’s plight, the narrator asks this question of the reader: Are they not more credible? The people of Omelas have to learn to live with a terrible injustice in order to survive.

There are a few who cannot live with the knowledge of the child particularly after going to see it.  Some of the youth and older people walk out of Omelas never to return.

In the beginning of the story the narrator states that it is difficult to describe the joy that is felt by the people of Omelas.  Later, after devulging the child’s story, she asks the reader how joyous is the city really.

How does one tell if something or someone is joyous?  In Omelas, most  are happy with their lives and have learned to accept things the way they are. However, others cannot accept these terms leave under what might be called suspicious circumstances since they are never heard from again.

Although the narrator does not actually state this to the reader, it is obvious she wants the reader to decide if he/she would be able to live in Omelas with the understanding that the child must be left to be malnourished; always in the dark; to never be touched or spoken to or comforted; to sit in its excrement because it has lost its sanity.  Could then the reader go to the summer festival to laugh and enjoy the day with the family?

Is Omelas a true utopia in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin?

Omelas is not a true utopia because suffering exists within its community.

Omelas is described as an idyllic community, but the conditions for this happiness are "strict and absolute"; therefore, there are flaws in its perfection. For one thing, the structure of happiness is fashioned by man, who is himself imperfect. Yet, the evil is walled in, so some feel that they are safe in Omelas. Or, they feel that the child who is confined so that they can be happy is "too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy," and he/she cannot be freed, anyway.

Omelas is a town that holds that the greater good is served by having the one miserable being confined.

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.

Some stay because they accept the concept of the "greater good" on which Omelas is based. Those who cannot accept this miserable being's existence as the condition for the happiness of others must walk away from Omelas. They feel that Omelas is no utopia because there is suffering, and it is selfishness to continue to allow the single person to suffer.  

Who is the narrator in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

This is a very interesting question.   Simply put, there is little definitive as to the identity of the narrator.  There are some hints that allow for an analysis as to who the narrator could be.  The first element is that the narrator is someone who knows of Omelas quite intimately.  The narrator possesses knowledge and understanding of Omelas' practices as well as the citizens' mindsets.  The narrator fully grasps that there is "no guilt" in Omelas and understands how the town and its people function, in general.  At the same time, the narrator has detailed understanding of the child who remains in the room and whose suffering the people of Omelas' happiness is contingent.  The narrator also understands the condition of those who walk from Omelas.  It is here where the narrator is elusive, not describing these individuals' plight in as much detail or with as much precision as both the town or the child.  This could bring out a couple of thoughts as to the identity of the narrator.  The first would be that the narrator is someone who walked away from Omelas and still wrestles with the implications of such a decision.  Little is known except for agony.  Another thought as to the identity of the narrator could be someone from the outside, such as a social scientist.  The use of suggestions that "we here in the West" is an indication of this.  Another thought would be that LeGuin herself assumes the totality of the narrator in order to fully articulate the agonizing position of choice in which the reader must be placed.  It is here where I think that her role as narrator moves the story from literary work to philosophical study.  In each of these cases, the narrator is designed to give the reader a view of Omelas and, in turn, of themselves.

Which literary theories best describe Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is a complex short story that lends itself to interpretation via multiple critical theories. However, the two strongest interpretations are probably Marxist and psychological/psychoanalytical. When applying these theories to any text, the questions that should be asked are:

• Where is the money and/or power in the story, and how does that affect the story?
• What do the characters' actions reflect about their states of mind and/or the state of mind of the author, and how could those states of mind be representative of psychological conditions?

The story, on the surface, describes an Edenic city where the only negative thing about the society is the fact that there is an imprisoned child who is kept locked up in a closet, who, despite his pleas to be released, is ignored. This is described as a "necessary evil" in order for society to thrive. Therefore, from a Marxist lens of interpretation, there is an obvious imbalance of power between mainstream society and the tortured child. This symbolic polarity could be easily seen as the upper classes of society benefiting from the suffering of the lower classes. Using a psychological lens, the two groups of people could potentially be seen as different parts of a single person. In this case, the culture of Omelas could be the "face" that the person shows the world, while the child could be the parts of himself/herself the person wishes to hide.

