I-330 Brief summary from presentation

Symbolism:

I-330 represents 2 things. Firstly, rebellion, or fighting for freedom, in terms of standing up against the oppression. This is through her role in mephi, as she tries to make a stand and wants freedom to, not freedom from.

I-330 also represents the unknown, as will be seen in the next slide. To this extent, she contrasts with the openness of the One State, (also linking to the rebellion).

“There was a kind of strange  irritating X to her”

Mathematical Language – Links a lot with the rest of the book – I-330 as a name is mathematical anyway. But the x links to the mathematical as, historically, x is used as the unknown, the variable. To this end, say with D-503’s equations, the X is what must be discovered, based on the open facts of other parts of the equation. Therefore, when x  is used to describe I-330 (QUOTE), it is the part of her that D-503 can’t place (The unknown).

Being a member of the collective mindset, D-503 doesn’t know the parts of I-330 that is unknown to the One State – her role in mephi. So D-503 knows what the One State knows, and can’t place what it is about her that the collective mind doesn’t. In his quest to discover this unknown, he is drawn away from this collective mindset, and dragged away from the influence of the One Sate.

Moreover, the letter of X holds connotations on its own. The first connotation of the letter X is that, as a letter, its a cross. This holds religious symbolism, which is in complete contrast to the One States condemnation of the religion (Seen through D-503 laughing about the possible concept of it.) Ironically, this also links to her role in the mephi – a further religious symbol. Further exemplifying her contrast to the One State, that she represents something condemned by it.

On top of this, the letter X is a sharp letter, representing links to aggressiveness and danger.

Eyes: 

Eyes hiding the unknown within I-330, much like the blinds hide the unknown when they are lowered (Smoking, Alcohol)

Society made of glass and openness, she doesn’t represent the society, lowers the blinds on this openness, not representative of the collective mindset

One State cannot control love (behind the closed binds), so what is behind the closed blinds is uncontrollable – so is I-330 – like love, is uncontrollable – this love also relates to D-503 who falls in love with her.

Influence:

I-330 herself doesn’t change throughout the book – same mindset (bring down the One State), this means that her role in the story is to effect change, namely on D-503.

This is highly important as  the book is about this change in mindset of D-503, and  the key reason for this is because of I-330

She changes D-503 from a blind love of the One State, showing him freedom to as opposed to freedom from, and opening his mind up to the alternative hidden by the One State. This enables her to use D-503 to take control of the integral – the man aspiration for the One State, and attempts to use it against the One State.

I-330 uses the ancients house – a house taken from Zamyatin's time of writing – to show D-503 life outside of the One State, and show that the condemnation of the past that he holds (calling it barbaric etc) may not be so true, and that it may have even been a better time.

Contrasts:

I-330 acts as a contrast to 0-90 in that I-330, as a number, has I – straight line – mathematical perfection – better embodiment of One State – Ironic, as clearly O-90 is a far more subservient cipher, and actually obeys the rules. Possibly the reason for D-503s fascination with I-330.

I-330 also contrasts with the One State itself

A)Freedom from vs Freedom to

A)View of happiness

B)Leads to her rebellion

B)View of society

A)Glass, Behind Curtains

B)Refuses to conform to table of hours.

Her Death:

Her death is a very public death, but also paints her ideals in a better light

A)Martyrdom – Dying for the Mephi much like the Christian martyrs died for Christianity

A)her death sparks progress for the Mephi – Allows the birds to come into the One State, social rebellion into society.

B)Willing to die for her cause – risks all, loses all, still achieves progress

B)Shows the barbaric nature/oppression of the One State – public torturing and killing

Message of book and religious theme and link to If this is a man

The point that Zamyatin tries to get across to the Communist leaders is that it is impossible to remove all the rebels against a system and he even says this through (ironically) I-330: "There is no one final revolution. Revolutions are infinite. 


The religious theme is shown in the plot of the story, The story of Adam and eve is shown in the text of "We". We can see the Garden of Eden the perfect society in happiness and secluded from the outside world is the one state. The benefactor is god portraying his ideas and ways of living across to a society. D-503 is the equivalent of Adam. He is given the task of building the Integral and giving knowledge of the perfection of the One State to whoever receives it, much like Adam was trusted by God to protect Eden. However the infiltration of the guardians of S-4711 and the serpent in the garden of Eden this connections is made by the guardians name starting with an s which is connected with a snake or serpent. and I-330, the Eve of this story, tempt D-503 with the fruit of knowledge that is the soul and the outside world, the world of the Mephi, and, as Eve encouraged Adam to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, so does I-330 seduce D-503 into joining her in the Mephi's cause.


The link to if this is a man is that the names of the cyphers are expressed as numbers in We it is because it gets rid of personality that falters the machine of the one state in the text If this is a man it is to lose the individuality of the Jews and create a loss of humanity.

'We" Issues of society and life portrayed in the text

Firstly the society of the one state was founded on mathematics this is because maths is precise and every aspect of the one state that can be expressed in maths is. This motif of maths recurred in the text to show the importance of maths and how it is integrated into the society of the one state.

Cyphers have been given numbers instead of names I think this is too create unity and equality in a society where the collective is more important than the individual. Numbers are precise and are mathematical and what the society was founded on where as names give individuality something that is disliked in the one state.  Also names were originally given by parents by the one state giving numbers they are effectively children of the one state instead of children of the parents.

Life in the one state is strictly controlled to try and increase the productivity of the one state as it is a big working machine. An example of this control is the control over sex. This has been done by the one state to separate love  from sex by making sex a routine and a simple part of everyday life. The one state tries to control love as it is irrational and can cause irrational behaviour and cannot be expressed in mathematics which the one state is based on, precise perfect numbers. But O shows us that love is extremely hard to control and O has grown to love D-503.

The one state in the society see freedom and happiness as non-related. I think this is to keep control with the cyphers, propaganda is used to put this idea forward so the cyphers don't feel like they are missing out on freedom and prefer a unified, structured society designed by the benefactor.  Freedom from (war, famine, chaos, imperfection) rather than Freedom to (do anything you want in life).