The Ones That Walk Away From Omelas Thematic Analysis

Group Members: Erik Woods, Anna Watermeier, Hasini Bollampalli, Nikki Huang
Instructions: You will be completing this graphic organizer in your breakout groups. Only ONE
of you needs to submit it. Maybe use the chat to divide and conquer – just have one person copy
it into the doc itself.
The goal here is to walk through the story and identify what we are learning from the events
taking place.
Select 5-6 events from the story that you as a group feel are most crucial. Place those (using
direct textual evidence) in the left column. In the right column, write 3-4 sentences explaining
what the lesson is from that event. Then, at the end, write ONE sentence telling me the
overarching theme. There may be more than one correct answer to that- so, pick the one your
group feels is most meaningful.

Event: (Direct Textual Evidence) Meaning: (3-4 sentence explanation)

“They were not simple folk, you see, though
they were happy.”
“In the room a child is sitting. It could be a
boy or girl. It looks about six, but actually is
nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was
born defective, or perhaps it has imbecile
through fear, malnutrition, and neglect.
“This is usually explained to children when
they are between eight and twelve, whenever
they seem capable of understanding; and
most of those who come to see the child are
young people, though often enough an adult
comes, or comes back, to see the child.”
“They all know it is there, all the people of
Omelas. Some of them have come to see it,
others are content merely to know it is there.
They all know that it has to be there. Some of
them understand why, and some do not, but
they all understand that their happiness, the
beauty of their children, the wisdom of their
scholars, the skill of their makers, even the
abundance of their harvest and the kindly
weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this
child’s abominable misery.”
It foreshadows that there is a deeper
complexity to the people of Omelas than
they’re letting on. At surface level, all you can
see is how happy they are and that they have
no problems. This hints at how there is
another side to them that people may not
recognize.
It introduces how that even though the rest
of the town is living in complete bliss, there is
a kid suffering amongst their midst.
Everything is not as perfect as it seems and
it’s a known fact that there is someone is
misery.
They make sure to expose the community to
the kid being tortured so they’re aware of the
horrors going on in order for them to live
happily. The children come to see the child
but often it’s the adult who comes back time
after time.
Arguably the most crucial moment in the
story because it reveals that the people of
Omelas have known all along, raising the
question: how true is their happiness?
Introducing moral quandaries. Also
introducing the theme as well.
 “We have almost lost hold; we can no longer
describe a happy man, nor make any
celebration of joy”
This moment in the story shows that the
Omelas say they’re happy, but they cannot
curate any tangible evidence to prove that
they are. They’re really just negligent to the
darkness that haunts their society.

Thematic Statement (ONLY ONE SENTENCE):

• There can be no happiness without suffering.