Whats are some literary/rhetorical devices in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

The story begins with a great deal of imagery:

With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved.

The description of the bells constitutes auditory imagery (images you can hear), and the description of the swallows taking flight, the bright buildings, the sparkling boats, the red roofs, the mossy gardens, the trees, and so on all constitute visual imagery (images you can see). Further, in the first two sentences of the quotation above (the first of the story), slant rhyme is created by the repetition of the "s" sound in bells, set, swallows, soaring, Festival, Summer, city, Omelas, sea, boats, sparkled, and flags. This repetition might remind us of the "shooshing" sound water makes as it comes in waves upon the shore. In this way, then, the author introduces the harbor by sound, even before the narrator describes it in the second sentence. It adds to the positive connotation of these descriptions, helping to establish the mood of the text, making later revelations all the more shocking.

Whats are some literary/rhetorical devices in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

Clearly any given piece of literature is going to employ literary and rhetorical devices as part of their attempt to depict scenes and character, and this text is certainly no exception. In this incredibly rich text, the author asks us to imagine a supposedly perfect world, and then challenges us with its utilitarian manner of achieving that perfection, and asks us whether it is worth it. However, along the way, many literary terms are used in describing the kind of perfection of this city called Omelas. One of my favourites is a simile describing the priests and priestesses ready to "copulate" with anyone as part of their worship of the god of Omelas. Note how they are described:

Surely the beautiful nudes can just wander about, offering themselves like divine soufflés to the hunger of the needy and the rapture of the flesh.

The simile obviously strikes a wryly sardonic note at our need to imagine some kind of orgy to make this city more believable.

Consider too the imagery employed to help us picture the scene of the opening of the Festival of Summer:

A marvellous smell of cooking goes forth from the red and blue tents of the provisioners. The faces of small children amiably sticky; in the benign grey beard of a man a couple of crumbs of rich pastry are entangled... An old woman, small, fat, and laughing, is passing out flowers from a basket, and tall young men wear her flowers in their shining hair. A child of nine or ten sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute.

Note how the author here combines as many of the five senses as possible to bring this scene to life and to help us as readers see, smell, hear, taste and touch the scene that she is bringing to life.

Hopefully these examples will help you to revisit the story yourself and find more literary and rhetorical devices of your own that you can comment on. Good luck!

What is the narrator's opinion of Omelas in Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

The narrator of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" does not seem capable of giving a straightforward account of Omelas.  For one thing, Le Guin subtitles her story parenthetically, "Variations on a Theme by Williams James."  Reliability is, therefore, questionable for the narrator since she is ambiguous about several ideas, serving several variations for her audience to consider.  For instance, she writes,

a cheerful faint sweetness of the air from time to time trembled and gathered together and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells.

Joyous!  How is one to tell about joy?  How describe the citizens of Omelas?

The narrator also creates doubt in the mind of the reader by asking,

How can I tell you about the people of Omelas!?"...I wish I could describe it better.  I wish I could convince you.

She continues, using "I think" and "I think there ought to be," guessing, rather than telling the reader.  Asking the reader,"Do you believe?  Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy?"--or if the ones who walk away are more credible, suggests that the reader should have doubt, and should "reflect" upon the pragmatism of James that what is good for the many is worth the price of one.  This intrusive quality of the narrator brings the moral ambiguity of the final situation into question as well, as she invites the reader to place himself in the position of the people of Omelas.  thus, the reader is forced to face the moral dilemma of the people:  Should the happiness of a community be paid for by a single wretched creature?  In answer to this question, the narrator, certainly, is ambiguous, if not unconvinced as she asks the reader to approve the details of the story while still not passing any judgment:

Now do you believe in them?  Are they [the citizens of Omelas'] not more credible?...I cannot describe it all.  It is possible that it does not exist.  But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

How do the fantasy elements in "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" reflect real-world conditions?

