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Le Guin’s  “The ones who walk away from the Omelas” is an interesting short story that questions the ideas of social justice in society. It asks the question, is it right to force the suffering of one individual into order to prolong to the well-being of society, or should everyone live equally despite the difficultly that the society will face. This question challenges the principles of capitalism; an economy where the rich flourish off of the hardships of the poor; vs. a socialist economy; which is an economy where everyone has about equal pay and share in the hardships of society. These themes are prevalent through the story, in the beginning of the story, it depicts an impossibly perfect society celebrating the ‘Festival of summer,’ the people depicted can be seen as upper classmen who live an easy, which at first seems to no consequence. These people are what you see when you first enter the town, no despair in sight and it seems that everything in the world is good, however, this is not the case as readers later learn that the Omelas keep a much darker secret; they keep one child locked in a cellar below a building. The child is the only one who feels despair in Omelas, no tourist knows about the child and almost every resident knows about the child. The child is theoretically a lower-class person, who is under represented, underprivileged, and is mistreated, in a capitalist society. The Omelas treat the child terribly because if they do not, then their society will decline and they will lose their easy lives. Eventually, the young adults who have not seen the child are taken to see it. No one ever handles the sight of the child well; oftentimes they want to help the child, however, they are not allowed. Seeing the child makes the young adults realize that they are not living in an equal society, but instead a society that flourishes off of the pain of one individual. The young adults would rather live in a society where everyone is both rich and equal; however, that simply is not possible. After this, in the middle of the night some of the young adults decide that it’s better for one to suffer than for all to suffer and they clear there conscious of it, others, unable to accept that the only way they can live an easy life is at the expense of another, leave the Omelas, never returning. It is possible that the young adults are searching for a society where all people live as equals despite the hardships that they may have to share, stating that they’d rather live in a socialist type society.