We

Yevgeny Zamyatins, We, is a dystopian novel in which its city, One State, seems to be the manifestation of the Marxist ideas of Communism. One of the things that is a major theme of the novel, and also contributes to the communistic idea, is the pink tickets in the novel. The pink tickets serve as a way for the government to moderate the publics sexdrive. The city has in place a system in which any number(person) is entitled to any other number, as a way to prevent jealousy/emotions,(keep everyone equal). This is just such a crazy idea in my opinion because one can just imagine what it would be like to have un-consentual sex with random people on a regular basis(unconsentual being if they pick you, not if you pick them).In essence I believe this is contributes to the overall theme of the novel, in that people are "entitled" to other people, which just goes to show how violated peoples liberties have come, and how the denizens of one state are oblivious to it.

"I rushed to the house office, handed over to the controller on duty my pink ticket, and received a certificate permitting the use of the curtains. This right exists in our State only for the sexual days. Normally we live surrounded by transparent walls which seem to be knitted of sparkling air; we live beneath the eyes of everyone, always bathed in light. We have nothing to conceal from one another; besides, this mode of living makes the difficult and exalted task of the Guardians much easier. Without it many bad things might happen..." in my opinion is a quote that really shows how deprived of personal freedom One State is, and I believe the quotation really paints a picture of how One State is so privacy-less. At the same time word choice, such as that of "rushed" implies that he was excited, and looking forward to "using his pink ticket", which shows that all though the citizens of One State are deprived of emotion for the most part, D, is struggling ,because he is showing emotion in this very quotation. In essence this quotation in my opinion portrays some of the major themes of the novel.

I thought We was a pretty decent novel, although personally I preferred Anthem because of its more upbeat ending(which is kind of ironic being its a dystopia). In any case, We, was hard to follow at first due to the point of view, being from the eyes of a mathematical "fanatic", who'se trouble in interpreting his emotions, tends to cross over into the readers point of view, adding a bit of 'chaos' to the reader.However at the same time the thing that makes it difficult to understand makes it 'authentic', to an extent I believe. All in all thought We, was in my opinion "3/5 stars", in that it was good but, nothing made it really stand out more than other dystopian novels I may have read,and the point of view from D's point of view was a little cumbersome.