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Similes
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—They Know Compassion:
The children of Omelas all eventually learn about the existence of the scapegoat child, are initially horrified, but then mostly come to accept it as the cost of their utopian existence. The author uses verbal and situational irony to expose the moral compromise they’re all forced to address:
Their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it. Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of the splendor of their lives. Theirs is no vapid, irresponsible happiness. They know that they, like the child, are not free. They know compassion.
The verbal irony here comes from the narrator’s critical tone. Their tongue is firmly in their cheek while discussing the children’s acceptance of the scapegoat child's suffering. Although they are initially disgusted, most of the adolescent Omelasians come to accept that torturing this child is an unpleasant necessity. Describing their inevitable, resigned acceptance as their recognition of the "terrible justice of reality" is a critique of the idea that suffering could ever be justifiable. The narrator’s mention of the happiness of Omelas being neither “vapid” nor “irresponsible” further deepens this irony. It subtly mocks the notion that their everyday prosperity—borne from the suffering of an innocent—feels good enough to make them ignore the brutal reality that underlies it.
The situational irony here sits between the citizens’ supposed happiness and their deep-seated moral compromise. These children and their parents live freely in Omelas, yet they are bound by the knowledge of the child's misery. Accepting the child’s misery is part of becoming an adult for the people of Omelas. It’s an unpleasant truth that they have to accept to stay in the city. The other option—walking away into the darkness—is also frightening and difficult to imagine for those raised in such easy and prosperous circumstances. The narrator ironically says that they “know compassion” after seeing the child, yet this compassion does not lead them to change the child’s situation. Their seemingly complete happiness is irrevocably tainted by the ethical cost it must entail.
Related Themes:
