"We"

A theme found in "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin is the struggle between two ideas. D-503 struggles between conforming into what his society tells him is right to what he feels. I-330 opens up his mind to an  ulterior mind- set where the world isn't all numbers, there is passion and love. D-503 spends much of the novel so hung up and confused as to what to believe is right he often leaves off his diary entries unsaid. I- 330 will like him to think for himself, but as soon as he starts to feel emotions different from what his society tells him is acceptable he shuts down. He even says how he hates I-303 for showing him these emotions. Ultimately, his society's grip over whelms him and he disappoints us all by allowing himself to be brain washed and watch I-330 be tortured.

"She has taken R from me
She has taken O from me
and yet.. and yet.." 
This is my favorite quote from the novel, "We" simply because just a few words holds such  emotion and opens a window into D-503's mind. I like how the quote ends abruptly because he cannot bare to finish what he is thinking. He is falling in love with I-303 although she is making his life so extremely difficult.  She is opening up his world and his mind and in some ways he hates her for it, or rather he feels he should hate her for it, but all he has is this weird feeling of love in which he has never experienced before. Going along with D-503 and I-303's effect on him is when I-3o3 seduces D-503. I found this scene almost comical because he has no clue what to do. He is feeling things he had never felt before, previously a pink slip was shallow, and un emotional yet here he is consumed in thought about this woman. "She had on a light dress of an old-fashioned cut, saffron-yellow. This was a thousand times more evil than wearing nothing at all." In this scene she has successfully done what she wanted. She wanted him to see a world outside of what he knows, and feel outside of what he knows. Mission accomplished.

I generally found this book difficult to understand and stick with at first. But, i enjoyed the story told and can appreciate the struggle the characters go through. I enjoyed how sometimes D-503 would leave simple...'s for when he could not finish his thoughts where us readers could use our imagination to fill in the blanks. The author did such a great job conveying the emotions and idea that the sentences were not needed to be finished in order to understand the scene as a whole. It was an interesting concept so different from the world in which we all live in that it provided an interesting view point.