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Evgeny Zamyatin we are analyzing. Composition "The ideological meaning of Zamyatin's novel" We

The novel "We" is a protest against the impasse in which the
european american civilization erasing,
mechanizing, manipulating.
E. Zamyatin

I read his "We": brilliant,
a thing sparkling with talent; among
fantastic literature is a rarity
that people are alive and their fate is very exciting.
A. Solzhenitsyn 1

The history of creation and the meaning of the title of the novel "We": The novel was created shortly after the author returned from England to revolutionary Russia in 1920 (according to some reports, work on the text continued into 1921). The first publication of the novel took place abroad in 1924. In 1929, the novel was used for massive criticism of E. Zamyatin, and the author was forced to defend himself, justify himself, explain himself, since the novel was regarded as his political mistake.

The image of the author in the novel "We": According to Zamyatin (he was not the first in this statement), any artistic image to some extent always autobiographical. In the case of the title of the novel "We" and the hero of the novel, this statement is especially true. The title of the novel also includes an autobiographical element. It is known that Yevgeny Zamyatin during the years of the first Russian revolution was a Bolshevik, enthusiastically welcomed the revolution of 1917 and, full of hope, returned from England to his homeland - to revolutionary Russia. But he had to witness the tragedy of the revolution: the strengthening of the "Catholicism" of the authorities, the suppression of creative freedom, which should inevitably lead to stagnation, entropy (destruction). The novel "We" is partly an auto-parody of their former missionary and educational revolutionary aspirations, ideals, testing them for vitality.

World of the United State: IN architectural In terms of the world of the United State, of course, it also represents something strictly rationalized, geometrically ordered, mathematically verified, the aesthetics of cubism dominates: rectangular glass boxes of houses where people-numbers live, straight overlooked streets, squares. Sterile clear planes of glass make the world of the United State even more lifeless, cold, unreal. The architecture is strictly functional, devoid of the slightest decoration, "unnecessities".

Genre and plot of the novel "We": The novel is written in the genre of fantasy - dystopia. Moreover, along with conventionality, fantasticness, the novel is also characterized by psychologism, which dramatizes the actual socio-social, ideological problems. The plot of the novel is fantastic, its action takes place in the distant future in a certain United State - a utopian city of universal happiness. Behind the fantastic plot and surroundings, the author sees and shows a person, his breathing, pulse, pulsation of thought.

Image D-503. Characteristics of the protagonist of the novel "We": D-503 - the same screw, number, like the others, which is a product of a rationalized state, with straightened, mathematically verified feelings, which is emphasized by a speaking portrait detail: "drawn straight eyebrows". However, the planar, “rectified” dimension is not its only dimension, it has something that potentially distinguishes it from others, it contains something special, poetic a beginning that is already contained in his poeticization of the Tablet of the Hour, inspired admiration for its mathematical perfection and harmony.

Love in "We": A poem about the greatness of the United State, which engineer D-503 planned to write, with the advent of a love line, becomes a tense emotional novel narrative. There is a change in the genre setting: the novel of ideas becomes a novel of people. The love scenes in this rationalistic novel, surprisingly, are among the most lyrical and emotional in all of Russian literature. The love element so captures the hero, so intoxicates him that he looks at familiar things in a completely different way.

Visual or auditory associations associated with the name (number) of the character: For Zamyatin, it was very important to visualize the hero, his appearance, which largely determined the inner world of the hero. The writer thought a lot about this, experimented, deduced a certain theory, which he applied in his artistic practice. The experience of E. Zamyatin testifies that the writer masterfully masters not only the methods of sound, but also the visual characterization of characters. One of E. Zamyatin's most characteristic methods of characterization is the exact choice of the hero's name, and both visual and auditory impressions are important.

Female images in the novel "We" (I-330, O-90, Yu): Back in the 1920s, E. Zamyatin's contemporaries noticed that the writer was especially successful in female characters. In general, the male characters in the novel "We" are more rationalistic, straightforward, have a less stable character, they are characterized by reflection and hesitation. It is I-330 and O-90 - strong characters - who do not hesitate to oppose the United State, in contrast to the reflective male numbers, despite the fact that both heroines are completely different in psychology, appearance, and life goals.

Christian and numerical symbolism in the novel "We": Christian symbolism is actively used in the novel. Sometimes Christian motives are present in an indirect form. For example, famine in the One State is eliminated with the opening oil food, which, in fact, replaces the oldest symbol of Christians - bread. The systems of sacred numbers that developed in the ancient Greek, Hebrew and other ancient cultures of the Mediterranean were partly assimilated, partly rethought and, on the whole, received a new mystical and symbolic content in the teachings of Christians. In the function of the most significant, key numbers began to be used, well known from the Holy Scriptures - primarily 3, 7, 12.

The role of the artistic detail: With all the variety of ways to convey the psychological state of the characters, the prevailing is indirect psychologism, i.e. the transfer of the psychological state in its external expression: gesture, speech patterns, facial expressions. Particularly important here is the artistic detail, which is always significant in one way or another in any work. In the aesthetics of E. Zamyatin, the artistic detail is in the lead, it is the leading principle of organizing the portrait of the hero, which is determined by the general impressionistic nature of the image.

Color in the novel, visibility, picturesqueness of the novel "We": Painting in a word, color painting play a very important role in the works of E. Zamyatin: color is involved in the creation of character, contains an emotional and conceptual characteristic of the surrounding world, with its help the main conflict of the work appears more visible and visual. The opposing worlds have different color characteristics: the world of the United State is dominated by cold bluish gray color, in the opposite world - behind the Green Wall reigns variety of colors, variegation, multicolor.

Impressionism of the novel "We": One of the features of Zamyatin's novel is its impressionism, dashed, dotted nature of the depicted, as a result of which a complete three-dimensional picture is recreated. Zamyatin almost never gives detailed descriptions of the hero's feeling, experience, but gives individual touches, according to which the reader recreates the experience, the feeling as a whole. A holistic picture is already created in the reader's imagination, Zamyatin trusts the reader and gives him the right to co-create.

Expressionism as a means of creating psychological tension in the novel: Another feature of Zamyatin's psychologism, along with impressionism, is increased expression, expressionism. Extreme emotional tension is a distinctive, one of the most characteristic features of Zamyatin's writing style. And this is the influence of expressionism of the 1910-1920s. Expressionism, with its exaggeration, sharpness and conventionality of images, is the best suited for Zamyatin's novel-refutation, novel-warning. It is important for the author to expose, sharpen the thought, bring it to the point of absurdity and thereby compromise.

Various "codes" for reading the novel. Modernity of the novel "We": The novel "We" over its eighty-year history has developed its own traditions, reading codes. For many years, the ideological, sociological reading of the novel prevailed; in the perestroika years, it naturally became stronger due to the fact that the country's past was radically revised. In recent years, the content of the novel fits into a wider context - into the world history of the twentieth century.

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INTRODUCTION 3
6
2. SYMBOLS OF THE NOVEL "WE" 8

2.1 "WE" - A WARNING NOVEL ABOUT THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTING YOUR OWN "I" 8
2.2 THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS, THE STATE AND THE INDIVIDUAL, THE COLLISION OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE 11

CONCLUSION 16
BIBLIOGRAPHY 19

INTRODUCTION

It should be noted that for many centuries the problem of color symbolism was relevant for a number of major writers, poets, musicians and artists. Relevant the problem of art and culture of the twentieth century: the interaction of rational and irrational principles, expressed through the symbolism of number and color; their opposition and unity in nature, in life and in creativity.

The world of the novel "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, a Russian writer who stood at the origins of the satirical dystopia of the 20th century, is harsh and gloomy. This is a world of "numbers", not personalities, a huge mechanism of the United State, thoroughly calculated in everything, with ideally ground "cogs".

Everything is really calculated. Not only working hours - all aspects of the life of the "numbers" are covered by the State, painted every second in the Table of Hours. Even art is subordinated in this truly barracks future to narrowly practical goals. "It's just ridiculous: everyone wrote - what he pleases ... Now poetry is no longer a shameless nightingale whistle: poetry is a public service, poetry is utility."

E. Zamyatin's novel "We" shows a rationalized society, limited by the Green Wall, a kind of United State, in which there are a large number of restrictions for its inhabitants, including the color spectrum. The novel draws a parallel between the world behind the Wall and the world outside the wall, between the colors of these worlds.

We list the main colors of the United State: blue pink, gray. It is not surprising that there are so few of them, because people in this State strive to be machine equal, therefore their colors are limited by the fact that all the main characters are shown through numbers (D-502, 1-330, O-90, etc.). The main colors of the world outside the Wall are yellow (golden), blue, green, red, orange, crimson, amber… It is impossible to list them all. They symbolize the primary, original world. In this dystopia, Zamyatin shows the prototype of the society he envisions. There is not a single hint of Russia, but we understand what the author means.

The novel "We" was conceived as a parody of a utopia written by the ideologists of Proletkult A. Bogdanov and A. Gastev. The main idea of the proletarian utopia was proclaimed a global reorganization of the world on the basis of "the destruction of the soul and feeling of love in man." The action of the novel We takes place in the United State, isolated from the world and headed by the Benefactor. The protagonist is engineer D-503, the creator of a structure designed for human domination over space. Existence in the United State is rationalized, residents are completely deprived of the right to privacy, love is reduced to the regular satisfaction of physiological needs. D-503's attempt to love a woman leads him to betrayal, and his beloved to death. The narrative manner in which the novel is written differs markedly from the style of Zamyatin's previous works: the language here is extremely simple, the metaphors are rationalistic, and the text is replete with technical terms.

aim This essay is the consideration, study and analysis of the symbolism of number and color in the novel by E. Zamyatin "We".

Setting the goal of the study necessitated the solution of the following interrelated tasks:

- consider the ideological meaning of the novel "We" by E. Zamyatin;

- to study the role and meaning of colors and numbers in the novel "We" by E.I. Zamyatin;

- to analyze the main themes revealed by E. Zamyatin in the novel "We".

Method research - appeal to certain facts, consideration of critical literature, study of the novel itself, generalization in conclusions.

The subject of the essence and features of the symbolism of number and color is poorly studied by domestic literary critics, therefore it is relevant to devote the work to a deep, comprehensive disclosure of the chosen topic of the abstract.

The purpose and objectives of the work determined the choice of its structures. The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of literature used in writing the work.

The first chapter of the work is devoted to the study of the ideological meaning of the novel "We" by E. Zamyatin. The second chapter analyzes the role and meaning of colors and numbers in the novel "We" by E.I. Zamyatin, the chapter is devoted to the characteristics of the main themes revealed by E. Zamyatin in the novel "We".

This construction of the work most fully reflects the organizational concept and logic of the material presented.

When writing the work, monographs by the authors Dolgopolov L., Lanin B., works by E.I. Zamyatin, as well as a wide range of magazine and newspaper articles devoted to the issue covered were used.

When writing the work, it was difficult to find a bibliographic base dedicated to the coverage of the issue under study due to the poor knowledge of this topic, however, a deep and comprehensive study of the sources led to a detailed disclosure of the chosen topic of the work.

1. THE IDEA OF E.ZAMYATIN’S NOVEL “WE”

Zamyatin's fiction is convincing because it is not writtenbutThe body walked towards her, and she towards him.

Y. Tynyanov

The name of Evgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin is almost unknown to a wide range of Russian readers. The works written by the author in the 1920s were published in the late 1980s.

The work of E. Zamyatin is extremely diverse. He wrote a large number of stories and novels, among which "We" occupies a special place.

At all times there were writers who tried to create some kind of ideal model of the future society. Thanks to these mad geniuses, humanity dreamed of an ideal world in T. Mora's "Utopia", T. Campanella's "City of the Sun" and the ideal state structure described by N. G. Chernyshevsky in the novel "What is to be done?".

In all these works, the authors described in more or less detail the structure of the future ideal world in which a happy person was to live.

E. Zamyatin creates the novel “We” in the form of diary entries of one of the “lucky ones”. The city-state of the future is filled with bright rays of the gentle sun. Universal equality is repeatedly confirmed by the hero-narrator himself. He derives a mathematical formula, proving to himself and to us, the readers, that “freedom and crime are as inextricably linked as movement and speed...”. He sees happiness in the restriction of freedom Tynyanov Yu.V. Fiction Zamyatin. // Russian literature. 1999. No. 3. P.14.

Gradually, from the sketchy, emotional notes of the hero, a picture of an “ideally arranged world” emerges. People's lives are scheduled by hours and minutes. There are no exceptions for anyone. Everyone lives in the same transparent rooms, gets up on a call, eats rich oily food (exactly 50 chewing movements per piece), sings hymns, walks in formation in their free time, even intimate life is regulated. But there are always mad heretics who are dissatisfied with the existing order.

Zamyatin believed that "heretics" move progress. With these views, the writer is close to Gorky’s position: “The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life!”

Long live the insane! Contrary to everything: logic, common sense, the instinct of self-preservation, they go forward, perish, but “rotate” the planet. They are not satisfied with the society of "universal happiness and reason", they prefer to die than to vegetate in this society of universal prosperity. To think, to be an individual is already heresy, punishable by death. The state of unanimity does not tolerate individuals. He needs obedient performers, not creators Dolgopolov L. Zamyatin E. (On the history of the creation of the novel "We"). - Russian Literature, 2001, No. 4.S.21.

The city-state described by Zamyatin in the novel “We” temporarily triumphs over lone rebels who dared to oppose universal happiness. They are crushed by the ruthless machine of suppression. It seems that evil has triumphed. It becomes scary. But this is exactly what the writer wanted to achieve. Imperfect is the society that destroys dissent, eradicating from people, along with individuality, the ability to reason, think, and dream. In the distant 1920s, the writer, as it were, foresaw the creation of the German Reich with its “new order”, a socialist paradise being created in the USSR. In dystopia, everything is somewhat exaggerated, sarcastically pointed. The writer did not want to horrify his readers, but to warn against such a paradise, and quite seriously, he nevertheless set himself the task. Well, he succeeded! Lanin B. Russian literary dystopia of the XX century. M., 1993 P.145

2. SYMBOLS OF THE NOVEL "WE"

2.1 "WE" - A WARNING NOVEL ABOUT THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTING YOUR OWN "I"

Who are they? The half we areaboutlost...

E. Zamyatin

“We” is a novel about the distant future, the future in a thousand years. Man has not yet completely triumphed over nature, but has already fenced himself off from it with the wall of civilization. This book was perceived by many as a political pamphlet on socialist society. However, the author himself claimed that "this novel is a signal of the danger threatening man and humanity from the power of machines and the state." The emergence of totalitarian regimes caused him serious doubts about the possibility of the existence, albeit in the distant future, of an ideal society, undermined faith in the reasonable principles of human nature. Gifted with a unique ability of foresight, E. Zamyatin understood the danger of leveling the personality, excessive cruelty, the destruction of classical culture and other thousand-year-old traditions.

Thus was born a dystopian novel, a forecast for the future, if the present wants to become one.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel "We" was written in 1921. The time was difficult, and therefore, probably, the work was written in the unusual genre of “utopian books”, which was fashionable during this period. In the life and work of E. Zamyatin, the novel “We” played an important role. The fact is that this novel could not be published in Russia. It was published in both Czech and English. Only in 1988 did Russian readers have the opportunity to read Zamyatin's novel. He worked on this novel during the Civil War.

Under the title of the novel “We”, the author understood the collectivism of the Bolsheviks in Russia, in which the value of the individual was reduced to a minimum. Apparently, out of fear for the fate of the fatherland, Zamyatin moved Russia a thousand years ahead in his novel. The leading theme of this novel is the dramatic fate of the individual in a totalitarian social order. The novel "We" is written in the form of diary entries of one engineer under the number D-503. In the novel, Zamyatin managed to clearly raise the most important problems of human life. Lanin B. Russian literary dystopia of the twentieth century. M., 1993 S.156.

The main problem is a person's search for happiness. It is this search for happiness that leads humanity to the form of existence that is depicted in the novel. But even this form of universal happiness turns out to be imperfect, since this happiness is grown in an incubatory way, contrary to the laws of organic development. The world conceived by the author, it seemed, should be perfect and absolutely suit all the people who live in it. But this is the world of technocracy, where a person is a cog in a huge mechanism. All human life in this world is subject to mathematical laws and timetables. The man of this world is an absolutely impersonal substance. People here do not even have their own names (D-503, 1-330, O-90, K-13). It would seem that this life suits them, they are used to it, to its rules. The author gives, in my opinion, a vivid idea of this life: everything is made of glass, and no one hides anything from each other, there is nothing alive and natural. But behind the wall of the United State, life blooms in full force. Even feral people live there, who did not want a slight happiness. The second problem of the novel "We" is the problem of power. Zamyatin wrote a very interesting chapter about the Day of Unanimity, about choosing a Benefactor. The most interesting thing is that people do not even think about choosing someone else for the position of the Benefactor, except for the Benefactor himself.

It seems ridiculous to them that among the ancient people the results of the elections were not known in advance. For them, the Benefactor is God descended to earth. The benefactor is the only being allowed to think. For him, the concepts of love and cruelty are inseparable. He is harsh, unfair and enjoys the unlimited confidence of the inhabitants of the United State. The culmination of the novel is the conversation of the protagonist D-503 with the Benefactor, who told him the formula of happiness: "True algebraic love for a person is certainly inhuman, and an indispensable sign of truth is its cruelty."

To finally solve the problem, the author introduces a revolutionary situation into the plot of the novel. There is a section of the workers who do not want to put up with their slave position. These people have not turned into cogs, have not lost their human appearance and are ready to fight the Benefactor in order to free people from the power of technocracy. They decide to take over the spaceship using the capabilities of D-503, the builder of the Integral. To this end, 1-330 seduces him, D-503 falls in love and, learning about their plans, at first gets scared, and then agrees to help them. After visiting the Ancient House and communicating with wildlife, the hero has a soul, which is compared with a serious illness. As a result, the Green Wall explodes, and from there “everything rushed and swept over our cleared of the lower world city".

At the end of the novel, the beloved woman of the protagonist dies in the Gas Bell, and after the operation to remove the fantasy, he regains his lost balance and happiness. The novel “We” seemed to me interesting and easy to read. The writer put into it the main problems that worried him.

The author predicted the gradual development of totalitarianism in the world. “We” is a warning novel about the terrible consequences of giving up one's own “I”, even in the name of the most beautiful theories. Zamyatin showed how tragic and disastrous the life of people in such a totalitarian state can turn. Lanin B. Russian literary dystopia of the twentieth century. M., 1993 S.178.

2.2 THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS, THE STATE AND THE INDIVIDUAL, THE COLLISION OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE ABOUT GO

J. Orwell said in 1932 about E. Zamyatin's novel "We": "... This novel is a signal of the danger threatening man, humanity from the hypertrophied power of machines and the power of the state - no matter what" J. Orwell. Zamyatin. Roman We. - M., Unity, 2000. P.80. This assessment of the ideological content of the novel is quite truthful. But still, its meaning is not reduced only to criticism of machine civilization and the denial of any kind of power.

In Zamyatin's dystopia, written in 1920, “there is a clear allusion to the realities of revolutionary transformations in Russia. With his characteristic gift of foresight, Zamyatin says in his novel that the path chosen by the new leadership of the country leads away from the bright ideas of socialism. The writer already in the first post-revolutionary years began to notice alarming trends in the “new” life: excessive cruelty of the authorities, the destruction of classical culture and other traditions in society, for example, in the field of family relations. Time has proved the validity of Zamyatin's controversy with the political practice of the first years of Soviet power - this is how one can define the task of the author of the novel "We".

The action in the novel is moved to the distant future. After the end of the Great Bicentennial War between the city and the countryside, mankind solved the problem of hunger - oil food was invented. At the same time, 0.2% of the world's population survived. These people became citizens of the United State. After the "victory" over hunger, the state "launched an offensive against another ruler of the world - against Love." The historical sexual law was proclaimed: "Each of the numbers has the right, as a sexual product, to any number." For the numbers, a suitable report card of sexual days was determined and a pink coupon book was issued.

About the life of the United State - "the highest peaks in human history" - tells in the novel a talented engineer D-503, who keeps records for posterity. His diaries reveal the features of politics, culture of the United State, the characteristic relationships between people. At the beginning of the novel, D-503 adheres to the views traditional for the people of the United State. Then, under the influence of acquaintance with a revolutionary1-330 and love for her, much in his worldview changes.

First, D-503 appears before us as an enthusiastic admirer of the Benefactor. He admires the equality achieved in the state: all numbers are dressed the same, live in the same conditions, have equal sexual rights. It is obvious that the author of the novel does not agree with the narrator. The fact that D-503 seems to be equal is regarded by Zamyatin as a terrifying similarity. Here is how he describes the walk: “We walked as always, that is, as warriors are depicted on Assyrian monuments: a thousand heads - two integral integral legs, two integral ones in the span of an arm.” The same is evident during the elections of the Head of State, the result of which is predetermined: “The history of the United State does not know of a case when on this solemn day at least one voice dares to break the solemn unison.” In the arguments of D-503 about the disorderliness of the "elections among the ancients", as if by contradiction, the position of the author is revealed. He considers democratic elections to be the only acceptable ones. Lanin B. Russian literary dystopia of the XX century. M., 1993 S.201.

Zamyatin described with surprising perspicacity that parody of the elections, which for a long time in the Land of Soviets was passed off as the elections themselves. The candidate for the post of head of the United State is always the same - the Benefactor. At the same time, democracy was proclaimed in the state ...

The novel shows the life of a typical totalitarian state, with all its attributes. Here and shadowing the numbers, and the persecution of dissidents. The interests of the people are completely subordinated to the interests of the state. Numbers cannot have individuality, that's why they are numbers, in order to differ only in their ordinal number. The collective is in the foreground in such a state: “We” are from God, and “I” are from the devil.” The family here is replaced by a coupon right. And the housing provided to the numbers can hardly be called a house. They live in high-rise buildings, in rooms with transparent walls, so that they can be easily monitored.

The United State found control over the disobedient - as a result of the Great Operation, to which all the numbers were forcibly subjected, a fantasy was cut out for them. Much more reliable protection from dissent! Zamyatin writes that as a result of this operation, the heroes become like “some kind of humanoid tractors.” D-503 after the operation finally renounces the impudent thoughts that arose under the influence of “1-330”. Now he doesn't hesitate to go to the Guardian's Bureau and denounce the rebels. He becomes a "worthy citizen of the United State." Thus, the words of the Benefactor came true about paradise, as about a place where blissful, desireless people with a carved fantasy stay.

In the United State, experiments are carried out not only on people. We see what the natural environment is turning into. In the city where the action takes place, there is nothing alive. We do not hear the birds, the rustle of trees, we do not see the sun (the sun that shone in the world of the ancients seemed to D-503 “wild”). The technocratic city-state is contrasted in the novel with the world behind the Wall -- Living Nature. There, behind the Wall, "natural" people lived - the descendants of those who left after the two hundred years of war in the forests. In the life of these people there is freedom, they perceive the world around them emotionally. However, Zamyatin does not consider these people ideal - they are far from technological progress, therefore their society is in a primitive stage of development.

Thus, Evgeny Zamyatin advocates the formation of a harmonious person. Numbers and "natural" people are extremes. Zamyatin's dreams of a harmonious person can be found in D-503's reflections on “forest” people and numbers: “Who are they? The half that we have lost, H 2 and O ... it is necessary that the halves unite ... ”Zamiatin E. Selected Works, vols. 1-2. M., 1999. P.56

The ideological meaning of the work is revealed in the scene of the uprising of members of the revolutionary organization "Mephi" and its supporters. The wall separating the totalitarian world of the city-state from the free world has been blown up. In the city, a bird's hubbub is immediately heard - life comes there. But the uprising in the novel is defeated, and the city is again separated from the outside world. The United State once again erected a wall that forever cut people off from a free life. But the end of the novel is not hopeless: the “illegal mother” O-90 managed to escape behind the Wall, to the “forest” people. Born in the natural world, her child from D-503, according to Zamyatin's plan, should become one of the first perfect people in which two broken halves will unite.

With his novel, Zamyatin solves a number of the most important universal and political problems. The main themes in the novel are the themes of freedom and happiness, the state and the individual, the clash of the individual and the collective. Zamyatin shows that there can be no prosperous society that does not take into account the needs and interests of its citizens, with their right to choose. The political significance of the novel “We” was accurately defined by the historian C. Walsh: “Zamiatin and other authors of anti-utopias warn us not about erroneous political theories, but about the monstrous things that an initially good political movement can result in if it is perverted.”

The fate of this work, which was first published in the author's homeland only after almost 70 years, in 1988, proves its acute problems and political orientation. No wonder the novel aroused great interest in Russia in the 1920s, although Zamyatin's contemporaries could not see it printed. This work will always be relevant - as a warning about how totalitarianism destroys the natural harmony of the world and the individual.

CONCLUSION

We live in difficult times, but we should be grateful to him at least for the fact that undeservedly forgotten names and works have returned to us. Among them are E. Zamyatin and his novel “We”. This book, which had a huge impact on European literature, was studied in educational institutions in many countries, was published in Russia almost seventy years after its appearance. Why? Probably because its author did not know how to lie and did not want to hide his anxiety at the sight of what was happening to his homeland after October 1917. The writer shared the fate of many of his contemporaries: his books were not published, and he himself was forced to emigrate. The bitter truth remains that there is no prophet in his own country.

"We" is a novel about the future, about the distant future - a thousand years from now. It tests the viability of a dream that has accompanied human civilization for centuries. An alarming feeling arises already from the title of the book. “We” is a word-slogan, a word-symbol of the consciousness of the masses. The writer shows the real essence of the utopia, allegedly implemented on behalf of the majority and for its good. In the categoricalness of “we”, there is a ban on “I”. It is on this prohibition that the power of the One State, which is described in the novel, is based. The story is told in the form of the protagonist's diary, which gives particular credibility and allows you to get acquainted with the fate and views of one of the inhabitants of the society of the future, with the language and style of the United State. The plot of the novel reproduces not the most cloudless days in the life of the “new world”. A conspiracy is brewing in the United State, an underground organization “Mephi” appears. At first glance, this seems absurd. A conspiracy against happiness, against “earthly paradise”? But let's see what kind of social forecast does E. Zamyatin make? Mikhailov A.A. The study of creativity Zamyatina E.I. M .: Young Guard, 2001. P. 215

We see the great United State that emerged after the Bicentennial War, when only "0.2 of the world's population" survived. They defeated not only enemies, but nature itself. People fenced themselves off from it with the Green Wall, beyond which it is forbidden to go. A sprig of lilies of the valley can only be obtained at the Botanical Museum. The life of the United State is subject to the Table of Hours, according to which everyone sleeps, wakes up, eats “petroleum food”, walks, works and even makes love at the same time. In order to control people, there is "the skillful, heavy hand of the Benefactor." In order to follow how the daily routine is carried out, "there is an experienced eye of the keepers." To be happy is everyone's duty. A necessary condition for existence in the United State is an ideal, well-oiled way of life. But cleanliness and order in houses is part of the supervision of the private life of citizens. Glass dwellings are looked through, curtains are lowered only when love on "pink coupons" is resolved. In the United State there can be no long attachments, sincere feelings. Here everyone belongs to everyone. If there is no love, then there is no family. Only those who meet the Maternal and Paternal Norms are allowed to have children, but they also do not become parents in full, as their pets are brought up by the State. These realities of the future cease to amaze when you remember that we are not talking about people, but about “numbers”.

As if everyone is equal and happy, they don’t think about anything, they don’t doubt anything, but this is not entirely true. Among the heroes there are those who are not satisfied with such a “happy” future. Most often, the protest comes from women, since it is most difficult for them to come to terms with life without love. So thinks 0-90, who decides to give birth to a child, although she does not fit the Maternal Norm. Another heroine - 1-330 - leads an uprising against the One State. It is thanks to this woman that the “I” in the main character awakens. D-503 falls in love for real, the soul wakes up in him. The former law-abiding citizen begins to doubt the impeccability of the “ideal lack of freedom”, he is going to give the “Integral” into the hands of the rebels. But for 1-330, an affair with D-503 is just a task. Crushed by jealousy and disappointment, main character agrees to an operation to remove the fantasy. The circle is closed: the uprising is suppressed, D-503 is completely impersonal, he proudly declares: "I am sure - we will win."

Tragically ironic in the finale is the promise of victory and happiness. The state subjugated the individual, an attempt at insight turned into final death. But it is no coincidence that the author's forecast is so gloomy. Throughout the course of the novel, E. Zamyatin reveals to us its central idea: “This novel is a signal of the danger that threatens man, humanity from the hypertrophied power ... of the state - it doesn’t matter which one.” You cannot build a world in which there is no place for feelings, you cannot succumb to the pressure of a totalitarian system. When “I” dissolves into “we”, a person ceases to be a person.

E.I. Zamyatin was not going to write a parody of communism, he drew the finale of the development of any social system, which is based on the idea of violence against a person. Thus, the main theme in the novel "We" is the theme of individual freedom. This theme is revealed with the help of a parodic rethinking of the idea of "universal equality". Zamyatin was an opponent of this thesis, appreciating in each person his unique individuality. In dystopia, the mechanism for leveling individual consciousness is calculated to the smallest detail. This gives the novel greater depth than the negative utopias that appeared in Russia in the 20th century in line with the rather stable tradition of utopian literature.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Dolgopolov L. Zamyatin E. (On the history of the creation of the novel "We"). - Russian literature, 2001, No. 4

2. Zamyatin E. Selected works, vols. 1-2. M., 1999.

3. Zamyatin E. Tales. Stories. Voronezh, 1996

4. Lanin B. Russian literary dystopia of the twentieth century. M., 1993

5. Abramov A.S. Zamyatin E.I. Life and art. M., Enlightenment, 1996

6. Mikhailov A.A. The study of creativity Zamyatina E.I. M .: Young Guard, 2001.

7. Pavlov P.V. Writer E.I. Zamyatin. M., Young Guard, 1999.

8. Prosvirina I.Yu. Zamyatin E.I. ZhZL. M .: Young Guard, 1999.

9. J. Orwell. Zamyatin. Roman We. - M., Unity, 2000.

10. Tynyanov Yu.V. Fiction Zamyatin. // Russian literature. 1999. No. 3.

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Municipal educational budgetary institution

secondary educational school in the village of Amzya, Neftekamsk city district

Analysis of the novel by E. Zamyatin "We"

(research)

Completed by a student of class 11 B Gultyaev Vadim

Head teacher of Russian language and literature

Fayzullina Gulnaz Mukhametzyanovna

2011-2012 academic year

Review

The student managed to identify the main problems of the novel. A table showing the concepts of "I" and "we" helps to understand the main conflict of the work.

This research work can be used as a theoretical material in the study of the novel by E. Zamyatin.

one . The genre of the work.

2. The meaning of the title of the novel

3. Conflict between society and the individual

4. The concept of happiness and freedom in the novel

5. The internal struggle of the protagonist.

6. Relevance of the work

7. Development of the dystopian genre in modern literature.

Since ancient times, people have dreamed that someday the time will come when there will be complete harmony between man and the world and everyone will be happy. This dream in literature was reflected in the genre of utopia (the founder of the genre is T.Mor). The authors of utopian works depicted life with an ideal state system, social justice (universal equality). Building a society of universal happiness seemed to be a simple matter. Philosophers argued that it is reasonable enough to structure an imperfect order, to put everything in its place - and here is an earthly paradise for you, which is more perfect than heaven.

Dystopia is a logical development of utopia and formally can also be attributed to this trend. However, if the classical utopia focuses on demonstrating the positive features of the social order described in the work, then the anti-utopia seeks to reveal its negative features. An important feature of utopia is its static nature, while dystopia is characterized by attempts to consider the development of the described social structures (as a rule, in the direction of increasing negative trends, which often leads to a crisis and collapse). Thus, dystopia usually works with more complex social models.

Dystopia is a genre that is also called negative utopia. This image of such a possible future, which frightens the writer, makes him worry about the fate of mankind, for the soul of an individual.The purpose of utopia is, first of all, to show the world the path to perfection, the task of dystopia is to warn the world about the dangers that await it on this path. Anti-utopia exposes the incompatibility of utopian projects with the interests of an individual, brings the contradictions inherent in utopia to absurdity, clearly demonstrating how equality turns into leveling, a reasonable state structure - a violent regulation of human behavior, technical progress - turning a person into a mechanism.

Zamyatin's novel "We" became the first work in which the features of this genre are embodied with all certainty. And for the modern reader, E. Zamyatin is, first of all, the author of a fantastic dystopian novel that raised a high wave in the world literature of the 20th century.

"The novel "We" is a protest against the impasse in which the

European-American civilization erasing, mechanizing,

machine man,” wrote E. Zamyatin about his work.
Zamyatin managed to write a book of a topical and peculiar antithesis genre - a satirical anti-utopia, exposing sweet illusions that led a person and society into dangerous delusions about tomorrow, and planted quite often quite deliberately. A. Platonov, A. Chayanov followed in his footsteps in Russia, and O. Huxley and J. Orwell in the West. These artists were given to see the great danger that the widely propagandized myths about happiness with the help of the technological process and barracks socialism carried with them. With his novel We, Zamyatin initiated a new, anti-utopian tradition in the culture of the 20th century.

E. Zamyatin is a writer who managed to quite accurately discern the signs of anti-progress in the surrounding reality of the first years of Soviet power. Of course, the subject of his reflections is not only technical progress, but also those social ideals that were put forward as indisputable truths.

Zamyatin worked on the novel during the Civil War. He was a very perspicacious man, with powerful logical thinking. In the process of work, he felt the need to expand the range of problems, he did not limit himself to the political satire of modernity, but decided to use all observations for a higher goal: predicting the paths of human civilization. The writer had an engineering education, and this allowed him to successfully predict what troubles technological progress and the triumph of technocratic consciousness could turn into for humanity. Zamyatin wrote a novel - a problem, a novel - a warning. Describing a society where the worship of everything technical and mathematical is brought to the point of absurdity, he seeks to warn people that technological progress without appropriate moral laws can bring terrible harm.

The history of the publication of the novel "We" is dramatic. The writer dreamed of publishing it in his homeland! But for censorship reasons, the novel could not appear in Russia, since at that time it was perceived by many as a political pamphlet.

to a socialist society. This point of view is most clearly expressed in A. Voronsky's article on Zamyatin, who argued that the novel "is completely imbued with a genuine fear of socialism, which from an ideal becomes a practical, everyday problem." M. Gorky, who wrote in one of his letters in 1929, did not understand the works of Zamyatin: “We” is a desperately bad, completely unproductive thing. Her anger is cold and dry, it is the wrath of an old maid. The critic J. Brown and Y. Tynyanov spoke sympathetically about the novel. But their opinion could not affect the overall situation.

Meanwhile, the writer read his novel at literary evenings in Moscow and Leningrad. He was recognized not only in Russia, but Zamyatin received an offer from a large firm in New York to translate the novel into English language and he accepted the offer. In 1924 the novel was published in New York. Soon there were translations into other - Czech and French. Only in 1988, almost 70 years after it was written, the novel was published in Russia.

George Orwell said: “It is likely that Zamyatin did not at all think of choosing the Soviet regime as the global target of his satire. He wrote under Lenin and could not help but have in mind the Stalinist dictatorship, and the conditions in Russia in 1923 were clearly not such that someone rebelled, believed that life was becoming too calm and comfortable. Zamyatin's goal, apparently, is not to portray a specific country, but to show what threatens machine civilization.

According to Zamyatin, any artistic image is always autobiographical to some extent. In the case of the title of the novel "We" and the hero of the novel, this statement is especially true. The title of the novel also includes an autobiographical element. It is known that Yevgeny Zamyatin during the years of the first Russian revolution was a Bolshevik, enthusiastically welcomed the revolution of 1917 and, full of hope, returned from England to his homeland - to revolutionary Russia. But he had to witness the tragedy of the revolution: the strengthening of the "Catholicism" of the authorities, the suppression of creative freedom, which should inevitably lead to stagnation, entropy (destruction). The novel "We" is partly an auto-parody of its former missionary and educational revolutionary aspirations, ideals, testing them for vitality.

During the years of writing the novel, the question of the individual and the team was very acute. The proletarian poet V. Kirillov has a poem with the same name - “We”:

We are countless, formidable legions of Labor.
We are the winners of the space of the seas, oceans and land,
With the light of artificial suns we lit the cities,
The fire of revolts burns our proud souls.

We are at the mercy of the rebellious, passionate hops;
Let them shout to us: "You are the executioners of beauty",
In the name of our Tomorrow - let's burn Raphael,
Let's destroy museums, trample flowers on art.

We have thrown off the weight of the oppressive legacy,
Of bloodless wisdom we rejected chimeras;
Girls in the bright kingdom of the Future
They will be more beautiful than the Venus of Milo...

Tears have dried up in our eyes, tenderness is killed,
We forgot the smell of herbs and spring flowers.
We fell in love with the power of steam and the power of dynamite,
The singing of sirens and the movement of wheels and shafts ...

Oh, aesthete poets, curse the Great Ham,
Kiss the wreckage of the past under our heel,
Wash the ruins of the broken temple with your tears.
We are free, we are brave, we breathe a different beauty.

The muscles of our hands yearn for gigantic work,
The collective chest burns with creative flour,
We will fill the honeycomb with miraculous honey to the top,
We will find a different, dazzling path for our planet.

We love life, its exuberant delight is intoxicating,
Terrible struggle, suffering, our spirit is tempered.
We are everything, we are everything, we are the victorious flame and light,
Themselves Deity, and the Judge, and the Law.

(1917)

The title of the novel reflects the main problem that worries Zamyatin: what will happen to man and humanity if he is forcibly driven into a “happy future”. "We" can be understood as "I" and "others". And it is possible as a faceless, solid, homogeneous something: a mass, a crowd, a herd. Zamyatin showed the tragedy of overcoming the human in a person, the loss of a name as the loss of one's own "I".

Throughout the novel there is a contrast between "we" and "I". The conflict between society and the individual. “We” is the State, power, mass. Where there is “we”, there is no place for individuality, personality, originality, creativity, uniqueness, fantasies, feelings, emotions.

Power of the One State

Bureau of Guardians

Clock Tablet

Green Wall

State newspaper

Institute of State Poets and Writers

United State Science

Stability

Intelligence

Mathematically unmistakable happiness

music factory

Ideal unfreedom

Childcare

oil food

Equality

State of freedom

Love

Emotions

fantasies

Creation

Art

the beauty

Religion

soul, spirituality

Family, parents, children

affections

Disorganized music

"Bread"

Originality

It is very difficult to turn a person into a cog in the state machine, to take away his uniqueness, to take away from a person the desire to be free, to love, even if love brings suffering. And such a struggle goes on inside the hero throughout the novel. "I" and "we" coexist in it at the same time. At the beginning of the novel, the hero feels that he is only a part of "we" "... that's right: we, and let this "We" be the title of my notes."

At the very beginning of the novel, we see how delighted the hero-narrator is with the daily march to the sounds of the musical factory: he experiences absolute unity with the rest, feels solidarity with his own kind. “As always, the music factory sang the March of the United State with all its pipes. In measured rows, four at a time, enthusiastically beating time, there were numbers - hundreds, thousands of numbers, in bluish unifs, with gold plaques on their chests - the state number of each and every one. And I - We

four, is one of the innumerable waves in this mighty current. (record 2nd).

Note that in the fictional country created by Zamyatin's imagination, not people live, but numbers, devoid of names, dressed in unifs. Externally similar, they do not differ from each other and internally, it is no coincidence that the hero exclaims with such pride, admiring the transparency of the dwellings: “We have nothing to hide from each other.” “We are the happiest arithmetic mean,” echoes another hero, the state poet R-13.

The sameness, mechanistic character distinguishes all their vital activity, signed by the Tablet of Hours. These are the characteristic features of the depicted world. To deprive people of the opportunity to perform the same functions day in and day out means to deprive them of happiness, doom them to suffering, as evidenced by the story “About the Three Freedmen”.

The symbolic expression of the life ideal of the protagonist is a straight line (how can one not recall Gloom-Burcheev here) and a plane, a mirror surface, whether it be the sky without a single cloud or faces “not clouded by crazy thoughts”. Straightforwardness, rationalism, mechanicalness of the life order of the United State explain why the figure of Taylor is chosen as the object of worship of the number.

The Taylor-Kant antithesis, which permeates the entire novel, is the opposition of the rationalistic system of thinking, where man is a means, and the humanistic one, where man is the end.

Thus, the idea of universal equality, the central idea of any utopia, turns into a dystopia of universal sameness and averageness (“... to be original is to violate equality”, “to be banal is only to do one’s duty”). The idea of harmony between the personal and the general is replaced by the idea of absolute subordination to the state of all spheres of human life. “Happiness is in lack of freedom,” the heroes of the novel say. "The slightest manifestation of freedom, individuality is considered a mistake, a voluntary rejection of happiness, a crime, so the execution becomes a holiday."

Let's pay attention to how the author's sarcasm breaks through in the image of the condemned man, whose hands are tied with a purple ribbon. supreme bliss

the hero experiences on the Day of Unanimity, which allows everyone to feel with special force that they are a small particle of a huge “We”. Speaking with admiration about this day, the hero reflects with bewilderment and irony on the elections of the ancients (that is, on the secret ballot). But his irony turns into the author's sarcasm: absurd are "elections" without the right to choose, absurd is a society that preferred unanimity to freedom of will.

The ideological center, to which everything in the novel is drawn, is freedom and happiness, the correlation in the activities of the state of the interests of the collective and the individual. The main problem is the search for human happiness. It is this search for happiness that leads society to the form of existence that is depicted in the novel. But even this form of universal happiness turns out to be imperfect, since this happiness is grown in an incubatory way, contrary to the laws of organic development.

Already from the first pages of the novel, E. Zamyatin creates a model of an ideal state, from the point of view of utopians, where the long-awaited harmony of public and personal was found, where all citizens finally found the desired happiness. In any case, this is how it appears in the perception of the narrator - the builder of the Integral, the mathematician D-503. What is the happiness of the citizens of the United State? At what point in their lives do they feel happy?

The question arises: how is "Taylorized" happiness achieved in Zamyatin's novel? How did the United State manage to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of its citizens?

Material problems were solved during the Bicentennial War. The victory over hunger was won due to the death of 0.8 of the population. Life has ceased to be the highest value: ten numbers that died during the test, the narrator calls the infinitesimal of the third order. But the victory in the Bicentennial War has another important significance. The city conquers the village, and man is completely alienated from mother earth, now content with oil food.

With regard to spiritual reserves, the state did not follow the path of satisfying them, but the path of their suppression, limitation, and strict regulation. The first step was the introduction of a law regarding the relationship of a man and a woman, which reduced the great feeling of love to "pleasant

beneficial bodily functions.

One can note the author's irony in relation to the narrator, who puts love on a par with sleep, work and eating. By reducing love to pure physiology, the One State has deprived a person of personal affections, of a sense of kinship, for any connection, except for connection with the One State, is criminal. Despite the seeming monolithic nature, the rooms are absolutely disunited, alienated from each other, and therefore easily manageable.

Let us note what role the Green Wall plays in creating the illusion of happiness. It is easier to convince a person that he is happy by protecting him from the whole world, taking away the opportunity to compare and analyze. The state subjugated the time of each number, creating the Hourly Tablet, the United State took away from its citizens the possibility of intellectual and artistic creativity, replacing it with the Unified State Science, mechanical music and state poetry. The element of creativity is forcibly tamed and put at the service of society. Let us pay attention to the title of poetic books: "Flowers of Court Sentences", the tragedy "Late for Work". However, even having adapted art, the United State does not feel completely safe. That is why a whole system of suppression of dissent has been created. This is the Bureau of Guardians (spies make sure that everyone is “happy”), and the operating room with its monstrous gas bell, and the Great Operation, and denunciation elevated to the rank of virtue (“They came to accomplish a feat,” the hero writes about informers ).

Thus, this "ideal" social order was achieved by the forcible abolition of freedom. Universal happiness here is the misfortune of every person, and his suppression, leveling, and even physical destruction.

But why does violence against a person delight people? The fact is that the United State has a weapon more terrible than the gas bell. And the weapon is the word. It is the word that can not only subordinate a person to someone else's will, but also justify violence and slavery, make one believe that lack of freedom is happiness. This aspect of the novel is especially important, since the problem of manipulating consciousness is relevant both at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century.

What justifications, proofs of the truth of the happiness of numbers are given in the novel?

Most often, Zamyatin puts them into the mouth of the protagonist, who is constantly looking for more and more confirmation of the correctness of the One State. He finds an aesthetic justification for lack of freedom: “Why is the dance beautiful? Answer: because it is not a free movement, because the whole deep meaning of the dance lies precisely in absolute, aesthetic subordination, ideal non-freedom. The inspiration in the dance allows him to conclude that "the instinct of lack of freedom has been organically inherent in man since ancient times."

But most often, legislation is based on the language of exact sciences familiar to him: “Freedom and crime are as inextricably linked as ... well, like the movement of an aero and its speed: the speed of an aero = 0, and it does not move, human freedom = 0 and he does not commit crimes. It is clear. The only way to save him from freedom.

Confirmation of the ideas of the One State is also heard in the words of R-13. He finds it in the religion of the ancients, that is, in Christianity, interpreting it in his own way: “Those two in paradise were presented with a choice: either happiness without freedom - or freedom without happiness; the third is not given, They, boobies, chose freedom - and what: it's understandable - then for centuries they yearned for fetters. and only we again guessed how to return happiness .... The benefactor, the car, the cube, the gas bell, the Guardians - all this is good, all this is majestic, beautiful, noble, sublime, crystal clear. Because it protects our lack of freedom - that is, our happiness.

