We

Yevgeny Zamyatin, in his novel We, provides a commentary on human nature, particularly, our search for love and happiness.  In order to do this, he creates a society in which any abstract concept- anger, sadness, happiness, love, sympathy, etc.- must not exist at all if it cannot be mathematically quantified.  At the start of the story, D-503 lives by the regimented rules of OneState, as a human being who has virtually no human characteristics.  Although he has no emotion, he still believes he is happy.  As  his friend R says, “We are the happiest of arithmetical means…As you people put it: integrated from zero to infinity, from the cretin to Shakespeare” (Zamyatin 43).  As the novel continues, D-503 slowly discovers and is overwhelmed by emotion, and struggles especially with the ideas of love and happiness, two major themes of the book.  R provides more twisted insight, saying “Those two in paradise, they were offered a choice: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness, nothing else.  Those idiots chose freedom.  And then what?  Then for centuries they were homesick for the chains.  That’s why the world was so miserable, see?”  (61).  While R believes that one can have either happiness or freedom, but never both, the truth that D-503 learns is that happiness cannot exist without freedom.  It is impossible to be happy without some amount of sadness and pain in life, and one must be free to ask questions and to search for fulfillment.  Happiness is not something that can be handed to another, or forced on someone- it must be searched for.  The idea of love in a love-less society also comes into play in this story.  As I-330 tells D-503, “You’re afraid of it because it’s stronger than you, you hate it because you’re afraid of it, you love it because you can’t master it.  You can only love something that refuses to be mastered”  (71).  The idea that there is anything in the world that cannot be mastered by math and science is a completely new one to D-503, and perhaps part of the reason why he is so confused by his feelings for I.   For the first time in  his life, D comes to the realization that love is not something that can be controlled or measured or rationed out using pink tickets- it is complex and painful times, and it refuses to follow any rules.  The Benefactor tries to simplify things for him.  “What is it that people beg for dream about, torment themselves for, from the time they leave swaddling clothes?  They want someone to tell them, once and for all, what happiness is- and then to bind them to that happiness with a chain” (207).  What he doesn’t realize is that it is impossible to hand someone happiness without the pain and struggle that come intertwined with it.

My favorite quote in the novel is, “Can it be that everyone harbors the kind of pain that can be extracted only along with the heart…?”  (91).  This line has many layers of meaning and a great amount of truth.  This line represents D-503’s realization that perhaps he is not the only person in his society with the curse of a soul and the burden of emotion.  He has come to realize that all the math equations lay out the laws of their society do not equal happiness, but only serve to repress the emotion and thoughts that lay just below the surface.  Each member of this society is walking around with some kind of pain in their heart- whether it results from millions of unanswered questions and impossible thoughts, or a lack thereof.  With such emphasis on the great Operation to remove all imaginations, this line suggests that emotion is not something to be simply removed, but rather, something that is at the very core of human existence.  This line is a stark contrast to the sentiments and language used at the start of the story, which were completely devoid of any notion of love, pain, and anything associated with the heart.  It also emerges from the confusion that is created by his newfound thoughts and emotions as one clear and profound truth.

As a whole, I disliked this novel because of its writing style and the plot line.  The story was written from the first person perspective and gave the reader the feeling of being inside the mind of D-503.  This was helpful in understanding the mentality of this society for the first several “records” in the novel, however, once D-503 obtained a soul, his thoughts became more and more disorganized, and I felt trapped in his very confused and perhaps slightly delusional mind.  At times, the progression of thoughts and events flowed smoothly and logically, but at other times, completely unrelated ideas would pop up in the midst of the narration, and the actual events of the story became unclear as they got lost in the fog of D-503’s thoughts.  I felt as though I was missing some major events and key points in the novel because of the way in which the story was written using stream of consciousness, particularly towards the end of the novel.  I also disliked the characters because the majority of the time, it was impossible to relate to them in any way.  This society was so far removed from my own reality that it felt as though it could not possibly exist.  Even when D-503 began to feel emotions, they came with such intensity and such confusion, and in the context of such an unrealistic lifestyle, that it was impossible to relate to anything in this novel.  At the most, I could appreciate the author’s message regarding freedom and human nature, and I found several quotes that I really enjoyed.