Dystopia reflects an imagined state of society based around a great injustice or suffering. It is a common occurrence for the dystopian fiction to feature heavily parallels with the horrors of the real life.
Thematically, he represents the fate of all the underprivileged who have to remain in the shadows of the world that is perceived as prosperous.
Yet the reader is never allowed to forget, that the child has not chosen such fate and is being abused by the powerful majority. “To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement” is unimaginable for most of the town’s population (Le Guinn 3). Le Guinn pointedly calls out the casual social hypocrisy and relative morality of the consumerist Western society. In the short story, the child acts as a scapegoat (Collins 525), the one martyr, whose suffering is, metaphorically speaking, paying for the prosperity of everyone else.
Others, however, stay nonetheless, and proceed to enjoy a carefree life where they do not need to worry about where their next meal will come from. Sooner or later everyone in Omelas learns about the existence of this child, and several decide to leave Omelas, unable to continue living in such degree of privilege. All of this happiness is hanging on the constant suffering of a one child, subjected to the eternal torment. Yet, as it frequently is in utopian-appearing settings in literary fiction, the town hides a dark secret. All is well, and no discomfort, poverty or other problems threaten the habitants of Omelas. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas paints a picture of an idyllic town celebrating a summer festival. To do that, the paper utilizes the total of five academic articles presented by the college. This paper aims to briefly summarize the plot and the themes of this short story and relate it to the current problem of homelessness in the United States. Her short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, however, can be best described as a piece of dystopian fiction. Ursula Le Guin is a famous American author, most known for her fantasy and science fiction novels and short stories.
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