Analysis of Love in "We"
Love as defined by Websters: a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
Most would agree with this worldly definition of love. Love is a very complicated word, a word whose meaning has been pondered over and written about for centuries. It's caring, nuturing, tender persona is generally held by all in our world. Every human soul on this planet has a desire for love. Human beings have been created souls, souls that need to be filled by something or someone. Some look to God or a higher power to fill that hole. While others seek worldly things such as wealth or power. But, there exists one aspect of need in every heart, and that is to be loved by others. Whether it is through friendship between the same sex, or an intimate, personal relationship with the opposite sex, everyone desires love from others. This desire is so strong, so ingrained in human nature that is is impossible to alleviate.
But for the society depicted in "We", there exists no room for love. The entire society is bent on equality. No one has an individual name, only numbers. Expression of any type of emotion towards anyone or anything is forbidden. Thus, love is forbidden. Therefore, the citizens of this heartless society are not familiar with the word love. The word is never spoken, thus it is not known. But the feeling cannot be removed.
This accounts for the reason D-503 is driven into a paranoid meltdown. But was it really a paranoid meltdown as OneState would have you believe? Or was it simply the fact that D-503 was acting upon the pressing need to be loved? No matter how hard D-503 attempted to compute his feelings with OneState logic, he could not solve the "problem" of love. His heart and mind become so conflictd that he cannot decide whether he enjoys or hates this feeling of love, thus causing his normally logical mind to crash into a state of confusion.
Love and conflict it causes shapes the plot of the novel and is the key underlying theme. Zamyatin displays how a utopian society cannot be acheived for several purposes, but the main is the desire to be loved. A society can easily suppress and influence ones actions, beliefs and morals, but human nature is impossible to remove. And once the core of human nature (love) is threatened, man cannot resist the urge to fight back.
Favorite Passage pg.59
"I'm in front of a mirror. And for the first time in my life, I swear it, for the very first time in my life, I get a clear, distinct, conscious look at myself; I see myself and I'm astonished...I am looking at myself, at him, and I am absolutely certain that he, with his ruler-straight eyebrows, is a stranger, somebody else, I just met him for the first time in my life. And I'm the real one. I AM NOT HIM."
This passage encompasses how love is affecting D-503. At the beginning of this passage his tone is almost revalationary, as if he has finally discovered himself. Yet by the end of the passage he is convinced this newly discovered self cannot be his true identity. This is his human nature shining through. His soul is begging him to capture these newly discovered feelings and fill the missing hole. But he is so fixed in his brainwashed OneState mentality that by the end of the passage he is fighting the desires of his very soul! The society has so very successfully crushed his individuality that his very soul is forgotten. This passage perfectly embodies the theme of love and the desire for it in the novel and serves as a crystal clear example of how oppressive the OneState society is.
Novel Review
I found this novel quite enlightening on certain issues, somewhat controversial and at the same time quite disturbing. First off, the disturbing factors. The very fact that in order to have sex with another person you need to get a ticket for them and that you can choose anyone you want, whenever you want is genuinely disturbing.The very regimental nature of the society I also found facinating. They wake up, work, eat, sleep and have sex on set up times, and they never alleviate from their schedules. A parallel can be made to reality in that many aspects of our lives are very regimented as well. We usually wake up at the same time, go from class to class at the same time, sleep at the same general time and eat at the same general time. So one could relate to a regimented day, but the way it was displayed in "We" was so absurd that it caused me to reconsider if my life is truly as regimented as it seems. The most controversial aspect of this novel that struck a sense of dissapointment in my heart was the way God was depicted. In the novel, the Christian God is oftentimes depicted as uncaring, cruel and an "executioner". I honestly laughed when I read the passage that stated that if God was so caring why do those who oppose him burn in hell? Although I was initially angered by the descripitons of God, I realized that Zamyatin is plainfully depicting the common perceptions of God. Many believe that God is this big guy in the sky who is constantly watching, ready to smite us if we commit a wrongdoing. But this could not be farther from the truth. 1 John 4:8 states: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." God is love! Not hate, or destruction or "executioner"! The God that I know, the one that rules in my life is loving, caring and merciful. Ezekiel 33:11 says: "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'" As this verse says, God does not delight the death of the wicked! He loves EVERYONE and wants to see all repent and come to him. This depiction of God in "We" is commonplace, and just down right false. People need to realize that the common dictator-like perception of God is blantanly untrue.
Love as defined by Websters: a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
Most would agree with this worldly definition of love. Love is a very complicated word, a word whose meaning has been pondered over and written about for centuries. It's caring, nuturing, tender persona is generally held by all in our world. Every human soul on this planet has a desire for love. Human beings have been created souls, souls that need to be filled by something or someone. Some look to God or a higher power to fill that hole. While others seek worldly things such as wealth or power. But, there exists one aspect of need in every heart, and that is to be loved by others. Whether it is through friendship between the same sex, or an intimate, personal relationship with the opposite sex, everyone desires love from others. This desire is so strong, so ingrained in human nature that is is impossible to alleviate.
But for the society depicted in "We", there exists no room for love. The entire society is bent on equality. No one has an individual name, only numbers. Expression of any type of emotion towards anyone or anything is forbidden. Thus, love is forbidden. Therefore, the citizens of this heartless society are not familiar with the word love. The word is never spoken, thus it is not known. But the feeling cannot be removed.
This accounts for the reason D-503 is driven into a paranoid meltdown. But was it really a paranoid meltdown as OneState would have you believe? Or was it simply the fact that D-503 was acting upon the pressing need to be loved? No matter how hard D-503 attempted to compute his feelings with OneState logic, he could not solve the "problem" of love. His heart and mind become so conflictd that he cannot decide whether he enjoys or hates this feeling of love, thus causing his normally logical mind to crash into a state of confusion.
Love and conflict it causes shapes the plot of the novel and is the key underlying theme. Zamyatin displays how a utopian society cannot be acheived for several purposes, but the main is the desire to be loved. A society can easily suppress and influence ones actions, beliefs and morals, but human nature is impossible to remove. And once the core of human nature (love) is threatened, man cannot resist the urge to fight back.
Favorite Passage pg.59
"I'm in front of a mirror. And for the first time in my life, I swear it, for the very first time in my life, I get a clear, distinct, conscious look at myself; I see myself and I'm astonished...I am looking at myself, at him, and I am absolutely certain that he, with his ruler-straight eyebrows, is a stranger, somebody else, I just met him for the first time in my life. And I'm the real one. I AM NOT HIM."
This passage encompasses how love is affecting D-503. At the beginning of this passage his tone is almost revalationary, as if he has finally discovered himself. Yet by the end of the passage he is convinced this newly discovered self cannot be his true identity. This is his human nature shining through. His soul is begging him to capture these newly discovered feelings and fill the missing hole. But he is so fixed in his brainwashed OneState mentality that by the end of the passage he is fighting the desires of his very soul! The society has so very successfully crushed his individuality that his very soul is forgotten. This passage perfectly embodies the theme of love and the desire for it in the novel and serves as a crystal clear example of how oppressive the OneState society is.
Novel Review
I found this novel quite enlightening on certain issues, somewhat controversial and at the same time quite disturbing. First off, the disturbing factors. The very fact that in order to have sex with another person you need to get a ticket for them and that you can choose anyone you want, whenever you want is genuinely disturbing.The very regimental nature of the society I also found facinating. They wake up, work, eat, sleep and have sex on set up times, and they never alleviate from their schedules. A parallel can be made to reality in that many aspects of our lives are very regimented as well. We usually wake up at the same time, go from class to class at the same time, sleep at the same general time and eat at the same general time. So one could relate to a regimented day, but the way it was displayed in "We" was so absurd that it caused me to reconsider if my life is truly as regimented as it seems. The most controversial aspect of this novel that struck a sense of dissapointment in my heart was the way God was depicted. In the novel, the Christian God is oftentimes depicted as uncaring, cruel and an "executioner". I honestly laughed when I read the passage that stated that if God was so caring why do those who oppose him burn in hell? Although I was initially angered by the descripitons of God, I realized that Zamyatin is plainfully depicting the common perceptions of God. Many believe that God is this big guy in the sky who is constantly watching, ready to smite us if we commit a wrongdoing. But this could not be farther from the truth. 1 John 4:8 states: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." God is love! Not hate, or destruction or "executioner"! The God that I know, the one that rules in my life is loving, caring and merciful. Ezekiel 33:11 says: "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'" As this verse says, God does not delight the death of the wicked! He loves EVERYONE and wants to see all repent and come to him. This depiction of God in "We" is commonplace, and just down right false. People need to realize that the common dictator-like perception of God is blantanly untrue.
