In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," by Ursula Le Guin, the utilitarian utopia city Omelas is a seemingly unbelievable world where the citizen's total and incorruptible happiness is due completely to the dismal existence of one malnourished and mistreated little child. The specific reasons and mechanisms that led to the creation and maintenance of this situation are deliberately left vague; allowing focus on the emotional states of the parties involved. The people of Omelas understand that if they help the child they will condemn their beautiful city to a quick demise; they must either accept this fact or walk away from Omelas. This story delves into the idea of morality; those who stay in Omelas do not value the rights of individuals and understand their responsibility is to the entire city while the ones who leave believe that the child's life is too valuable to simply sacrifice for the sake of all. Omelas has everything- it is beautiful, technologically advanced, and bears no need for organized religion. The atmosphere is rich with music, festivities, and orgies. And even with all this exclusive indulgence the people manage to remain elite, expert craftsmen in every art, scholars of the highest caliber, "gentle mothers and fathers,  and all around good people (Le Guin 637). Omelas is outwardly, "like a city in a fairytale, long ago and far away, once upon a time  (634). However, all this prosperity comes with a price. The success and happiness of Omelas stems from the immense and intentional suffering of one child who lives in a dark cellar and has, "become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect,  brought on by the citizens of Omelas (636). The sacrifice of the one child is demanded by the city because they believe that as a result of the child's misery they will appreciate the quality of life and humanity. The citizens understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, [and] even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weather of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery. (637) If the child were freed, it would supposedly lead to the destruction of this great city, therefore keeping it there is for the greater good. So who is to be pitied? Le Guin presents a moral crossroads, a true question of ethics that is left open ended. Readers may choose to sympathize with the people of Omelas or they may choose to make the revelation that there should be no happiness founded on the misery of others and blindness to truth and if there is, that happiness is hollow. The child in the short story is brought to attention ab