Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'

In her work on the art of fictional representation, titled 'On Conflict in Fiction', Le Guin remarks:

From looking at manuals used in college writing courses, and from listening to participants in writing workshops, I gather that it is a generally received idea that a story is the relation of a conflict, that without conflict there is no plot, that narrative and conflict are inseparable.

Now, that something or other has to happen in a story, I agreee (in very general, broad terms; there are, after all, excellent stories in which everything has happened, or is about to happen). But that what happens in a story can be defined as, limited to, conflict, I doubt. And that to assert the dependence of narrative on conflict is to uphold Social Darwinism on all its glory, I sadly suspect.

Existence as struggle, life as a battle, everything in terms of defeat and victory: Man versus Nature, Man versus Woman, Black versus White, Goodd versus Evil, God versus Devil - a sort of apartheid view of existence, and of literature.

Bearing the above mentioned quote in mind, how do you 'read' Le Guin's story?

The Things They Carried: thoughts on our very own

Consider the following: