Questions for “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”

Note: These are just to guide your reading. You might want to jot down some thoughts to relate during discussion, but I won’t collect them.

1.This is a strange story in several ways, but the first one you might notice is that there isn’t really a plot. This is about what happens (the status quo), not what happened (an incident). If you were to begin a story proper (an incident) where Le Guin leaves off, what might you write about? What plot lines does this description of a society open up?

2. Another odd thing about this piece is the narrative voice. At some points the voice seems omniscient (as when it tells us how the horses feel about the festival), but at other points it admits uncertainty, hazards, opinions, and speculates about the attitude of the reader. Note places where the voice draws attention to itself in these ways. What is the effect of these shifts? How do you feel about this voice? Judged, challenged, understood? Do the assumptions the narrator makes about its audience’s likely attitudes--toward the festival, toward the townspeople, toward the notion of human happiness--seem apt for our times?

3. Consider the setting, another important element in the story that is somewhat shifting. The opening description sounds vaguely pre-industrial, with horses instead of cars, though the indecisive narrator concedes that subways and washing machines might be allowable. Then she offers some other alternatives for those who might find the first scene too “goody-goody”: drugs and orgies. Are these concessions to individual tastes enough, or do you think the whole project—imagining utopia—is doomed for some (most?) people?

4. To get a grasp of the theme in this story, you need to examine the conflict. What is it? (Hint: It’s a moral conflict, an apparent dilemma, a paradox.) How do you think you would handle the conflict? What do you think the narrator wants us to see as the right decision? Why? Do you think this is simply an intellectual exercise to define our contemporary idea of utopia, or an indictment of society, an indictment of human nature, or something else?

Read the story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas carefully and answer the questions below. Respond on a separate sheet of notebook paper.

LITERARY RESPONSE AND INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS What is ironic in the choices the Omelas make to have no guilt and utter happiness

in their city? How does the author establish the story’s time and place?

What is the purpose of the Festival of Summer?

How do the citizens of Omelas respond to daily life?

What is the social structure of Omelas like?

Examine how the image of the child in the basement cellar impacts a reader? How

does the author create such a powerful image?

Read the story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas carefully and answer the questions below. Respond on a separate sheet of notebook paper.

Reasoning Questions What hints does the author provide that the city may not be so perfect as it seems?

What do you think was the author’s purpose in writing the story?

How does the concept of community apply to this story? How does the story reflect the idea of an individual’s importance to society? Explain the statement that there is no guilt in Omelas? Why does the author say that the people of Omela are not free? What does the author say that make Omelas seem real or unreal to you? Why do you think the author titled the story the way that she did? What message doe the title give you about the overall story?

Read the story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas carefully and answer the questions below. Respond on a separate sheet of notebook paper.

Utopia Questions What makes the city of Omelas perfect? How does the author develop the sense of an ideal city? Is achieving happiness for the majority worth the suffering of one? What message does the story give about this question?The author describes “strict and absolute” terms that are “the terrible justice of reality.” Explain the meaning of these words.