The story jarringly transitions from a depiction of utopia to the suffering of a child, but this transition is particularly notable for the terms in which the narrator conveys it:

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

This is quite a noteworthy passage, through which the narrator introduces the profound and horrible suffering of the child; it is ultimately clear that it's the misery of the child that makes this utopia possible. The narrator even implies that this utopia would have been utterly unbelievable without it, which suggests that happiness cannot exist without suffering.

The juxtaposition of the child and the citizens of Omelas is a powerful metaphor for exploring the degree to which suffering and exploitation is embedded in human societies. From a certain perspective, Omelas can be considered—far from being simply an imagined utopia—as a distillation of aspects of the human condition. This story invites the reader to consider the ways in which many real and successful civilizations have been built on profound suffering.