The first main fantasy element in the story is that there is a perfect society. The story opens with a description of the Festival of Summer in Omelas:

The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved.

Omelas is an idyllic place, a fantasy land of perfection where everyone is happy. We know, of course, that no place is, in reality, perfect.

The second fantasy element is that this perfection all depends on the degradation and abuse of one innocent child. In reality, it defies logic and rationality to think that such a situation could possibly take place.

However, the idea that the pleasure of the many is built on the suffering of the few does reflect conditions of real life. We know, for example, that we in the United States live the comfortable lives we do, surrounded with cell phones and consumer goods, plus good food, because people in the other parts of the world toil for long hours at low wages—or come into our country as migrant workers to do the heavy labor of picking our crops.

Le Guin wants to call into question and critique the philosophy of utilitarianism that states that happiness should be understood as the greatest good for the greatest number. Instead, she asserts that even one person's suffering spoils the pleasure of the rest and should not be tolerated: everyone deserves a share of the good life.

What is the historical context of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?

The short story by Ursula K. Le Guin was written in 1973 and addresses the concept of the scapegoat, an allusion to the biblical practice of ritually placing the responsibility for one's sins onto a goat and then consigning that goat to death. Now, it refers to anytime that someone or a group of someones is made to bear the burden of the sins or responsibilities of others, just as the small child must experience abject misery in order for all of the other people in Omelas to enjoy perfect contentment and happiness.

There was a great deal of upheaval going on in the United States in 1973: we were in the midst of the Cold War, and the Vietnam War was winding down. There were oil and energy crises, Roe v. Wade led to the overturning of state bans on abortion, and Watergate broke. During this time of political and emotional upheaval, it seems likely that people were looking for someone to blame for their problems, someone to whom they might like to transfer their own sufferings: the Russians, the soldiers who fought in Vietnam and the people who opposed US involvement, women who fought for reproductive rights and women who opposed them, and so on.

Perhaps Le Guin wanted to draw attention to how blaming others for our problems is a fruitless exercise: could we live with ourselves if we allowed others to suffer so that we could be happy? Is this the kind of world we want to live in? Her implied answer is no.

What is the relationship between the narrator and narratee in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

In this story, the narrator often speaks directly to the readers, assuming we're incredulous about the utopian nature of Omelas, anticipating and addressing our logical objections, and even inviting us to imagine aspects of Omelas in any way we want to.

Because this story is told to an imaginary listener who actively questions the information and actively fills in the details about it, we realize that the narrator is making certain assumptions about who she's talking to. A narratee emerges: an invisible person to whom the narrator is telling the story.

The narratee, then, is someone who has no prior knowledge of Omelas and holds a skeptical attitude toward it. In contrast, the narrator has extensive knowledge of it, with access to all kinds of details about the festival, the system of government, the horrible abuse of the child, and the citizens' thoughts, feelings, and reactions to that abuse. The narratee is told about the shifting nature of Omelas and the flexibility of some of its finer details (which makes sense when readers consider Omelas a representation of any human society) and the narrator even has knowledge about this looseness of attributes in Omelas.

In addition, the narratee is an educated person whom the narrator treats with a respectful tone. We can tell because the narrator uses sophisticated diction ("magnanimous," "paradox," "poignancy") and never belabors any points, keeping the story moving swiftly and assuming the narratee has no need for too much explanation. In inviting the narratee to imagine aspects of Omelas in any preferred way, the narrator implies that the narratee is equally skilled in imagining realistic details.

Lastly, the narratee is a rational, mature adult, and the narrator treats him or her as such. The narrator gives descriptions of the hypothetical drug use and sexual promiscuity in Omelas without having to add any commentary like "Don't do this at home, kids." She also holds back no details in the horrible description of the abhorrent child abuse there, knowing that the narratee can handle it. Most importantly, the narrator respects the logical mind of the narratee, asking only after the description of the child abuse: "Now do you believe in them? Are they not more credible?"

What types of dystopias are depicted in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

This brilliant short story posits a dystopian world that, to begin with at least, seems to be remarkably un-dystopian. We are presented with a world where everything seems to be happy and good, and where the people live in peace and harmony. However, and this is the major point of this story, this happiness and harmony is based on the incredible suffering of a child, who is neglected and abused. This is something that all the citizens of Omelas know about, as the text says:

They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand tha ttheir 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.

The dystopia of this excellent story is therefore build around this central concept: if perfect happiness is only achievable through one person's perfect unhappiness, is it a price worth paying? The title, and the way that it focuses on those who think this price is too high, shows the author's own bias. Thus the dystopia of this tale is one in which happiness is achieved for the many at the expense of the happiness of one individual.

What type of world is depicted in Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?

At the beginning of the story, the world presented seems like some idealistic utopia. It seems like a paradise. The world is full of joy and this is exemplified by the upcoming Summer Festival. The people are happy but still as complex as we are. The notion that happiness must correlate with simplicity or even ignorance ("ignorance is bliss") does not apply to Omelas. In other words, these people did not have to sacrifice knowledge, complexity, and even some luxury in order to obtain this kind of joy. They are not "noble savages" living in simple purity. They are complex, we might even say Modern in some ways, but with the same notions of joy and happiness. It is, in a sense, too good to be true. But this is false. The narrator reveals that Omelas is not perfect. Therefore, it is not too good to be true. In fact, it is actually more realistic than at first described. 

The happiness of Omelas depends upon the suffering of one solitary child. There is no explanation of why this agreement has been made or with whom. The bottom line is that the majority of Omelas live in joy and peace as long as one child suffers terribly. So, it is not the perfect utopia it seemed to be in the initial descriptions. In fact, it bears striking resemblance, literally or at least allegorically, to cities and towns in actual existence. Aren't there cities, towns, and nations where a large portion of the population is relatively happy but a majority of that same population suffers? And although some people protest the suffering of others, doesn't it seem that most people simply accept the fact that while they are happy, others will suffer? These are some questions that the story suggests. So, the world of the story initially seems idealistic, but in the end, it seems all to realistic. 

What is the character or personality of the narrator in the story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?

The narration in "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas" is given in the first person using a written voice that is very commanding and present. Where many first person narratives are designed to draw the reader into the story, the narrator in this story is herself external to the story, observing, commenting, and examining. 

LeGuin employs a very dry, ironic voice for this piece, demanding the reader question all the elments she offers up. Her narrator is ironic, even cynical, constantly breaking the fourth-wall, addressing the reader directly, casting doubts on the very things being told. The narrator has a sense of humor, but leans more toward wit than belly-laughs.

The narrator presents "facts": a culture dependent on the suffering of a single child scapegoat. But through the narrator's own cynical questioning the reader is forced to ask if the survival of the culture is worth the suffering of the sacrifice--and even more, if that need is real, or imagined.

The narrator of the story fits LeGuin's goals. It is deceptive in its open quality, making it easy to ignore how powerfully the narrator guides the eye and mind of the reader, demanding questions and inisting on evaluations of everything--including the nature of the narrator.

What is the social commentary of the story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

In Le Guin's story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," social commentary is made as the author raises questions about the extent of the responsibility of a society to its members.

Interestingly, this story has the alternate title "Variations on a Theme by William James." In her allegorical tale, Le Guin takes aim at James's philosophy of Pragmatism, which holds that

....an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning ["truth"] of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it.[http://www.iep.utm.edu/pragmati/]

In Omelas, which appears to be an idyllic community, its happiness is formed upon what the narrator calls

...a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.

However, this "just discrimination" is later revealed to be composed of the confinement in a narrow subterranean cell of a young being so dehumanized and so deprived of intellectual stimulation that "it" cannot know joy: "It has been afraid too long ever to be free of fear." This scapegoat absorbs all the ills of the society, allowing everyone else an idyllic life.

