We Zamyatin Analysis
We
Response Paper
We, a novel completed in 1920 by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin is considered a dys-Utopia. While a perfect world is described as a Utopia, a dystopia is just the opposite. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, defines a dystopia as “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives” (361). The protagonist of the book is designated as D-503, a mathematician, and the First Builder of a spaceship known as the Integral. The One State is controlled by the Benefactor, an almost God-like figure, along with an organization known as the Guardians. It is the responsibility of the Guardians to be on the lookout for those who might display irrational and dangerous behavior against the One State. Through a series of events, which I will detail throughout this paper, and a relationship with a cipher designated as I-330, he is swept into a failed coup attempt to overthrow the Benefactor and the One State. As We unfolds, D-503 informs us that …show more content…
Zamyatin was certainly aware of the procedure, since lobotomies had been in use since 1890. I believe it was an attempt on his part to imply that the Great Operation was a type of lobotomy used to control the minds of the ciphers. In his paper, A Brief History of the Lobotomy, Dr. C. George Boeree. Professor of Psychology at Shippensburg University, describes the following effects on a patient after receiving a lobotomy; “…cutting the nerves that run from the frontal cortex to the thalamus in psychotic patients… “short-circuited” the problem behavior. The procedure was recommended as a method of treatment for everything from psychosis to depression to neurosis to criminality [1.4]. In that context, the Great Operation would have been the perfect medical procedure by the One State to control its unruly
Response Paper
We, a novel completed in 1920 by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin is considered a dys-Utopia. While a perfect world is described as a Utopia, a dystopia is just the opposite. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, defines a dystopia as “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives” (361). The protagonist of the book is designated as D-503, a mathematician, and the First Builder of a spaceship known as the Integral. The One State is controlled by the Benefactor, an almost God-like figure, along with an organization known as the Guardians. It is the responsibility of the Guardians to be on the lookout for those who might display irrational and dangerous behavior against the One State. Through a series of events, which I will detail throughout this paper, and a relationship with a cipher designated as I-330, he is swept into a failed coup attempt to overthrow the Benefactor and the One State. As We unfolds, D-503 informs us that …show more content…
Zamyatin was certainly aware of the procedure, since lobotomies had been in use since 1890. I believe it was an attempt on his part to imply that the Great Operation was a type of lobotomy used to control the minds of the ciphers. In his paper, A Brief History of the Lobotomy, Dr. C. George Boeree. Professor of Psychology at Shippensburg University, describes the following effects on a patient after receiving a lobotomy; “…cutting the nerves that run from the frontal cortex to the thalamus in psychotic patients… “short-circuited” the problem behavior. The procedure was recommended as a method of treatment for everything from psychosis to depression to neurosis to criminality [1.4]. In that context, the Great Operation would have been the perfect medical procedure by the One State to control its unruly