The passage in the first chapter of "We" starts out by saying, "my cheeks are burning." This passage comes after a news article written in the daily newspaper about the construction and progress of the Integral. Yevgeny Zamyatin shows D-503's feelings towards the article, suggesting that the story made him very emotional. The next couple sentences describes the purpose of the Integral, and his supportive impression of the One State. His display of emotion creates an optimistic tone and hooks the reader in to keep reading on.
In the quote "I am only one of the mathematicians of the One State", Zamyatin uses the term "of the One State" to show the connection between the two. The use of "of" instead of something like "in" shows that the mathematicians and the One State are directly related, and that one may be dependent on the other. This is directly related to the title of the book, and another quote in the paragraph saying "I will just attempt to record what I see, what I think-or, more exactly, what we think." It is also shown in the quote "So these records will be manufactured from the stuff of our life." These relations show the interdependence of the people of the One State and the introduction of this particular dystopian society.
D then describes his relationship with his writing of his records as being like that of a woman giving birth. Of course, D should not know what giving birth feels like. In writing this, Zamyatin shows D's obvious lack of knowledge in other areas, besides that of his own expertise (mathematics). Zamyatin begins to show the inter-workings of the society and the knowledge barriers between groups of people.
Repeating the image of burning cheeks in the passage, Zamyatin portrays a potential internal struggle within the protagonist. The image of destruction and pain is further shown by vividly describing the struggles of a woman during labor. At the end of the passage, D says that he is ready, "just as every one - or almost every one of [them]." Zamyatin shows the dysfunctionality of the society through D-503's emotions and through his journals.
I like how you talked about the burning cheeks, I talked about that also, and had the same idea about "destruction" and inner struggle. and destruction of a society.We should probably be tracking the thoughts of "burning" or destruction. One thing you said that I hadn't thought about was the "knowledge barriers in society" and I think that's an interesting point how everyone has one specific job, like he's just a mathematician so he doesn't know about anything else. that would be an interesting thing to track as well.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about how Zamyatin said "of One State" instead of "in One State". You were right in observing that that one word can make a huge difference in the connections between the people of One State and One State itself. Although this clue is subtle, it is very important and is helpful to the reader. However, I did not completely understand how the repetition of burning cheeks points to an inner struggle within D. Especially if the burning cheeks that are first mentioned are caused by what seems to be pride.
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