The Questions of Omelas

This story is unlike anything I have ever read before. I didn’t like the story in the beginning because it failed to get me interested in it. But as the story went on and it got to the part were it talks about the child locked in the closet with no window’s and has to sit in its own waste. This is the part of the story that I honed in on.

I was not sure what the author was getting at when she starting describing why the child was locked up in the closet but as I read I began see why. A world without evil would be a fairytale land. Without evil how could we really enjoy happiness?

Le Guin writes, Their bitter tears fry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality and to accept it.  Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of splendor of their lives . . . They know that they, like the child, are not free . . . It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture. . .

I think she saying that without a little bit of evil the whole town of Omelas could not exist. It’s almost like their entire existence is tied to the fate of the child. The child is what makes possible the splendor of Omelas, but at what cost?

Pain, sorrow, guilt, and evil are necessary to have joy, happiness, and beauty. Without ugly how would we know beauty? Without pain and sorrow how would we know joy or happiness?

I think these are the questions that the author is asking through this story. I leave you to answer them.