Summary “We” Zamyatin
The novel takes place in the distant future. The protagonist is D-503, the engineer who built the spacecraft Integral. He writes a manuscript, which is a kind of message to the descendants. The manuscript tells how the citizens of the Great State, led by the Benefactor, live happily. The manuscript is called “We”, and this name is not accidental at all – in the State there is no concept of “I”, and citizens of the State conduct life calculated by the special Taylor system, all doing at the same time. They together come to work and together with it leave, together they take food and walk together. Citizens of the State have no names in the sense in which it was in the past – all of them are numbered. And for that, to meet with the number of the opposite sex you need to sign up for him and get a special coupon book with a schedule of sexual encounters. The Benefactor himself executes violators of state laws with the help of a special machine.
One
After a short time he was informed that I-330 had signed up for him. They meet and I behave quite differently than is customary in the State – she smokes cigarettes, drinks liquor, doing so that the D-503 drinks a sip of liquor. Both are considered to be banned poisons in the State, and the D-503 simply has to inform the Guardians’ Bureau of the violation. But he can not do it. Moreover, he suddenly realizes that he is becoming quite different and can no longer fulfill
He is looking for a meeting with I-330, comes to the Ancient House and, looking into the closet, falls into the dungeon, getting into a new, completely irrational world for him, where he meets I.
His ex-girlfriend O-90, realizing that he can not see her again, comes to him with the words that he wants a child from him. He is horrified – she has not yet reached the Maternal Norm, and for her infringement expects the Machine of the Benefactor. But she is persistent, and D fulfills her request.
The main holiday of the United State is coming – the Day of Unanimity, during which the Bender’s elections are conducted. D-503, along with millions of citizens, votes for the former Benefactor. Thousands of citizens of the State vote against him, among them I-330. D-503 rescues her from reprisal, carrying her out of the crowd. The next day, the State newspaper reports that in the 48th time, the same person was unanimously elected as the Benefactor, and leaflets signed by Mephi appear on the streets. During the next meeting I-330 opens the engineer that “Mephi” is an organization opposing the laws of the Single State, and she herself is a member of this organization. She also offers the D-503 to join them and opens a plan – they want to seize the “Integral” during the tests and inflict a blow on the State that will decide everything.
The next day, the Gazette published the Decree on the Great Operation. This operation must be subjected to all the number of the state, and it will help them get rid of fantasies, from the soul, and become perfect and completely equal. Escaping from the auditorium, where all citizens were gathered to conduct the Operation, the D-503 meets the O-90, which asks to save her and the child. He writes a note, sending it to I-330. I helps the O-90 to get over the wall surrounding the State.
The tests of “Integral” began. But during the tests, the conspirators will find out that their plan is uncovered. I think that this is D betrayed them, and he realizes that his records, in which he set out everything that worried him, was read by the duty officer Yu-she informed everyone.
The D-503 summons the Benefactor and tells him that he needed the conspirators only as the creator of Integral. The next day the streets of the city are filled with rebels. Citizens of the state forget about all the rules, chaos and disorder reign in the city. But the State is not slumbering – everyone, including D-503, is seized in the streets, taken to the auditorium and subjected to the Great Operation. After the operation, D feels how easy it became for him.
He comes to the Benefactor and tells him everything he knows about the conspirators. Together with the Benefactor, he watches as they try to obtain testimony from some woman in the Gas Chamber. She just smiles, looks at D and is silent. It reminds him of something, but he can not understand what it is. The next day, she, along with the other conspirators, should go to the Machine of the Benefactor. The novel ends with the record D-503: “I’m sure we will win, because the mind must win.”
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