Yevgeny Zamyatin: A Literary Analysis

To begin, The book WE, by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a dystopian novel set in the future. Written by the main Character D-503 as a Journal. We learn in that D-503 is a mathematician with the task of building a spaceship called the Integral. The purpose for the Integral we learn is for the purpose of spreading their way of life to other planets. Their way of life which includes their belief system of equality for all, and limiting freedom drastically all for the purpose of the overall happiness of everyone in OneState. Violating any laws in OneState is punishable, most commonly with the death penalty. The death penalty is common in OneState where the Benefactor does the executions himself, held in ceremonial form in front of the public. Continuing further into the book we also see

For example, D-503 describes the feelings he gets attending the Benefactor’s execution ceremony stating, “Judging by the descriptions that have come down to us, this is something like what the ancients felt during their ‘divine service.’ But they serve their irrational, unknown God, whereas we serve something rational and very precisely known (45). Here D-503 is comparing the feeling he gets from attending the Benefactors execution ceremonies to what he has understood about the feeling people gained from attending a divine service from the past. Going as far as to say that the people of the past worshiping god was irrational, where as his worshipping of OneSate and the Benefactor is rational. D-503 comparing the Benefactors execution ceremony to that of a divine service shows how there are similarities in a ceremony to worship god to the ceremony in the book worshipping the Benefactor. Thus showing how the citizens attending the ceremony gives a sense of worshipping toward the Benefactor, and contradicting their idea of equality for