How does We explore the communist ideology through the use of “we” and “I” and how are these used to strengthen the reading of this text? Anonymous 11th Grade

When are “we” and “I” of the same importance and have the same meaning? Is it possible not to distinguish these two from each other? The dystopian work We by Yevgeny Zamyatin explores a society in which these two words have been merged in order to produce one distinct mass, free from any individuality. Although each citizen is his or her own self, everyone exists uniformly to create an invariable “we”: the main ambition of OneState. When viewing this work critically, several parallels between OneState and the communist ideology supporting Soviet Russia can be deduced, strengthened by descriptions of “we”, “us” and “I” that are prevalent throughout We, as communism encompasses equality void of prejudiced treatment. This essay will explore how We scrutinizes the communist ideology through the linguistic comparisons between “we and I”, as well as how the plentiful religious allusions strengthen the reading that Zamyatin proposes, which is that communism may easily become a tyranny under which no true happiness can be found.

We addresses OneState as a society far into the future, long after potential readers of this novel have passed away. Notwithstanding this, the real referent of We is his “historical present” (Booker), as a...