Line #0 YMMV/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas

Context YMMV / TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas

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4	* {{Applicability}}: The story can be considered a commentary on everything from sweatshops to the bystander effect.
5	* BrokenBase: There's a school that believes the story is a masterpiece of commentary on art, and a school that believes it's self-important schlock that wastes massive amounts of space insulting the reader for thoughts they almost certainly don't actually have. These schools are irreconcilable.
6	* FridgeBrilliance: The idea that a town could become a perfect utopia just by torturing a single child is more implausible than the town just being a happy place... and yet, as the narrator points out, people treat it as "more credible" than the alternative simply because it's more pessimistic.
7	* FridgeHorror: A careful reading of the story reveals that it is never explicitly stated that there is [[spoiler: only ONE neglected child within Omelas]]. Each person knows about and tolerates the existence of a tormented child [[spoiler: but not necessarily the same child, even if they act like it]].
8	* ItWasHisSled: The fact that the town is kept happy because a child is forced to take in all misery is very well known.
9	* MisaimedFandom: Many discussions, in schools and otherwise, discuss the PoweredByAForsakenChild and TheNeedsOfTheMany aspects at face value, as if it were the point of the work. The work itself heavily implies that the tortured child was made up by the narrator for the sake of the reader, and the real point of the work is to [[YouBastard question the reader]] for pessimistically believing that a truly happy society is impossible without it hiding a dark secret.
10	* SlidingScaleOfSocialSatisfaction: Since the book is MetaFiction, it actually questions the reader whether the utopian Omelas is "Heaven on Earth" or a case of "Too Happy to Care". Especially, since the revelation that [[spoiler: it's all only possible due to a child's suffering]] is just thrown out to satisfy the overly cynical reader that thinks "Heaven on Earth" can never be attained without a catch.
11	* {{Squick}}: The child has festering sores all over its legs from sitting in its own excrement so long, for starters.
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Context YMMV / TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas