Essay pre-draft

The subject matter for an essay is to explore the frailty of the human condition and compare the experiences of D-503, with what we see occurring in repressive societies that exist today in our world. Since the beginning of time there has always been internal conflict in human beings. Man typically desires “free will” and many wars have been fought over that desire. We see in “We” the evil nature of the Benefactor and the society that he has created. The desire for free will and determination often conflicts with a darker human desire…the desire for power and control. There are people who have fought revolutions and dissidents who have died in an attempt to overthrow the yoke of enslavement. Isn’t that really the same as what D-503 and the people of “we” experience? Those people are not controlled the same manner (technologically) that D-503 is in “we” but they have the same desires. “We millions of us get up as one” (pg 12). This simple quote offers a lot of insight into the world today and world history. It is easy to see this in the context of we, as D-503 fights for control of his own free will. However, haven’t we seen this many times in the last one hundred years on Earth? I believe that this comparison would make compelling reading and connect the character the author created with modern society, much to our dismay

D-503 Has been through core emotional changes and he is exposed to the humanization. “I  am sadness to see, that instead of a harmonious and strict mathematical poem in honor of the One State, I am producing some sort of fantastic adventure navel”( 103). Previously, he is only adept at mathematical progress and machinations. He is fighting his lifelong conditioning by the One State.

We see in “We” the evil nature of the Benefactor and the society that he has created and .  “True. algebraic love is inevitable inhuman, and the inevitable mark of truth-its cruelty”(231).

 

A shocking ending.

At the end of “We” the reader is exposed to a shocking ending. After riding the roller coaster of the evolution of D-503’s human condition, he is brought back to the numbness of this dystopian world.  He is stripped of all his normal human feeling and starts recording his entries that was his original mission. “No delirium, no absorb metaphors, no feelings: nothing just facts(page 231)”.He has lost  all of his feelings, his human emotions and  he is turned back into a Human robot. Despite his best intentions the authorities take him and alter him with an operation, After the operation, he betrays to the Benefactor the enemies plans. “How could it have seemed so difficult before? Incredible. The only explanation I can think of is my former sickness( the soul)”(232).

Throughout the novel, we see the evolution of D-503’s conflict and the torment of his soul as he struggles to find his humanity. From his example, We seems that numbers become a cog in the wheel of society, where there is no personal connection and attachment.  The author shows two different D-503 in the novel, one that is a normal human being with his feelings and reaction,  he wants to stop the  Benefactor and his minions because he feels that he is individual and wants his own way of personal happiness, “Absolute happiness should, of course, carry a minus sign-the divine minus”(184). And the opposite  D-503 when he is an empty number , who’s purpose is calculation and that has been stripped away from basic humanity  and frankly from himself. He is just another cog in the wheel, who exists to perform his responsibility for the one State.  In essence, it makes  D-503 discover two ways of living ,that makes  him suffering from this and creates conflict. ” Who are We? “Who am I?”(219).  This is the main question of the novel. What is the purpose of your own life, what is your desire. “We” are the representatives of society, which has total control and produces manufactured happiness for everyone. It has destroyed individuality and freedom, making humans empty numbers.

Connecting to the “Soul” is  what everyone in the One State thought of as a sickness, that makes you desire and explore your own happiness. His soul is was made him change his direction and way of thinking that makes a stand against people from empty numbers. But in the one State this is considered a sickness because it is danger to the collective . It makes them be individual and follow his heart. “A human being is like a novel: until the last page you don’t know how it will end. Or it wouldn’t be worth reading…”(162). Benefactor cant  calculate D-503’s behavior when he has a feeling to I-303 , we seems that he wants to help ancient people and make a revolution.  In the end of the story Benefactor told D503 secret of the design structure  the One State “True, algebraic love of humanity is inevitable inhuman; and the inevitable mark of truth is -its cruelty”(231).

