First and foremost I find the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin very refreshing as it is written in first person unlike the novel Brave New World. The decision to write in first person really helps the reader, like me, to feel and understand exactly what the protagonist was thinking and feeling during a particular time. It is refreshing to read a story that feels like we have the access to read the protagonist’s diary… Now, onto my analysis…

————————————————————————————————-

The One State is an example of what I call an organized society, period.

Before any assumptions are made, I am a supporter and believer of everyone pertaining their own freedom, but I feel that this particular world is very structured and seems like everyone is equal. Not free, but yet, equal.

When I read the first couple of pages of the book, the first thing I thought was “Hmm, if the One State is structured mathematically, then it means that there isn’t a mistake with its concept.” What I mean by this statement is, in most of our math courses we are given an equation to solve, once we think we found the right answer, we have to “check” to make sure it is indeed correct, free from any flaws. There is always an equation for another equation. This applies to the One State since they believe that if they live in a mathematical, structured, organized world, then everything will have a meaning (same as checking your answers.)

I found this extremely intriguing, perhaps because I enjoy math, because the thought never crossed my mind to associate mathematics to become the solution to a “perfect” world. But it makes perfect sense. The residents of the One State live by the hours, everything is scheduled in their lives. Personal hours, work hours, all is based on one particular hour. There isn’t much difference between the residents except that everyone has a particular letter and number that will identify them.

I initially thought they believed in the whole mathematical-structured life so that things are equal with everyone in society but I soon learned that the concept of using mathematics in the One State is to prevent individuality and freedom from entering the society. I couldn’t understand the concept at all and how it would prevent such actions, but the further I read, the more I understood. I-330 stated, “‘To be original is to be in some way distinct from others. Hence to be original is to violate equality.'”(Zamyatin 28). As I stated before, everyone who resides in the One State lives in a structured world in which everything is based on a time schedule. Which means, when someone works, so will the others, at..the…same…time… Which indicates that if someone were not to work at the time accordingly, they are considered to be violating the rules since they are the only ones who decided to do something different.

It’s interesting to learn that if someone doesn’t do what they are supposed to do at a particular hour, then they are violating the rules and are considered different from the others. I guess this means that D-503 and I330 will be considered individuals in the next few entries. We shall wait and see…

Going into the first few pages of the book, I was expecting it to be maybe a utopian society but once again, we are dealing with a dystopian society. I find it interesting that the book is actually a diary and that we’ll be seeing the story from a first person perspective. From the very start of the book, we can already see similarities between “We” and “Brave New World”. Like in Brave New World, We has a all knowing force in the name of the Benefactor. In the One State, it seems there is also a dress code just like in Brave New world, “The numbers walked in even ranks, four abreast, ecstatically stepping in time to the music-hundreds, thousands of numbers in pale blue unifis. And also like how the World State was the running force of the world in Brave New World, the One State is the all powerful society. I think this book gets into a more darker theme, where this society forces others to think like them and if not, they are harshly punished. From the first entry we can see the goals of the One State, to go to different planets to subjugate the unknown beings on the planets. I find it interesting here where it says “If they fail to understand that we bring them mathematically infallible happiness, it will be our duty to compel them to be happy.”(Yevgeny 1) because it shows how much power the One State is asserting and stating to the people.

They’re basically saying that if you do not side with us, we will force you to. They say they will reason with words first but I find that unbelievable. I also think its interesting how they don’t call it just happiness but mathematically infallible happiness. Everything in this society has to do with numbers, especially their names. D-503 to me is a interesting and confusing character to me. At times it seems like he embraces the ideas of the One State but at times it seems like he doesn’t. In the first entry where it says, “And then to myself, why is this beautiful? Why is dance beautiful? Answer: because it is unfree motion, because the whole profound meaning of dance lies precisely in absolute, esthetic subordination, in ideal unfreedom.”(Yevgeny 4) shows that he believes in the idea of controlled actions and on page 34 we can see that he doesn’t like what he’s doing but I’m not sure if he was complaining about the overall assignment or the eyelash or person hes referring to is unpleasant.

