"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a theme by William James)"

by Le Guin, Ursula K (1991)

Key Passage

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 the splendor of their lives. Theirs is no vapid, irresponsible happiness. They know that they, like the child, are not free. They know compassion. It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science. It is because of the child that they are so gentle with children. They know that if the wretched one were not there snivelling in the dark, the other one, the flute-player, could make no joyful music as the young riders line up in their beauty for the race in the sunlight of the first morning of summer. (p.5)

Keywords

Fiction, Utopia, Suffering

Themes

Utopian / Dystopian Literature

Links to Reference

• http://www.jstor.org/stable/20719019
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/20719019?seq=1

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