The Influences D-503 got in his life

The Book WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin was a curious book to read, especially focusing on the main character, which was D-503, notice, how the main characters name is a number instead of being a name. In the One State, D-503 is the engineer of building the integral (spaceship), which the one state will be using to introduce other planets of their way of living. D-503 lives in the One State, ruled by the Benefactor. He has a high position in the One state and is asked to record Journals of he way of living. While reading this book you have to notice the main character’s way of seeing things. The way his mentality is changed. D-503 being introduced to a girl named I-330 causes him to question his way of living, causing him to intend to betray of One State.

Claim 1

I-330 makes D-503 fall for her, making him discover a feeling he had never encountered before by consuming something that is not allowed in the One State.

“a mouthful of fiery poison flowed into me- then more, and more…I broke away from the earth….rushed down, down, along an unknown, uncalculated orbit…it has never occurred to me before..(56)”.

Claim 2

On unanimity Day I-330 caused uproar by voting Against the Benefactor with a group of people causing a side of D-503 to wake up.

“Who is against?’…It took one hundredth of a second: I saw thousands of hands swing up-“against”-and drop. I saw the pale, cross-marked face of I-330, her raised hand. Darkness fell on my eyes. (143)”.

Claim 3

D-503 falling in love for 1-330 makes him leave behind everything he once believed good of the One state.

“Well, you are sick, you have committed crimes because of me… And now, the Operation-and you will cure yourself of me…Well, im waiting. Make your choice: the Operation…or… ‘ I cannot…without you. I want nothing without you (185)”.

“WE” essay 2 draft


Introduction
It is only human nature to have self doubt,it is natural. To have a lack of faith in your own society is to doubt your confidence in where you stand inside of the One State as a person. Self doubt in yourself can and will change the way you stand for or against the society you once looked up to as “perfection”. The cause of self doubt can be from what others want for or from you,which can cause you to constantly struggle to determine if you are making the right decisions or not. To carry the weight of such responsibility contributes to self doubt depending on how much the person can manage. Reading “WE” I notice the traits of self doubt in the character D-503 who wrote the entries of his observations on the One State. He struggles to keep his feelings out of the book which instead shows how many times he has doubt his own actions and feelings towards each event.

Claim 1
Topic sentence – D-503 doubts that math can ever be wrong or never change since it is error free like the one state.
Quote
“There is only one truth, and only one true way; this truth is two times two, and the true way- four and would it not be an absurdity if these happily, ideally multiplied twos began to think of some nonsensical freedom- ie… Clearly to error?” (67)

Claim 2
Topic sentence- The power of love can blind the individuals goals and prospective on life.
Quote
“Iam afraid that if I lose I-330, I will also lose what is perhaps the only key to the disclosure of all the unknown quantities (the incident of the closet, my temporary death, and so on) and even simply as the author of these notes, I feel that Iam duty- bound to find the answers.” (118)

Claim 3
Topic sentence- Obstacles built by minor issues can cause the individual to question his position in society.
Quote
“Now I no longer live in our clear, rational world; I live in the ancient nightmare world. The world of square roots of minus one.”(77)

 

*Reminder: HW for Thursday’s Class (4/24)

Hi everyone:

I hope that you are enjoying the last little bit of Spring Break. Just a reminder that we meet this Thursday, 4/24. For that class, you should do the following:

1. Finishing reading We (Entries 27-40) and blog in response.

2. Essay #2 Pre-Draft. There is not word limit for this pre-draft, as long as you have all of the required pieces: full Introduction paragraph, 3 claims (topic sentences for three body paragraphs), three pieces of evidence (in support of those claims) with citations. Post your pre-draft to OpenLab (categorized as “Essay #2 Pre-Draft”) and bring 4 printed copies to class.

You can always check what is due (and how) on our course Schedule.