When some of the inhabitants learn of this miserable creature who bears the ills of their society, they are disturbed by this knowledge. These people walk away from Omelas, while others do nothing, believing this situation is pragmatic. Further, they reason that the child's existence is necessary "for the good of others" and the contentment of all the other residents in the community.

One historical application of this concept of pragmatism and the use of the scapegoat is that used by Nazism, which held in part that many of the ills of Germany's economic depression and its society were due to the presence and social and economic influence of Jews and other "undesirable" people. Thus, in order to practically solve the country's problems, these negative influences had to be removed for the greater good of the German people.

Certainly, in her allegory of Omelas, Le Guin hints at history and raises the moral question of whether any individual, ethnic group, religious group, etc. should be sacrificed for the greater good, or whether a society should not take moral responsibility for all its people. Indeed, it is a question of lasting significance.

What do you think that author is saying about modern society in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

With its alternate title of "Variations on a Theme by William James," LeGuin's story challenges the sophistry of Pragmatism. In other words, this story of LeGuin explores how people interpret reality to fit their own needs, rationalizing their selection of a truth that is convenient for them. Omelas reflects a modern society which arranges a reality to fit its desires and needs.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" presents, at first, an idyllic society in which the innocent children play, "naked in the bright air," as, apparently, there is nothing to hide; "all smiles have become archaic" as everyone is always content. The narrator intrudes, "One thing I know there is none of in Omelas is guilt." However, this perfection has been fashioned by man, who is, himself, imperfect. Therefore, the utopian life is false because it is predicated upon an artificial arrangement that has been made to absorb all the negative elements of life. 

The secret of this arrangement is finally revealed as a horrific situation for one child who is "degraded" to imbecility in absorbing all the negativity of society in order to provide happiness for all others. Thus, in their "pragmatism" some reconcile this situation as necessary for the greater good. Others cannot rationalize such cruelty, and they "walk away"; yet, they, too, evade the problem as they find a way to fit reality to their desires.

Analyze all narrative elements in the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".

Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is hardly a "normal" story in terms of its narrative elements. While it certainly possesses plot, characters, point of view, setting, themes, conflict, and style, many of these are unusual in many readers' opinions. Let's look at each of these elements and its role in the story.

The story's plot does not follow a normal arc. It is, rather, somewhat episodic and is interrupted by a series of reflections from the narrator, who chooses to give us glimpses into life in Omelas and then comment upon how it compares and contrasts with life in our own society. We see Omelas through several descriptions: the crowds at the festival, the preparations for the horse race, the child in the basement, and the people walking away. If there is any climax at all, it occurs when the people walk away from Omelas.

The characters are well drawn but mostly described as a group rather than developed individually. We see representatives of the residents of Omelas. There are young people, both those getting ready for the race and those who have seen the child. There are people celebrating the festival. There are people who bring the child its basic needs. The child, of course, is probably the central character in the story, and even he or she is not given many individual characteristics, although the narrator's description leads us to pity.

The narrator is actually a character in his or her own right. The story is told in the first-person point of view, and the narrator directly addresses the audience using second-person pronouns. The narrator also takes plenty of opportunities to reflect on the story being created and to add personal philosophical ideas.

The setting is a strong element in this story. The story begins, in fact, with a detailed description of Omelas, so detailed that we can picture the scene well with is towers and boats, gardens and trees, buildings and fields. When the setting shifts to the basement, this, too, is well defined and detailed, and it is easy for us to imagine the dark, dirty space where the child lives.

The primary theme of the tale is that no society is perfect. They all have hidden elements, secrets that are sometimes quite literally dirty and extremely horrid. Yet the people who know of these secrets (and they are not really all that secret) work hard to justify them, to rationalize them, and thereby accept them. This is what many young people of Omelas do after they see the child. They believe that the child must live like that if they are to be happy and peaceful. It is just the way things are, and there is no changing it. They soon stop being disturbed and move on with their lives, never forgetting exactly but not letting their knowledge bother them.

