Quotations:

“Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. In the middle category, however—that of the unnecessary but undestructive, that of comfort, luxury, exuberance, etc.— they could perfectly well have central heating, subway trains, washing machines, and all kinds of marvelous devices not yet invented here, floating light-sources, fuelless power, a cure for the common cold. Or they could have none of that; it doesn’t matter.” paragraph 3

“They go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does ot exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.” the last few sentences

Comment:

Context for quote #1: This quote is at the end of the third paragraph. The topic of this paragraph was indirectly describing the city of Omelas. I believe this is a complex city, therefore its description is complex as well. It says they are happy but not simple, they do not have a king or slaves, they are not barbarians, and they have very few rules. They consider happiness to be stupid. They can’t describe a happy man and they can’t make any celebrations of joy. 

I picked this quote because I was very confused by it and its meaning. I broke down the quote by definitions of words… I replaced “necessary” with “needed” and “destructive” with “harmful”. I believe they recognize the differences between what is needed, what is not needed and not harmful, and what is harmful. I believe the middle category is to be a category of comfort, things that people don’t need and things that wouldn’t cause harm, but things that are considered a luxury and are wanted. For example, central heating isn’t a necessity in life because we could have heat in other ways, but it is a luxury and a common longing for most people in society. I believe the author is saying that the citizens of Omelas could have all of these luxurious things or they could have none of them; because to this city, those luxuries don’t matter.

Context for quote #2: This quote is the last couple sentences of the text. The author is describing people who go to see the child that is “in a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas.” This child is pretty much locked away in this dirty room under one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, because the child could have been more defective or the child has been declared an imbecile, etc. Basically, the child is neglected in this room in the city and suffers. So the author is describing what those people see and after they go see this child, they leave the city of Omelas.

This quote was a little easier for me to interpret. I believe that the author is saying that when these people are leaving Omelas, they are committing suicide. I believe the meaning is along those lines. These people go to see the child that is suffering right beneath the beautiful city that is so happy, and these people realize the pain and suffering that is hidden in the city of Omelas and they just can’t handle the thought of it. So they decide to leave Omelas. I believe “they walk into the darkness, and they do not come back.” can be interpreted as they have killed themselves, so they will not return. “The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist” Most people can’t imagine this place because most people that hear this are still living. The only people that can imagine that place have died. I believe he cannot describe it at all because he is not dead. How could he describe the feeling or place of being dead if you are alive? “But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.” The ones who walk away from the city of happiness, they walk away from happiness, they walk into darkness by killing themselves. It is a very dark interpretation, but to me, it just makes sense. 

Question: Can there ever really be a city of happiness (I don’t think so because utopias can never exist)? Is walking into darkness the only way out? Why can’t they find another city (another source of happiness) instead?