Omelas The short story “The ones who walk away from Omelas” has many symbols in it. A lot of these symbols play a major role in contributing to theme of the story. The symbols are the summer solstice, Colors in the solstice, the birds (Swallows), the flute player, understanding, and of course the child in the cellar. These symbols make the story come together. Without these symbols the story would be incomplete, it would not make sense. When the reader actually takes the time to think about the symbolization in the story, it all comes together. All of the symbols that bring the story together shows that things are not always as perfect as they seem. In this story the author describes the perfect town, the perfect citizens, basically a utopian society. Underneath it all there is evil and things are not perfect. The description of the summer solstice at the beginning of the story symbolizes the light of our consciousness and that it shines more brightly when we are aware of it. The horses symbolize power, grace, beauty, strength, freedom, and nobility. These things could also describe the citizens of Omelas as well. The author describes the people in town in ways that make it seem like they are cheerful people. It talks about the children playing and the people celebrating during the ceremony. This makes it seem like they are happy people. “Their manes were braided with streamers of silver, gold, and green. They flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another; they were vastly excited, the horse being the only animal who has adopted our ceremonies as his own.” (LeGuin, 730). This demonstrates that the horses are a part of the ceremony, without them the ceremony would not be the same. In the description of the ceremony there are many colors. All of the colors have a deeper meaning as well, each one symbolizes something different. Grey represents being neutral, balanced and being in control. Green symbolizes life, nature, and well-being. Silver represents justice and purity. Gold stands for power, wealth and faith. Red represents danger, emergency, and love. Blue symbolizes truth, peace and distance. Yellow stands for warmth, cheerful and summertime. White represents serenity, purity, virtue. Black symbolizes night, death, sadness. All of these colors were in the summer solstice ceremony or being used to describe the town, and the setting. At the beginning of the ceremony birds are released. The birds, or more specifically the swallow represent freedom. While the swallow does represent freedom, it symbolizes limited freedom. This is because the swallow can fly, but it cannot fly far before having to rest. “With the clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the festival of summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea.” ( LeGuin, 729). So when the people of Omelas send the birds off it is symbolizing freedom, but limited freedom. The Flute player I believe represents loneliness. He is making a beautiful sound with his music, and he is attracting the people. However the people of Omelas seem distant towards the boy and perhaps they are judging him. “A child of nine or ten sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute. People pause to listen, and they smile, but they do not speak to him, for he never ceases playing and never sees them, his dark eyes wholly rapt in the sweet, thin magic of the time. He finishes, and slowly lowers his hands holding the wooden flute.” (LeGuin, 732) Eyes represent judgment. The citizens in the town are supposed to perfect. They are supposed to have do nothing wrong morally, and even though this is true they are constantly judging people it seems. The citizens are dependent on the fact that they are better than someone else. They do not understand why they are dependent on this however. Another symbol in the story would be understanding. No one in the town fully understands so they do not know what to think. When the citizens are young they go to see the child in the cellar, and they are always confused, they don’t really know what to think about the child in the cellar. One of the biggest would be the drug reference. This symbol is most likely over looked. When the citizens refer to taking “drooz” it could be a number of things, but I think it shows that not every person in the city is as happy as they seem to be. Taking the drooz shows that the citizens need something to get through their lives and escape from them. The biggest symbol of the book however, would be the child in the cellar. In order for the town to live happily they punish the child and put blame on it. The child plays a big role in the town of Omelas, however; it is not really a good role to have. When children reach a certain age they are told about the child in the cellar. Some choose to visit the child to observe it. “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. No matter how well the matter has been explained to them, these young spectators are always shocked and sickened at the sight. They feel disgust, which they had thought themselves superior to.” (LeGuin, 733) All of these symbols contribute to the themes of the story. There could be several themes to this story. One could be good doesn’t exist without evil. The reason being the town is doing well and seem very happy. Under all this happiness they have a child locked in a cellar for the happiness of the town. So while the town is happy and seems like they are doing good, there is evil underneath it all. The second theme could be happiness is in the eye of the beholder. “They were not less complex than us.” (LeGuin, 730) The reason this could be a theme is because to an outsider everyone in the town looks happy, but to them they are not happy. Some of them may truly be happy, but a lot of them are putting on a show. The last theme could be knowledge can be more painful than pain itself. This can be demonstrated by the people visiting the child. Some of the townspeople choose to stay and cope with what they now know and have seen. Others choose to leave or in other words walk away from Omelas. All through the story the citizens do not really take responsibility. It seems like no one in the town is really taking personal responsibility. They all just leave the child in the cellar because they have been told that, that is what they have to do. The description of the town of Omelas contributes to the theme a lot. “The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved. Some were decorous: old people in long stiff robes of mauve and grey, grave master workmen, quiet, merry women carrying their babies and chatting as they walked. In other streets the music beat faster, a shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing, the procession was a dance. Children dodged in and out, their high calls rising like the swallows` crossing flights over the music and the singing….The horses wore no gear at all but a halter without bit. Their manes were braided with streamers of silver, gold, and green…Far off to the north and west the mountains stood up half encircling Omelas on her bay….There was just enough wind to make the banners that marked the race-course snap and flutter now and then. In the silence of the broad green meadows one could hear the music winding through the city streets, farther and nearer and ever approaching, a cheerful faint sweetness of the air that from time to time trembled and gathered together and broke into the great joyous clanging of the bells.” (LeGuin, 729-730) This is because the description sounds perfect almost like a utopia. I think the author intends it to be almost sarcastic, making the town seem perfect when in reality it is far from it. The people in that town want people to think that they are perfect but they are not.

Works Cited
LeGuin, Ursula K. “The ones that walk away from Omelas.” Literature and ourselves: A Thematic introduction for Readers and Writers. 6th ed. Ed. Gloria Mason Henderson, Anna Dunlap Higgins, Bill Day, and Sandra Stevenson Waller. New York: Longman, 2009. 729-34. Print.