There are others, of course, who refuse to accept the secret. These are the ones who walk away from Omelas. They choose to respond to the story's conflict in a way that is unusual. They refuse to accept the necessity of the child. Most people, as we have said, rationalize the child, but some refuse to do so, and they leave rather than remain part of the society.

Finally, we can comment on the story's style. The narrator includes the audience in the discussion of Omelas, drawing them into a direct encounter with the city and its characteristics and inviting them to think about the realities of their own society. The tone is philosophical yet conversational. Many readers have also discovered political and religious allegories in the tale.

What are real-life examples that reflect the implications of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"?

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" can be understood as an allegory, one which expresses the degree to which injustice and exploitation is already embedded in civilization.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that this story is itself posed as a thought experiment, one in which Omelas is presented as a hypothetical utopia (with Le Guin even going so far as to invite readers to imagine Omelas in accordance with their own preferences). However, that being said, the inclusion of the child is the key, nonnegotiable detail in Le Guin's account, being the critical component on which Omelas depends. There is a sacrificial element to Le Guin's picture, by which the utopia is built on top of this scene of extreme brutality and victimization, such that Omelas cannot continue to exist in its absence.

What we must remember, however, when discussing this story, is the degree to which this picture of Omelas reflects the brutality and exploitation embedded in civilization itself. Your question itself brings up the example of sweatshops, but this is only one among innumerable issues which you can draw from. Regardless, the suffering already exists in vast amounts. The key to Le Guin's thought experiment is to take that picture of exploitation and suffering that already exists and then concentrate it down to the level of one identifiable victim.

Analyze the importance of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".

The philosopher William James once wrote that "some people could not accept even universal prosperity and happiness if it depended on the deliberate subjugation of an idiot child to abuse it could barely understand.”  This idea becomes the fundamental premise of Le Guin's story.  Its importance is that it probes the limits to which human beings would accept the idea of "universal prosperity and happiness."  The story examine the conditions of happiness and how socially constructed notions of "happiness" are weighed against human suffering.  Le Guin was conscious of the social and economic context that enveloped her story.  In the face of massive wealth inequalities around the world, Le Guin's story is important because it questions the limits to which societies are content with happiness at the cost of suffering. The people of Omelas are content with the suffering of the child in the name of their social happiness.  The story probes the depths to which society is content with the suffering of the others in the face of happiness.  

Another reason the story is important is because of its effect on the reader. Le Guin establishes three different kinds of people at the story's conclusion. People are either the ones who suffer, the ones who benefit, or the ones who walk away from Omelas.  The reader must make a conscious choice as to who they are and with what they are willing to live.  There are no easy answers and no "noble lies" in this setting.  It is in this regard that the story acquires importance.  Within the reader, the story forces individual choice of one's identity, contributing to its importance.

How does the setting in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" relate to its theme?

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is set in a place that seems to be a marvelous utopia, but beneath the surface is a horrible secret that points to the major theme of the tale. Let's look at this in more detail.

Omelas appears to be a happy, beautiful place where there is always good weather and fun festivals. There are few laws, and people go about their lives in peace with their singing and music and joy. There is no war or trouble, no harsh authority or distracting technology. Omelas seems like the perfect place to live.

However, in the depths of Omelas, there lies a horrible secret. A child is locked in a closet, horribly abused, never seeing the light, eating very little, always terrified. There is always a child locked away because the people of Omelas believe it is necessary for the safety of the city and its people. They sacrifice this child, leaving it crying and whimpering in the dark, so they can continue living as they wish. Or so they think.

Here is where the setting and the theme connect. We readers are invited to reflect on the immorality of this kind of abuse of even one child. Some people who see the child scorn it and go back to their lives, forcing themselves to forget and ignore what they have seen. Others turn and walk away from Omelas. We are to ask ourselves which group we would belong to if we saw that suffering, sacrificed child beneath Omelas.