Journal #21

Topic B: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Character: I-330

            In the second portion of the book one of the main instigators that rebel against the One State is I-330. I-330, like all the other ciphers in the One State has been victimized through her loss of freedom and individuality. No one in the One State has any say in what happens or who leads the State. This is shown in the following quote, “The celebration was clouded by a slight disturbance wrought by the enemies of happiness, which naturally, deprives them of the right to become bricks in the foundations of the One State, renewed yesterday. It is clear to each of us that taking their voices into account would be as ridiculous as…” (131) In this quote, the One State holds the “Day of the One Vote” in which ciphers vote on a new leader, despite that new leader already being chosen before the votes were taken. The One States indifference to the ciphers that refuse to accept the Benefactor shows their victimization of the peoples of the One State. I-330 resists this society and its lack of freedom and individuality by creating “MEPHI”, an organization that is against the creation of the Integral and the spreading of “non-freedom” ideas throughout the galaxy. So far at this point the book, I-330’s resistance has been decently successful because she has managed to get hundreds of ciphers from the One State to become turncoats and join MEPHI. Her resistance is also successful because she has also swayed D-503, the Builder of the Integral and also because she has breached the Green Wall and joined forces with the more primitive and hairy race outside of the wall.