Cheers,
Professor Belli

Change from the One state

Reading the novel “We” was just entries about life and order of the One State which has it’s flaws based off of some of D-503’s feelings that he tried to leave out the book. His purpose was to convince other life forms to let the One State take over their society since it is better that way based on their views of life and order.

I noticed that D- 503 love for I-330 was the main reason why he started to doubt the One States ways of life. She made him pour some of his feelings into the book with out him not realizing it, he eventually noticed and started to say that he wants to tell the readers how he feels but that isn’t the purpose of this book at all. “but the heart is nothing but an ideal pump; compression, shrinkage, the sucking in of fluid by a pump are technical absurdities”(171) his statement was D- 503 being very confused about the pain in his heart because of his feelings which he hates to show/ experience and he feels that it’s a waste for such pain to occur since he can’t tell the difference from love or pity towards affection from others.

D-503 knows that his love is only for I-330 but he can’t help but to love her although she is using him for the revolution up rise against the One state which makes him frustrated.”I know : the integral is to make its first, trail flight the day after tomorrow. On that day we shall seize it”(175) she says this to him as if she already knows that he will help her. He finds her plan to be absurd and it will cause him issues. D-503 goes along with the plan since I-330 has him where she wants him to be. This cause D-503 to question the One state even more since he is willing to help.

D-503 understood that the great society was falling to its end. “You are the first to hear it: according to my calculations, there is no infinity!”(250) thinking that a society could last forever is wrong according to D-503 it will eventually fall depending on the circumstances that the society is at. This theory makes his mind run wild about taking over .

D-503 still can’t believe that he really wrote this book although it is clearly his writing and in his possession it still don’t seem that it was him who wrote it ….which was confusing to me since he questioned his work. It seemed that he just questions everything but his love towards I-330. The uprise has made D-503 ready to take over more areas based off of his reasoning and problem solving skills which gives him the confidence to push on towards a new future for the world.

I found this story to be interesting yet confusing since I had to pay attention to each detail of D-503’s life from him being concerned about small minor issues such as radical negative one to trying to take over the One state for a revolution of change.

Literary Arts Festival Response

The Literary Arts Festival was something that I expected to not be entertaining, yet I expected it to be boring because it involves english. I think majority of people would think any event that deals with the subject english would be boring. I was wrong about my assumption that this festival was going to be boring. It turn out that the half an hour I spent there was exciting and I wanted to see more.

I was in the Namn building talking to a few friends and then I left because I was trying to get about half and hour of material covered by the Festival. The festival started at 5:30pm and my class started at 6pm so I was able to catch thirty minutes of observations in the Midway building of City Tech where the Literary Arts Festival took place. I normally have classes in the Midway building and when I entered, I was wondering what floor this event will be on because on the flyer it was not stated. I enter the wrong way of the Midway building to the auditorium then the security guard told me to head to the other door I was not familiar with. As I enter the unfamiliar door, the atmosphere felt good with everybody smiling and looking like they were happy to be there. Everybody smiling made me smile as well and the second thing that made me smile even more was seeing food. I was not greedy to get food as soon as I got there so I walked through the door that seem to have a crowd of 300 people sitting.

I sat down and wondered the whole time what was going to happen and how. As I looking around in my seat I just absorb everyone’s movement because their was nothing else to do until the event start and everybody was sitting. I remember this lady was walking pass all the rows including mine asking in a soft voice if their were any award winning students. She wanted to know if they were sitting in the wrong spot so she can point them into the right direction probably. I also saw a security guard friend of mine who works at City Tech but did not bother to say hi because he was speaking to someone.

The Festival did not start exactly at 5:30pm because I believe that was the time to gather everyone before starting. My mind wondered more and more then finally at 6pm there was a video playing at the front of the auditorium. The video was very interesting and the first thing that came to my mind was Utopian/dystopian because the video editing made everything look so futuristic. It gave me a vibe that the society was uniform like the book called The Brave New World And The Brave New World Revisited. The video showed the outside of City Tech then my idea of them showing a utopian fiction changed. A little more into the video they showing the videographer recording different students from City Tech and asking them if they are excited about this year Literary Arts Festival. All the students had a sense of humor that made me laugh. This part of the video that I watch caught my interest and I wanted to see what was going to happen next but I decided to leave and head to class. Before I left the building I manage to get some free food.

