O m e l a s

In the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", Ursula Le Guin uses the symbol of a child to symbolize poverty, and the way the child is treated to represent selfishness.  She also addresses the unnerving reality that we often accept unjust affairs merely because everyone else does.  The only people who refuse to accept the treatment of the child are the ones who walk away from Omelas-- the characters which represent the people in the world who question authority when they think something isn't right.  The ones who walk away represent those of us who are unwilling to turn a blind eye, and would rather give up all our wealth than be part of a corrupt community.

The child in the closet symbolizes the poor.  The mindset the people use to justify their treatment toward the child represents the mindset many of us have today to justify not helping the poor.

• "They would like to do something for the child.  But there is nothing they can do. . .if it were cleaned and fed and comforted. . .in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed."
• "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: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed."

The ones who walk away from Omelas are the ones who refuse to take part in an unjust community, and represent those of us who question authority and are not willing to comply with a community's norms if they are immoral.

• "At times one of the adolescent girls or boys who go to see the child does not go home to weep or rage, does not, in fact, go home at all.  Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home.  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."
• "They seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."