I am also assuming that in “We”, love is something that is ignored and unimportant to the society, just like in “Brave New World”. I say this because on page 8 D-503 talks about sexual days here, “She had come to me only he day before, and she knew as well as i did that our next sexual  day was the day after tomorrow.” It seems as if they are assigned days perhaps to have sexual intercourse. D-503 seems like the character to like the idea of being with a girl but not the actual idea of love. On page 4 where O-90 comes to pick him up for their daily walk at the sight where the integral is being built, D-503 expects her to talk about the machine he built but instead talks about how nice spring is. “Marvelous, isn’t it? I asked. Yes, marvelous.” O-90 smiled rosily at me. It’s Spring. Well, wouldn’t you know: spring… She talks about spring, Women..I fell silent.”(Yevgeny 5) I found this part funny because it’s how expectations in real life are shot down. This part also seems like he wants to get with her but is uninterested after seeing how shes not paying attention the machine he built.

I think that utopia “We”, written by Zamyatin,  is similar to the “Brave New World” utopia. The major similarity is that both situations are similar in that the order of society is now considered to be utopian. However, after some delving into the situation and understanding the nature of the world and it’s rules and values the reader comes to understand that is a perverted utopia. It takes a great deal of patience to understand the understanding of the planet structure due to the anonymity assigned to its inhabitants. This was a different aspect in this book.  Each individual in this society is assigned a first letter and a digital number to identify them. This is the ultimate subjugation of one’s personality. This is how we are introduced and identify characters like: I-330 and D-503. We clearly see this in the diary of D-503. He explains how he and another “numbers” love by a ridged Table of Hours. A glass Green Wall keeps the city separate from any exposure to natures and covert Guardians and the Operation Department, with it’s dreaded  society “protect” from what they deem to be dangerous people. Criminals are publicly executed by the “Well Doer’s machine”.

The humanity of the people are being stripped away in this manner. This allows for the machines to have greater control and the people exist almost in a secondary manner to the overlord known as the “Benefactor”. Interestingly, the “Benefactor” is re-elected by an always unanimous vote by the population! The controlling humans inject a set of rules and regulations that define life and the “duty” of all “numbers”.  “At night numbers must sleep; it is duty, just as it is their duty to work in the daytime” (page 58) The “numbers” are also expected to stop thinking and to calculate. People lose the personal connection needed to live meaningful lives as human beings. The have been reduced to just cogs in the wheel of society. This is why there is such heavy mathematical description and many special theorem probabilities, odd numbers and Integers are cited by the author.

While I was reading this I could only be reminded by the most repressive society existing on earth today…North Korea. The “Benefactor” vs. “Dear Leader”…unanimous elections…unrelenting work days…no due process of law…it all adds up to a hellish place to live.

Upon reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin I observed that they gave huge value and importance to logic and math. They considered this to be the essence to their society and their actions, to the point that they it is worshiped and respected and anything seen without the intervention of mathematics is seen as filthy “Hence you see how the great power of logic purifies everything it touches” (Zamyatin 22). Even a simple and natural action such as sex is controlled through numbers and math such as the Table of sexual days. On the top of page 22 we see how society controls the people and we also see the presence of the Table, which originated from the Sexual Department and they go through a whole numerical process in which they determine the sexual days. The narrator (D-503) also compares sex/pink slips to a shape, and this shape being a square. The square signified equality (such as the 4 angles being equal and the 4 sides equal in length) and tells us the reader how this can cause confusion “Take the pink coupons for example [..], to me, this is as natural as […] the square” (Zamyatin 20). By Zamyatin stating this, and making it feel as if it was a face to face conversation and stating his entries to me caused it to seem more realistic.

D-503 even mentions how math, specifically algebra has solved the issues faced by the world such as hunger. “Naturally, having conquered Hunger (algebraically)” (Zamyatin 21) shows how they consider their ability to solve major issues such as hunger as not a big deal. This once again proved how mathematics is considered above everything and is seen as progression and valued in the Once State.

There is also a vast amount of examples of standardizations throughout the One State such as everyone marching with their uniforms “thousands of numbers, in pale blue unifs” (Zamyatin 5). Even the concept of time is seen very exact “In half a minute she’ll be here, for our daily walk” (Zamyatin 5) by this Zamyatin shows how every detail is very important, down to the second and how the people follow a routine.

Another aspect which took me by surprise was how the individuals in the story are not given names, but rather numbers/letters such as D-503 whom is the builder of the Integral, or I-330. So far as I see it, it seems that there isn’t much of personal identity. Since instead of names they refer to each other by numbers or letters, which to me it makes me think that they try to make a separation and sense of self and see each other as objects. While reading this book I kept on thinking of “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, one difference that I noticed was that so far in this book not everyone knows each other “on my right, two numbers I did not know, male and female” (Zamyatin 5), yet in Huxley’s work we observed how many of the characters knew each other due to the promiscuous relationships.