And finally, the Benefactor himself demonstrates the monstrous logic of the One State, drawing a picture of the crucifixion in front of the imagination of the trembling D-503, he makes the main character of this “magnificent tragedy” not the executed, but his executioner, correcting the mistakes of a criminal individuality, crucifying a person in the name of universal happiness.

Comprehending the monstrous logic, or rather the ideology of the United State, let's listen to its official language. From the very first pages of the novel, an abundance of oxymorons is striking: “the beneficent yoke of reason”, “the wild state of freedom”, “our duty is to make them happy”, “the most difficult and lofty love is cruelty”, “The benefactor who wisely bound us by hands and feet with beneficent snares of happiness”, “faces unclouded by madness”, “Inspiration is an unknown form of epilepsy”, “the soul is a serious illness”.

Naturally, a personality formed by such a social

way of life, feels like nothingness compared to strength and power

states. This is how the protagonist assesses his position at the beginning of the novel. But Zamyatin depicts the spiritual evolution of the hero: from realizing himself as a microbe in this world, D-503 comes to the feeling of the whole universe inside him. I note that from the very beginning the hero, absolutely "We", is not without doubts. A complete feeling of happiness is hampered by annoying flaws - the root of minus one, which annoys him because it is outside the ratio. And although the hero seeks to drive away these inappropriate thoughts, in the depths of his consciousness he realizes that there is something in the world that is not amenable to logic, reasoning. Moreover, in the very appearance of D-503 there is something that prevents you from feeling like an ideal number - hairy hands, “a drop of forest blood”. And the fact of keeping records, an attempt at reflection, not encouraged by state ideologies, also testifies to the unusualness of the central character. Thus, tiny rudiments of human nature remained in D-503, not subject to the One State.

However, turbulent changes begin to occur to him from the moment when the I-330 enters his life. The first feeling of soul illness comes to the hero when he listened to Scriabin's music performed by her. Probably, this music was for Zamyatin not only a symbol of spirituality, but also a symbol of irrationality, the unknowability of human nature, the embodiment of harmony, unverifiable algebra, the force that makes the most secret strings of the soul sound.

The feeling of loss of balance is further aggravated in the hero of the novel in connection with a visit to the Ancient House. And a cloud on the surface of the sky, and opaque doors, and the chaos inside the house, which the hero can hardly endure - all this leads him into confusion, makes him think about something that never occurred to him: “... after all, a person is arranged just as wildly, like these ridiculous "apartments" - human heads are opaque; and only tiny windows inside: the eyes." The fact that he does not inform on I-330 testifies to the profound changes taking place with the hero. True, with his characteristic logic, he tries to justify his act.

The main detail of I-330 in the perception of the hero is the X, formed by folds near the mouth and eyebrows; X for mathematicians is a symbol of the unknown. So the personality is replaced by the unknown, the joyful conventionality is replaced by a painful split ("There were two of me. One I - the former

D-503, number D-503, and the other ... Previously, he only stuck out his shaggy

paws from the shell, and now the whole was crawling out, the shell was cracking, now it will shatter into pieces and ... and then what? ”). The hero's perception of the world also develops, and his speech also changes. Usually logically built, it becomes confused, full of repetitions and reticence. There is a radical change in the attitude of the hero. The doctor diagnoses him: "Apparently, you have formed a soul." The plane, the mirror surface becomes three-dimensional. The familiar world is crumbling.

So the hero enters into an irreconcilable conflict not only with the United State, but also with himself. The feeling of illness fights against the reluctance to recover, the awareness of duty to society - with love for I-330, reason - with the soul, dry mathematical logic - with unpredictable human nature. Zamyatin masterfully showed how the inner world of the hero changes. And if at the beginning of the novel he considered himself a part of “we”, then towards the end of the work he acquires his own “I”. This "I" has always been in him, I-330 tells him about it. "I knew you..." Together with the "I" the hero acquires a soul, begins to believe in God. But "we" wins both within the hero and in the state.

“I, D-503, builder of the Integral - I am only one of the mathematicians of the United State.

I defeated the old God and the old life.

This woman had the same unpleasant effect on me as an indecomposable irrational member accidentally wormed into an equation.

An idea came to me: after all, a person is arranged just as wildly ... - human heads are opaque, and only tiny windows inside: eyes.

I felt fear, I felt trapped.

I unfastened myself from the earth and as an independent planet, rotating furiously, rushed down ...

I became glass. I saw - in myself, inside.

There were two me. One I am the former, D-503, and the other ... Previously, he only

sticking his shaggy paws out of the shell. And now the whole one was crawling out ... And this

the other - suddenly jumped out ...

It's so nice to feel someone's keen eye, lovingly protecting from the slightest mistake.

We went two - one. The whole world is a single immense woman, and we are in her very womb, we have not yet been born, we are joyfully ripening ... everything is for me.

Ripe. And inevitably, like iron and a magnet, with sweet obedience to the exact immutable law - I merged into it ... I am the universe. … How full I am!

After all, I now live not in our rational world, but in an ancient, delusional one.

Yes, and fog... I love everything, and everything is resilient, new, amazing.

I know that I have it - that I am sick. And I also know that I don't want to get better.

Soul? This is a strange, ancient, long-forgotten word ... Why no one has it, but I have ...

I want her every minute, every minute, always to be with me - only with me.

... a holiday - only with her, only if she is there, shoulder to shoulder.

And I picked up I. I tightly pressed her to me and carried her. My heart was beating - huge, and with each beat it poured out such a violent, hot, such a joyful wave. And let there be something shattered to smithereens - all the same! If only to carry it like that, carry it, carry it ...

…Who are they"? And who am I myself: “they” or “we” - do I know.

I am dissolved, I am infinitely small, I am a point...

Was horrible dream and it's over. And I, the coward, I, the unbeliever, - I was already thinking about self-willed death.

It was clear to me: everyone is saved, but there is no salvation for me, I do not want salvation ...

“You probably have a drop of forest blood… Maybe that’s why I…”

No one hears me screaming: save me from this - save me! If

I had a mother - like the ancients: mine - that's exactly the mother. And so that for her - I do not

The builder of the "Integral", and not the number D-503, and not the molecule of the One State, but a simple human piece - a piece of her own - trampled, crushed, thrown away ... And let me nail or they nail me - maybe it's the same - so that her old woman's, wrinkled lips - -

I think I've always hated her, from the very beginning. I fought... But, no, no, don't believe me: I could and didn't want to be saved, I wanted to perish, that was dearest to me than anything... that is, not to perish, but that she...

…and where does your finite universe end? What's next?

Have I ever felt—or imagined I feel it? No nonsense, no ridiculous metaphors, no feelings: just facts. Because I'm healthy, I'm perfectly, absolutely healthy. I smile - I can’t help but smile: some kind of splinter was pulled out of my head, my head is light, empty.

The next day I, D-503, came to the Benefactor and told him everything I knew about the enemies of happiness. Why might this have seemed difficult to me before? Unclear. The only explanation: my former illness (soul).

... at the same table with Him, with the Benefactor, - I was sitting in the famous Gas room. They brought that woman. She had to testify in my presence. This woman was stubbornly silent and smiling. I noticed that she had sharp and very white teeth and that it was beautiful.

She looked at me... looked until her eyes closed completely.

And I hope we win. More: I'm sure we will win. Because the mind must win."

The world in Zamyatin's novel is given through the perception of a person with an awakening soul. And if at the beginning of the book the author, trusting the narration to his character, nevertheless looks at him with a distant look, ironically over him, then gradually their positions converge: the moral values that the author himself professes become more and more dear to the hero.

And the hero is not alone. It is no coincidence that the doctor speaks of an "epidemic of the soul." But male images are more rational, law-abiding. They are easier to manage. Women's images have a stronger character. To all my

behavior challenges the I-330 One State. Not accepting

general, “butter” happiness, she declares: “... I don’t want others to want for me, I myself want to want.” Not only D-503 falls under her influence, but also the loyal poet R-13, and the doctor who issues fake certificates, and one of the keepers, and even O-90, so weak and defenseless, suddenly felt the need for simple human happiness, for happiness of motherhood.

