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Old 03-25-2003, 09:33 PM   #1
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Default Character delineation of We.

The novel "We" by Eugene Zamjatin is often seen as a futuristic satire but since we philosophers know that tomorrow never comes WE must be seen a a lyrical poem and deal with it now.

In the end of this poem we read:
Quote:
No more delirium, no absurd metaphors, no feeling--only facts. For I am healthy, perfectly absolutely healthy . . . I am smiling; I cannot help smiling; a splinter has been taken out of my head, and I feel so light, so empty! To be more exact, not empty, but there is nothing foreign, nothing that prevents me from smiling (217, New York: Dutton).


The splinter that has been taken out of his head denotes the unification of his mind and is why D503 no longer has any feeling and thus no unexplained knowledge=no intuition=no soul but only facts.

The once unknown identities of the now become Singular State called D503 were the 5 characters always walking 4 abreast "I, we four, were but one of an innumerable waves of a powerful torrent: to my left O-90; to my right two unknown numbers, a he number and a she number." To his right are R-13 and I-330. Both these numbers are isolated from O-90 much in the way the conscious mind is removed from the subconscious mind. The fifth identity was called S-4711 who only comes "passing by" as if it was his gaurdian angel and did indeed come from the Bureau of Guardians.

Sorry to leave this here but I am out of time and may not be back for a day or two. More than anything I wanted to show that Hardy's idea behind the "Convergence of the Twain" is unique in presentation but not as a concept.
 
 

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