Omelas Discussion Questions

  • How does the narrator invite the reader (“you”) to imagine the utopian city of Omelas? Why does the narrator want the reader to co-create this utopia? What purpose might it serve in the context of what happens later in the text? 

  • Why does the narrator keep asking the readers if they believe him/her? How have things changed in the story (and the readers’ perception of it) by the time the questions are asked the second time around towards the end of the story? 

  • Discuss the characterization of the child in the room.

  • Why does everyone in the city have to be aware of the existence of the child? 

  • Is it possible to have a happy/good/just society at the expense of someone else? 

  • Is ignorance bliss? Would the people in the story be better off not knowing of its existence? What would be gained from this ignorance? What would be lost? 

  • Can you think if any analogy of the child in the room in our society? If so, who is the child, and who suffers at its expense? 

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