The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - wikipedia The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas `` The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas '' First book edition 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 '' is a 1973 short story by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. With deliberately both vague and vivid descriptions, the narrator depicts a summer festival in the utopian city of Omelas, whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child. `` The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas '' was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Short Fiction in 1974 and won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974. Contents 1 Publication 2 Synopsis 3 Background and themes 4 References 5 Sources Publication Le Guin 's piece 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. It has also appeared as an independently published, 31 - page hardcover book for young adults in 1993. It was republished in the second volume of the short - story anthology The Unreal and the Real in 2014. Synopsis The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring young people on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal ( rather than private ) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio - politico - economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader can not be sure of every particular. Self - admittedly, the uncertain narrator reflects that `` Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I can not suit you all. '' The narrator even suggests that, if necessary, the reader may include an orgy in their mental picture of Omelas. Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon one final element of the city : its one atrocity. The city 's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery. Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce with that one injustice which secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The writing ends with `` The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I can not 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. '' Background and themes Le Guin stated that the city 's name is pronounced `` OH - meh - lahss ''. Le Guin hit upon the name of the town on seeing a road sign for Salem, Oregon, in a car mirror. `` (... People ask me ) ' Where do you get your ideas from, Ms. Le Guin ? ' From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else ? '' `` The central idea of this psychomyth, the scapegoat '', writes Le Guin, `` turns up in Dostoyevsky 's Brothers Karamazov, and several people have asked me, rather suspiciously, why I gave the credit to William James. The fact is, I have n't been able to re-read Dostoyevsky, much as I loved him, since I was twenty - five, and I 'd simply forgotten he used the idea. But when I met it in James ' ' The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life, ' it was with a shock of recognition. '' The quote from William James is : Or if the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which Messrs. Fourier 's and Bellamy 's and Morris 's utopias should all be outdone, and millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far - off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torture, what except a sceptical and independent sort of emotion can it be which would make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain ? Introducing the short work in her 2012 collection The Unreal and the Real, Volume Two, Le Guin noted that The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas `` has a long and happy career of being used by teachers to upset students and make them argue fiercely about morality. '' It has been at times analyzed as a postmodernist work. References Jump up ^ Spivack, Charlotte, Ursula K. Le Guin, ( Boston : Twayne Publishers, 1984 ), page 159. Jump up ^ `` Locus Awards Nominee List ''. The Locus Index to SF Awards. Archived from the original on 2012 - 04 - 19. Retrieved 2011 - 05 - 12. Jump up ^ `` 1974 Hugo Awards ''. The Hugo Awards. Retrieved 2011 - 05 - 12. Jump up ^ Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Bibliography : The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Jump up ^ Le Guin, Ursula K. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Creative Education, 1993. ISBN 9780886825010 Jump up ^ Le Guin, Ursula K., The Unreal and The Real Volume 2, Gollancz, 2014, ISBN 978 - 1473202856 Jump up ^ Boyd, Jason. `` Forty years later, Omelas still haunts ''. The Nerdclave. Retrieved 2014 - 05 - 18. ^ Jump up to : Le Guinn, Ursula K. ( 2012 ). The Unreal and the Real : Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. Volume Two : Outer Space, Inner Lands. Easthampton, MA : Small Beer Press. p. iv. ISBN 9781618730350. ^ Jump up to : Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia ( ed. ) : An Introduction to Fiction, 8th ed., page 274. Longman, 2004. ISBN 0 - 321 - 08531 - 0. Jump up ^ James, William. `` The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life ''. April 1891. Jump up ^ Agosta, Vincent. Returning to Omelas : A formal Analysis of Ursula K. Le Guin 's `` The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas '' and its Relationship to Traditionalist Narrative Structure and Postmodernism. Sources Bloom, Harold, ed. ( 1986 ). Ursula K. Le Guin ( 1st ed. ). New York, NY : Chelsea House. ISBN 0 - 87754 - 659 - 2. Cadden, Mike ( 2005 ). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre : Fiction for Children and Adults ( 1st ed. ). New York, NY : Routledge. ISBN 0 - 415 - 99527 - 2. Le Guin, Ursula ( 1975 ). The Wind 's Twelve Quarters ( 1st ed. ). New York, NY : Harper & Row. ISBN 0 - 06 - 012562 - 4. Spivack, Charlotte ( 1984 ). Ursula K. Le Guin ( 1st ed. ). Boston, MA : Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0 - 8057 - 7393 - 2. Locus Award for Best Short Story 1971 - 1980 `` The Region Between '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1971 ) `` The Queen of Air and Darkness '' by Poul Anderson ( 1972 ) `` The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas '' by Ursula K. Le Guin ( 1973 ) `` The Deathbird '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1974 ) `` The Day Before the Revolution '' by Ursula K. Le Guin ( 1975 ) `` Croatoan '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1976 ) `` Tricentennial '' by Joe Haldeman ( 1977 ) `` Jeffty Is Five '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1978 ) `` Count the Clock that Tells the Time '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1979 ) `` The Way of Cross and Dragon '' by George R.R. Martin ( 1980 ) 1981 -- 2000 `` Grotto of the Dancing Deer '' by Clifford D. Simak ( 1981 ) `` The Pusher '' by John Varley ( 1982 ) `` Sur '' by Ursula K. Le Guin ( 1983 ) `` Beyond the Dead Reef '' by James Tiptree, Jr. ( 1984 ) `` Salvador '' by Lucius Shepard ( 1985 ) `` With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1986 ) `` Robot Dreams '' by Isaac Asimov ( 1987 ) `` Angel '' by Pat Cadigan ( 1988 ) `` Eidolons '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1989 ) `` Lost Boys '' by Orson Scott Card ( 1990 ) `` Bears Discover Fire '' by Terry Bisson ( 1991 ) `` Buffalo '' by John Kessel ( 1992 ) `` Even the Queen '' by Connie Willis ( 1993 ) `` Close Encounter '' by Connie Willis ( 1994 ) `` None So Blind '' by Joe Haldeman ( 1995 ) `` The Lincoln Train '' by Maureen F. McHugh ( 1996 ) `` Gone '' by John Crowley ( 1997 ) `` Itsy Bitsy Spider '' by James Patrick Kelly ( 1998 ) `` Maneki Neko '' by Bruce Sterling ( 1999 ) `` macs '' by Terry Bisson ( 2000 ) 2001 -- present `` The Missing Mass '' by Larry Niven ( 2001 ) `` The Bones of the Earth '' by Ursula K. Le Guin ( 2002 ) `` October in the Chair '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2003 ) `` Closing Time '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2004 ) `` Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2005 ) `` Sunbird '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2006 ) `` How to Talk to Girls at Parties '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2007 ) `` A Small Room in Koboldtown '' by Michael Swanwick ( 2008 ) `` Exhalation '' by Ted Chiang ( 2009 ) `` An Invocation of Incuriosity '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2010 ) `` The Thing About Cassandra '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2011 ) `` The Case of Death and Honey '' by Neil Gaiman ( 2012 ) `` Immersion '' by Aliette de Bodard ( 2013 ) `` The Road of Needles '' by Caitlín R. Kiernan ( 2014 ) `` The Truth About Owls '' by Amal El - Mohtar ( 2015 ) `` Cat Pictures Please '' by Naomi Kritzer ( 2016 ) `` Seasons of Glass and Iron '' by Amal El - Mohtar ( 2017 ) Hugo Award for Best Short Story ( 1961 -- 1980 ) `` The Longest Voyage '' by Poul Anderson ( 1961 ) `` Hothouse '' by Brian W. Aldiss ( 1962 ) `` The Dragon Masters '' by Jack Vance ( 1963 ) `` No Truce with Kings '' by Poul Anderson ( 1964 ) `` Soldier, Ask Not '' by Gordon R. Dickson ( 1965 ) `` '' Repent, Harlequin ! '' Said the Ticktockman '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1966 ) `` Neutron Star '' by Larry Niven ( 1967 ) `` I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1968 ) `` The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1969 ) `` Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones '' by Samuel R. Delany ( 1970 ) `` Slow Sculpture '' by Theodore Sturgeon ( 1971 ) `` Inconstant Moon '' by Larry Niven ( 1972 ) `` Eurema 's Dam '' by R.A. Lafferty / `` The Meeting '' by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth ( 1973 ) `` The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas '' by Ursula K. Le Guin ( 1974 ) `` The Hole Man '' by Larry Niven ( 1975 ) `` Catch That Zeppelin ! '' by Fritz Leiber ( 1976 ) `` Tricentennial '' by Joe Haldeman ( 1977 ) `` Jeffty Is Five '' by Harlan Ellison ( 1978 ) `` Cassandra '' by C.J. Cherryh ( 1979 ) `` The Way of Cross and Dragon '' by George R.R. Martin ( 1980 ) Complete list Retro 1955 -- 1960 1961 -- 1980 1981 -- 2000 2001 -- present Works by Ursula K. Le Guin Earthsea Novels A Wizard of Earthsea ( 1968 ) The Tombs of Atuan ( 1971 ) The Farthest Shore ( 1972 ) Tehanu ( 1990 ) The Other Wind ( 2001 ) Short stories `` The Word of Unbinding '' ( 1964 ) `` The Rule of Names '' ( 1964 ) `` Dragonfly '' ( 1997 ) `` Darkrose and Diamond '' ( 1999 ) Tales from Earthsea ( collection ) ( 2001 ) `` The Daughter of Odren '' ( 2014 ) Adaptations Earthsea ( miniseries ) ( 2004 ) Tales from Earthsea ( film ) ( 2006 ) Related Universe Characters Earthsea Revisioned ( 1993 ) Hainish Cycle Novels Rocannon 's World ( 1966 ) Planet of Exile ( 1966 ) City of Illusions ( 1967 ) The Left Hand of Darkness ( 1969 ) The Dispossessed ( 1974 ) The Word for World Is Forest ( 1976 ) Four Ways to Forgiveness ( 1995 ) The Telling ( 2000 ) Short stories `` The Dowry of the Angyar '' ( 1964 ) `` Winter 's King '' ( 1969 ) `` Vaster than Empires and More Slow '' ( 1971 ) `` The Day Before the Revolution '' ( 1974 ) The Shobies ' Story ( 1990 ) `` The Matter of Seggri '' ( 1994 ) `` A Man of the People '' `` Coming of Age in Karhide '' ( 1995 ) `` Mountain Ways '' ( 1996 ) `` Old Music and the Slave Women '' ( 1999 ) Related Planets Gethen Werel ( Alterra ) Werel ( Voe Deo ) Shing Ansible Other fiction Novels The Lathe of Heaven ( 1971 ) The Eye of the Heron ( 1978 ) Malafrena ( 1979 ) The Beginning Place ( 1980 ) Always Coming Home ( 1985 ) Annals of the Western Shore ( Gifts ( 2004 ) Voices ( 2006 ) Powers ( 2007 ) ) Lavinia ( 2008 ) Short stories `` The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas '' ( 1973 ) `` The Wife 's Story '' ( 1982 ) Paradises Lost ( 2002 ) Collections The Wind 's Twelve Quarters ( 1975 ) Orsinian Tales ( 1976 ) The Compass Rose ( 1982 ) Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences ( 1987 ) A Fisherman of the Inland Sea ( 1994 ) Unlocking the Air and Other Stories ( 1996 ) The Birthday of the World ( 2002 ) Changing Planes ( 2003 ) Children 's books Catwings ( series ) ( 1988 -- 1999 ) Non-fiction The Language of the Night ( 1979 ) Dancing at the Edge of the World ( 1982 ) Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching ( 1997 ) Steering the Craft ( 1998 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas&oldid=840631856 '' Categories : 1974 short stories Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works Short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction with unreliable narrators Hidden categories : Pages using deprecated image syntax Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español فارسی עברית Português Русский Edit links This page was last edited on 11 May 2018, at 03 : 12. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote the ones who walk away from omelas
Answer: American writer Ursula K. Le Guin