"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin is not structured as a conventional short story and does not really have a protagonist or antagonist. It is not so much a story about individuals as a moral parable.
The only major individual character in the story is the child who is locked away in misery and squalor. We know very little about the child, not even its name or gender. It...
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin is not structured as a conventional short story and does not really have a protagonist or antagonist. It is not so much a story about individuals as a moral parable.
The only major individual character in the story is the child who is locked away in misery and squalor. We know very little about the child, not even its name or gender. It is described as follows:
It could be boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded.
As this child does not develop over the story and is not individuated except as an emblem of misfortune, it is not a normal protagonist; nor is it an antagonist, even though the happiness of the city depends on the suffering of the child.
The other characters in the story are also not individuated as characters but are part of a sort of social scenery, engaged in pursuits such as sports and music. What is most important, though, is that all inhabitants of the city at a certain age are apprised of the existence of the child. Some react to this by developing compassion, especially for other children. The ones who walk away decide that this grand bargain -- a utopian city enabled by the suffering of a single child -- is in some way unbearable and leave the city, but we are not told their individual stories.
When the people visit the child, they occasionally kick it or sometimes just look at it but never offer it a kind word--even when it pleads with them.
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