Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

Discussion Questions

1.) What is the tone of this story?

2.) What is the point of view in the story? Who is the narrator? Briefly discuss the dual attitudes of the narrator.

3.) How accurate is Le Guin's contention that "happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive"? How central is this idea to the themes of the story?

4.) What type of society is Omelas? Did you find the narrator's description substantive or vague? Discuss possible reasons the author constructed the story in this manner.

5.) What role does the tormented child play in the story? How does it affect the citizens of Omelas?

6.) Why do some citizens desert Omelas? What is the place that is "even less imaginable to most of us that the city of happiness"?

7.) What is the source of conflict in the story? Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist?

8.) Discuss the major themes of the story.

9.) How would you characterize Le Guin's narrative style? Do you feel her use of the short question is effective? Why?

10.) What is your reaction to the story?

11.) Analyze the idea of the utopian society in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."

12.) Compare and contrast the societies and philosophies in Omelas and in another small town -- such as the small town in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."