LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Future-Visions Presentation 2007

Tuesday, 5 June: Future-vision presenter: Paula Upham 

Novel:  Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We

OBJECTIVE 2: To identify, describe, and criticize typical visions or scenarios of the future: 

C.   utopia / dystopia - perfectly planned worlds / dysfunctional world

SUMMARY:   OneState rules the world in We.  It is a novel that was written in 1920 and set many centuries in the future.  OneState is an oppressive regimented governmental agency that rules the people.  People have no names and are only known by numbers.  Individuals are stripped of their individuality and are “programmed” to live a “perfect” life.  There is no privacy as everyone lives in glass houses or glass cubes.  Everyone lives in complete agreement with OneState.  They eat, drink, sleep on the same regimented schedule everyday as if they were one and thus become WE.  They even have scheduled “sex days”.  When D-503 is tempted by I-330 (a free-spirited woman) and starts to question his place in OneState, he begins to question his own individuality and his proper place within OneState. 

“Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the very same hour and the very same minute, we get up, millions of us, as though we were one. At the very same hour, millions of us, we start work. Later, millions as one, we stop. And then, like one body with a million hands, at one and the same second according to the Table, we lift the spoon to our lips. And at one and the same second we leave for a stroll and go to the auditorium, to the hall for the Taylor exercises, and then to bed.”

But what about emotions? 

D-503 has been devoid of emotions and lived a life strictly ruled by OneState’s regimen, but can he truly be happy.  He embraces this unity and lack of identity.  It allows him a sort of security, a sense of belonging, exemption from responsibility.  He has been trained to believe that originality is dangerous.  

"The old legend about Paradise - that was about us, about right now. Yes! Just think about it. Those two in Paradise, they were offered a choice: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness, nothing else. Those idiots chose freedom. And then what? Then for centuries they were homesick for the chains. That's why the world was so miserable, see? [...] We helped God finally overcome the Devil - because that's who it was that pushed people to break the commandment and taste freedom and be ruined. It was him, the wily serpent. But we gave him a boot to the head! Crack! And it was all over: Paradise was back. And we're simple and innocent again, like Adam and Eve."

Show Film Clip

Questions & thoughts for discussion: 

Utopian - an ideal society with minimal conflict vs. dystopia- a society surrounded by conflict and imperfection.

1)  Do you think that utopian societies exist today or could exist today? If not, is it possible they will in the future?  Are we any closer or farther from a utopian society today than we were in the past 20-30 years? 

2)  If we “programmed” humans to live a life of unison and without individuality, would that be ideal?  Would it be ideal for everyone to behave in the same fashion, have the same rituals and be on the same schedule?  What if everyone had exactly the same material possessions?