MAJOR SPOILERS for Model Home by Rivers Solomon

Model Home by Rivers Solomon has a series of scenes that are therapy sessions. No exposition, these scenes are constructed entirely with dialogue: the private back and forth between Ezri, the main character, and Max, their therapist. One of these scenes turns into a bibliotherapy session when Ezri brings up Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”

Referring to the suffering child in Le Guin’s allegory, Ezri finds the exact language they need to discuss childhood trauma with Max. Ezri returns to the Omelas story several more times in Model Home, always in moments of crisis. To me, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” feels like a source text for Model Home, much in the same way that “The Deep” by clipping. undergirds The Deep, Solomon’s 2020 novella, and Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin undergirds Sorrowland, their 2021 novel.

Quick Overview:
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
by Ursula K. Le Guin is a scapegoat story. The utopian city of Omelas, full of happy, fulfilled people, exists on the condition that one child suffers horribly. As long as that one child suffers, the rest of the population can live happily. Omelas citizens are aware of this condition and most accept it. Some, who visit the child, cannot accept it and abandon Omelas by walking away.

Healing With Literature

In Chapter 20, when Max and Ezri are discussing Le Guin’s short story in therapy for the first time, Max encourages Ezri to imagine what they would do for the boy in Omelas.

This boy is an embodiment of Ezri: “I think of the Omelas boy I am holding in my psyche, of all that has been done to him,” Ezri says in Chapter 25. Ezri, without hesitation, answers Max’s inquiry by imagining getting the boy ready for bed. They imagine various ablutions, like washing and detangling the nameless boy’s hair with the utmost care.

I think Ezri’s mind goes here for a few reasons. The first time Ezri met Laurie, a white woman and their abuser, Laurie commented on Ezri’s hair and tried to touch Ezri’s long twists. Ezri’s mother was there to stop Laurie from this trespass.

When Ezri imagines caring for the boy’s hair (and in a way their own hair), it feels like they’re invoking feeling of parental protection, connected back to that moment when Ezri’s mom stops Laurie. This feels like a breakthrough, a sign of healing to come. But, oof, the next chapter takes the wind right out of these sails.

It turns out that the hair care Ezri imagined is interconnected to a horror they haven’t imagined will happen to their daughter Elijah. In the next chapter, Elijah meets her abuser for the first time. Ezri is not there and cannot protect Elijah’s hair.

Hair as a Symbol of Strength and Parental Protection

In Chapter 21, Ezri’s daughter Elijah is dropped off at the mall where she secretly plans to meet Lily, a 40-year-old white woman, musician, and pedophile who has been grooming her online. Together, they shop for books, get Elijah’s ears pierced at Claire’s, and–the part that got to me–get Elijah’s hair cut. The hair cut is an Achilles heel moment. Just pages before, in therapy, Ezri said “this boy’s strength is in his hair” (p 142). This strength is why Ezri tried not to cut the boy’s hair while detangling it.

Elijah gets an undercut at the mall with Lily. Symbolically, some of her “strength” was shorn off completely, making her even more vulnerable to Lily’s attack. I knew after that hair cut she would not escape Lily’s abuse.

When Ezri sees their daughter after the mall, they notice the hair cut and the ear piercing. While looking at their daughter, Ezri thinks of the Le Guin story:

“I am no kind of parent. I know this. I know this. The Omelas boy in my head, he knows, too.” – Ch 21, p 149

At the end of the book, when Ezri realizes the danger Elijah is in, they think of the Omelas child. The moment turns into a heated internal dialogue with the Omelas child lashing out at Ezri. Ezri says this to the child in their head before spurring into action to save Elijah:

“I will not let you die, Omelas child. Know it.” – Ch 34, p 272 -273

This is the last mention of the Le Guin short story in Model Home. I wish I had a neat conclusion to type right here, but the truth is, I’m not done thinking about how this short story haunts the entirety of Model Home and Solomon’s artistic choice to include it, as well as references to dozens of other creative works.

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Annotating Guide: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Appearances in Model Home

The Le Guin short story is mentioned four times. You will need 8 tabs, all of the same color, to annotate them. One will be for the tab key at the beginning of the book, the rest for pages where the story is referenced.

1. Three tabs for Chapter 20, p 140-142

I marked each of these pages with a tab to make sure future me was clued into the fact that Ezri and Max talk about this story for three pages.

2. One tab for Chapter 21, p 149

I am no kind of parent. I know this. I know this. The Omelas boy in my head, he knows, too.

3. One tab for Chapter 25, p 176¹

(this is a a long, 3-paragraph passage)

Passage starts: “I think of the Omelas boy I am holding in my psyche, of all that has been done to him.”

“[…] There’s a well-trained army ready to defend itself against anyone who threatens the great nation’s way of life.” Passage ends.

4. Two tabs for Chapter 34, page 272-273

I marked each of these pages with a tab to make sure future me was clued into the fact that Ezri’s inner dialogue with the Omelas child goes for two pages.

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1. I think this passage may be allegory for Israel and Palestine. Ezri, who is queer, Black, and Jewish (like the author), directly mentions Israel and Palestine in Chapter 30, p 211. The author briefly discusses Palestine in the Acknowledgment section as well. ↩︎