The citizens of Omelas have to be made aware of the existence of the child in the basement in order to understand the duality of their perfect world. On the one hand, they lead beautiful lives in a utopian wonderland with seemingly not a worry of misfortune or pain. Omelas is described as a fantastical place with beauty in every corner; people are mature, peaceful, content. Children are smart, joyful, loved and appreciated. All but one.
In order for society to thrive in such a way, one single child is left in a tool closet to essentially degrade in their own filth. The child is deprived of affection or contact, fed meager amounts of grease and cornmeal, covered in sores all along the backside, becoming less and less communicative. It is pure, festering, humanoid waste, and the whole of Omelas is fine with this.
All of society, old and young alike are fully aware of the child in the basement, as they are almost required to look upon it and leave in disgust. Sooner or later, they come to terms with the fact that their society will thrive as long as one suffers alone. This invites us to put ourselves in their shoes and ask, where is the moral line to cut off how much suffering for another is tolerable for your preferred level of comfort? Does life revolve around the individual or success of the group as a whole?
Though this seems to be the way of the land in Omelas, not everyone sips the proverbial kool-aid and carries out the rest of their happy days. There are some, no discrimination to age or sex once more, that never return to life before the closet thing. For these individuals are said to just take off walking through the night, through the alleys, through the mountains, and into the unknown. They walk and walk, all the way with not a soul on their side, until they are gone. I think this “walking away” on one’s own is just their form of resisting what they are told. To say, “absolutely not.” , and if that is the way that life is so fruitful for them, than anything life has in store for them outside of those stipulations is just life. Maybe they feel there is something more to be found outside of that train of thought. LeGuin even says in the text, “I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist (wherever the place is they are going to). But they seem to know where they are going. . “.
How were you envisioning Omelas? Le Guinn’s descriptions were pretty but I couldn’t help filling in some of the gaps. I’m curious what you think a society filled with happy people would look like.