The people Omelas acknowledge, “if the wreteched one were not there sniveling in the dark, the other one, the flute player could not make joyful music” (252). The compassion and empathy of the people of Omelas is what is used to recognize the happiness they wouldn’t have if not for the sacrificial child. Some of the people and children of Omelas are frustrated because they want to help the child, but know that the city will collapse on itself with out the sacrifice of the child. Upon first realizing the cruelty of the situation, the adolescent Omelas “would like to do something for the child.
Their immediate reaction is anger, resentment and the need to help the child. The children of Omelas first learn empathy when they learn about the locked away child during adolescence. Throughout the entirety of the story of the Omelas, the pain of the child suffering and the empathy of the citizens of Omelas is juxtaposed against the happiness of the city in that one can not exist without the other. In Le Guin’s story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” the city’s happiness and success can not exist without understanding the pain of the child locked away and the corresponding empathy of the citizens. The people of Omelas are aware of the child, and know it is down there, but they do nothing for the child since child’s sacrifice is the source of the city’s happiness and success.
The dark secret of the city is that a child is locked below the grounds, sitting in misery, alone, abandoned, and abused. Le Guin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” the town of Omelas is depicted as a thriving, successful, utopia with the exception of one thing.