Final development of D-503

The purpose of D-503’s personal entries is to write down and express how life in the One State is considered to be the ideal world of perfection by spreading happiness by secluding freedom from everyone’s lives. In his entries, he is directly speaking to those he plans to convert and bring to the One State. However, recently his entries have fallen off course to the original concept, D-503 expresses more his love for I-330 rather than the main objective as to why he decided to write in the first place.

It’s interesting to see the development of the character D-503 just based on his writings specifically, towards the end of his entries. Seems like in the beginning he was trying to avoid being around I-330 and prevent himself from falling in love with her for many reasons but I couldn’t help but think of one in particular. In the One State promiscuity is practiced by all citizens and I think this is pushed upon in order to prevent any form of feelings to develop between the numbers. If a number has feelings towards another number then it would not be considered a number anymore but that of a human being, an individual, something different. But yet, no matter how hard he tries D-503 gets closer and closer to feel like am individual in the One State, he states, “‘I cannot… Without you. I want nothing without you,’ I said, or merely thought–I am not sure– but she heard” (Zamyatin 185). At this point he does not think of himself, he thinks about others. I-330 is on his mind more than the tables of hours are, which is something completely different to that of another number. It’s almost to the point where he may perhaps be a little obsessed over I-330.

His journal entries surround the idea of the integral and as well as his profound love for I-330 but as the reader, I noticed that the farther he got from the original concept of the entries, that it soon became his personal journal. As he writes his thoughts and feelings into paper he has to consider that others will read this as well and be a witness of his torn relationship of the One State and the green wall. because of this fact, he becomes hesitant many times to even finish his thoughts, at times he begins a thought but never finishes. In one if his entries he states,”I am ashamed to read the last lines I had written yesterday. But it is all the same now; let them stay as a reminder of the incredible thing that might have happened–and now will not happen…no, it will not happen” (Zamyatin 178-179). This quote to me to shows how he is torn between expressing himself freely or keep in mind the real objective of these entries. Either way, I believe even though D-503 is conflicted in many ways it helps him reflect to maybe perhaps and think about what life outside the One State may be like as well as if he really did find happiness.

A light to City Tech’s community

City Tech’s 33rd annual Literary Arts Festival was…different.  When I first arrived to the festival, I was surprised to see that there was a bunch of people in attendance.  I wasn’t expecting to see so many people there, especially being that I myself haven’t heard about the festival before it being announced in class.

The festival began with an introduction video taken by students of City Tech.  The students introduced a woman by the name of Caroline Hellman, who is one of the Literature professors that helped put together the festival and commended her for her work and dedication.  The night continued with literary and musical performances from City Tech alumni, including Rafeal Molina who graduated from City Tech in 2010, special guests including a poet by the name of Cornelius Eady (and his band), City Tech staff, and many others.

During the Literary Arts Festival there were some performances that stood out to me.  There was a poem from a City Tech student by the name of Latoya Scarboro that I loved.  The title of the poem is “Where I’m From.”  I enjoyed this poem because it was personal.  Latoya spoke about her journey through life.  When she was younger she grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  After her mother passed away she ended up moving to Flatbush, Brooklyn.  As a student of City Tech, she struggled with the battles of having two sons.  One with autism and the other with Sickle Cell disease.  This touched me because at the end of her poem she said that these obstacles have pushed her and motivates her to finish school and get her Bachelors degree.  I don’t even know Latoya, and I was proud of her.  I know the struggle of dealing with family members with Sickle Cell disease.  I also know what it’s like to deal with an individual with Autism.  Neither one of these diseases are easy to deal with.  College itself is not easy to deal with, and yet Latoya continues to push herself to finish college.

