The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"
Author	Ursula K. Le Guin
Country	United States
Language	English
Published in	New Dimensions, volume 3
Publication type	Anthology
Media type	Print
Publication date	1973

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Variations on a theme by William James) is a 1973 short story by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is a philosophical parable with a sparse plot featuring bare and abstract descriptions of characters; the city of Omelas is the primary focus of the narrative.^[1]

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Short Fiction in 1974^[2] and won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974^[3]

Publication

Le Guin's story was originally published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973. It was reprinted in Le Guin's The Wind's Twelve Quarters in 1975, and has been frequently anthologized elsewhere.^[4]

It has also appeared as an independently published, 32-page hardcover book for young adults in October of 2002, ISBN 0886825016.

Plot summary

In the story, Omelas is a utopian city of happiness and delight, whose inhabitants are smart and cultured. Everything about Omelas is pleasing, except for the city's one atrocity: the good fortune of Omelas requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness and misery, and that all her citizens should be told of this upon coming of age.

After being exposed to the truth, most of the people of Omelas are initially shocked and disgusted, but are ultimately able to come to terms with the fact and resolve to live their lives in such a manner as to make the suffering of the unfortunate child worth it. However, a few of the citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

References

Notes

1. ^ Spivack, Charlotte, Ursula K. Le Guin, (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1984), page 159.
2. ^ "Locus Awards Nominee List". The Locus Index to SF Awards. http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/LocusNomList.html. Retrieved 2011-05-12. 
3. ^ "1974 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1974-hugo-awards/. Retrieved 2011-05-12. 
4. ^ Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Bibliography: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Bibliography

• Bloom, Harold, ed (1986). Ursula K. Le Guin (1st ed.). New York, NY: Chelsea House. ISBN 0877546592. 
• Cadden, Mike (2005). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0415995272. 
• Le Guin, Ursula (1975). The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1st ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row. ISBN 0060125624. 
• Spivack, Charlotte (1984). Ursula K. Le Guin (1st ed.). Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0805773932.