The next performance that I enjoyed was the performance by Cornelius Eady and his band.  I enjoyed his poems because they were more like the poems you would here at a poetry slam or a paint and poetry event.  You can paint an image in your head while listening to Cornelius’s poems.  When Cornelius spoke, the audience was silent.

Cornelius Eady performed poems with and without his band.  One of the poems he recited that I enjoyed was named “Aretha Franklin’s Hat at the Inauguration.”  I enjoyed this poem because it was comical in some ways with the references to Aretha’s hat to a “church hat” and “testimony hat.”  These words put the image of my grandmother and all her friends in my head.  These older women wear the craziest looking hats to church and some how think that the hats are attractive.  I also enjoyed this poem because the poem itself was not only about Aretha Franklin’s hat at the Inauguration of President Obama, but the poem was basically all about Aretha and her music.  The poems that Cornelius performed with his band were entertaining and unique, I have never heard poetry like that before.

I also learned about Cornelius Eady himself during the Literary Arts Festival.  I learned that Mr. Eady published 7 volumes of poetry called Hard Headed Weather.  Ealy also created a non for profit organization for African American poets.

If I had to sit through another Literary Arts Festival I would do it again.  Even though it wasn’t completely what I expected it to be, it was worth my time.  I’m glad to see that the students and staff of City Tech can come together and do something positive for the school and the community.

infinite numbers – infinite revolution

A particular part of the 30th entry caught my eye; It was explanation of the revolution planned by I-330. “”My dear – you are a mathematician. More – you are a philosopher, a mathematical philosopher. Well, then: name me the final number.” What do you mean? I . . . I don’t understand: what final number?” “Well, the final, the ultimate, the largest.” “But that’s preposterous! If the number of numbers is infinite, how can there be a final number?”” (174) In the excerpt, I-330 challenges D-503 in a way that he can understand her reason or cause for a revolution. This shows the subtle differences between the two and their position in society, mentally. D-503, even more then half way through the book still needs things to be explained at a more mathematical level for him to understand outside of his square mind created by the One State. No matter how far along in the story we are D-503 always reverts back to his safe zone, his square mind, the One State.

I-330 explains the revolution a little further and compares it to the final number. “Then how can there be a final revolution? There is no final one; revolutions are infinite. The final one is for children: children are frightened by infinity, and it’s important that children sleep peacefully at night . . .” (174) With this excerpt I-330 explains that her plan is not to end the One State in one shot but to continue a revolution for children and for their future. She has a sort of hope that children will question the One State and all it stands for just as she has, and will band together for the same cause. Maybe in doing this slowly and secretively will create more numbers and will eventually be enough to overthrow the One State, only a few rebels are powerless.

Concluding from the previous excerpt that children will go on to be the new rebels in the One State, I-330 states that “Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers are invariably children. Exactly, just like children, we must always ask, ‘And what next?” (175). Understood in this quote is a very interesting way of looking at things. Children truly are bold philosophers inside or outside of the contexts of this book. Questioning everything trying to find a final cause, children are naturally curious. In leaving her mark on this society as a rebel, it can be the spark that will ignite a flame of questioning in these children, and hopefully have it spread throughout to the others. Possibly and eventually leading to the down fall of the One State.

D-503 responds to this rebellious talk and says “There’s nothing next! Period. Throughout the universe – spread uniformly – everywhere. . . .” then I-330 says “Ah: uniformly, everywhere! That’s exactly where it is – entropy, psychological entropy.” (175). I-330 responds to D-503’s ignorance and basically says that this system that he cherishes so much will lead to psychological entropy, a unpredictable change in behavior. I-330 believes that spreading this way of life throughout the universe may be working fine now but down the line it will change and the people will become unpredictable, one of the major fears of the One State; any utopian/dystopian novel.