And how many more! And that woman who rushed through the line to one of the arrested, and those thousands who tried to vote "no" on the Day of Unanimity, and those who tried to capture the Integral, and those who blew up the Wall, those wild survivors of the Bicentennial War, calling themselves Mephi.

Zamyatin endows each of these heroes with some expressive feature: splashing lips and scissor lips, a double-curved back, an annoying X. A whole chain of associations is evoked by the epithet “round”, associated with the image of O-90: there is a feeling of something homely, calm, peaceful, the circle is repeated twice even in her number.

So, the One State, its absurd logic in the novel is opposed by the awakening soul, that is, the ability to feel, love, suffer. The soul that makes a person a person, a person. The United State could not kill a person's spiritual, emotional beginning. Why didn't this happen?

Unlike the heroes of Huxley's novel "Brave New World", programmed at the genetic level, Zamyatin's numbers are still living people, born by father and mother and only brought up by the state. When dealing with living people, the United State cannot rely only on slavish obedience. The key to the stability of citizens is to “ignite” with faith and love for the state. The happiness of numbers is ugly, but the feeling of happiness must be true.

A person who has not been completely killed is trying to break out of the established framework and, perhaps, will find a place for himself in the expanses of the Universe. But the protagonist's neighbor seeks to prove that the universe is finite. The Unified State Science wants to enclose the Universe with a Green Wall. This is where the hero asks his main question: “Listen,” I pulled my neighbor. - Yes, listen, I tell you! You must, you must answer me, but where does your finite universe end? What's next?
16

Throughout the novel, the hero rushes between human feeling and duty to the One State, between inner freedom and the happiness of unfreedom. Love awakened his soul, his fantasy. A fanatic of the One State, he freed himself from its shackles, looked beyond the bounds of what was permitted: "And what's next?"

The novel is remarkable not only because the author already in 1920 was able to predict the global catastrophes of the twentieth century. Main question, which he puts in his work: will a person withstand his ever-increasing violence against his conscience, soul, will?

I will consider how the attempt to resist violence ends in the novel.

The rebellion failed, I-330 hits the gas bell, the main character undergoes the Great Operation and coolly watches the death of his former lover. The finale of the novel is tragic, but does this mean that the writer does not leave us hope? I note: I-330 does not give up until the very end, D-503 is operated on by force, O-90 goes beyond the Green Wall to give birth to his own child, and not a state number.

The novel "We" is an innovative and highly artistic work. Having created a grotesque model of the One State, where the idea of a common life was embodied in “ideal lack of freedom”, and the idea of equality was embodied in universal leveling, where the right to be well-fed required the renunciation of individual freedom, Zamyatin denounced those who, ignoring the real complexity of the world, tried to artificially “Make happy of people".

The novel "We" is a prophetic, philosophical novel. He is full of anxiety for the future. It sharply sounds the problem of happiness and freedom.

As J. Orwell said: "... this novel is a signal of the danger that threatens man, humanity from the hypertrophied power of machines and the power of the state - no matter what."

This work will always be relevant - as a warning about how totalitarianism destroys the natural harmony of the world and the individual. Such works as "We" squeeze slavery out of a person, make him a personality, warn that one should not bow before "we", no matter how lofty words surround this "we". No one has the right to decide for us what our happiness lies in, no one has the right to deprive us of political, spiritual and creative freedom. And so we, today, decide what in our life

will be the main "I" or "We".

Many writers of the 20th century turned to the genre of dystopia. The dystopian genre flourished after the First World War, when, in the wake of revolutionary changes in some countries, they tried to translate utopian ideals into reality. Bolshevik Russia turned out to be the main one, therefore it is not surprising that the first great dystopia appeared here. In the 1920s, Leningrad by Mikhail Kozyrev, Chevengur and Pit by Andrei Platonov. Among foreign anti-socialist works, John Kendell's Future Tomorrow (1933) and Ayn Rand's Hymn (1938) stand out.

Another widespread theme of the anti-utopias of those years is anti-fascist, directed primarily against Germany. Already in 1920, the American Milo Hastings published the novel The City of Eternal Night: Germany is fenced off from the whole world in an underground city near Berlin, where a “Nazi utopia” is established, inhabited by genetically bred races of superhumans and their slaves. But the NSDAP arose only a year before that! Curious anti-fascist books are written by H. G. Wells ("The Autocracy of Mr. Parham", 1930), Karel Capek ("War with the Newts", 1936), Murray Constantine ("Night of the Swastika", 1937).

However, traditional capitalism also got it. One of the heights of dystopia is the novel Brave New World (1932) by Briton Aldous Huxley, which depicts a technocratic "ideal" caste state based on the achievements of genetic engineering. For the sake of suppressing social discontent, people are processed in special entertainment centers or with the active use of the soma drug. A variety of sex is strongly encouraged, but such concepts as "mother", "father", "love" are considered obscene. Human history has been replaced with a fake: the reckoning is from the Christmas of the American automobile magnate Henry Ford. In general, capitalism, brought to the point of absurdity ...

Attempts to build a "new society" were mercilessly ridiculed in the classic dystopias of another Briton - George Orwell. The scene of the story "Animal Farm" (1945) is a farm where "oppressed" animals, led by pigs, drive out their owners. The result - after the inevitable collapse, power passes to a cruel dictator. The novel "1984" (1948) shows the world of the near future, divided by three totalitarian empires that are in a very unstable relationship with each other. The hero of the novel is an inhabitant of Oceania, where

English socialism has triumphed and the inhabitants are under vigilant

intelligence control. Of particular importance is the artificially created "Newspeak", which brings up absolute conformism in people. Any party directive is considered the ultimate truth, even if it contradicts common sense: “War is peace”, “Freedom is slavery”, “Ignorance is strength”. Orwell's novel has not lost its relevance even now: the "politically correct dictatorship" of a society of victorious globalism, ideologically, is not so different from the picture drawn here.

Close to Orwell's ideas are the later Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (both 1953). Anti-utopias were written by Soviet dissident writers: Lyubimov by Andrey Sinyavsky (1964), Nikolai Nikolaevich by Yuz Aleshkovsky (1980), Moscow 2042 by Vladimir Voinovich (1986), The Defector by Alexander Kabakov (1989). A modernized version of the dystopia has become a classic cyberpunk, whose heroes are trying to survive in a soulless information technocracy.

Today, dystopia continues to be a sought-after direction, in many respects interlocking with political fiction. After all, Western society, despite its glossy brilliance, is far from perfect, and the prospects for its development cause reasonable concern (Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, Charles Strauss's Accelerando). In Scott Westerfeld's Freaks trilogy, the world of the future is steeped in glamour: impeccable beauty is cultized, and anyone who tries to maintain their individuality becomes a pariah. Max Barry's anti-globalization fantasy Jennifer's Government depicts a world that is almost entirely under US rule. Do you think the flowering of democracy has begun? Dudki!

In America, a particular surge of interest in dystopias came after the events of September 11, when, under the pretext of fighting terrorists, the government launched an attack on the rights of citizens. For five years now, the books of Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, Burgess have not disappeared from the lists of American bestsellers. Their fears turned out to be unfounded...

What awaits us in the future? Which way will mankind go? Maybe,

people will finally learn from the mistakes of past generations and build a perfect society. Or they will choose a disastrous path, making the life of an individual person absolutely unbearable. These questions will always be relevant.

Conclusion

This research work is an analysis of the novel "We" by E. Zamyatin. It also includes a description of the genres of utopia and dystopia. It is possible to conduct a comparative analysis of the novel with other works of this genre.

References:

Wikipedia. Utopia. Dystopia.
Rudenko Oksana "Happiness without freedom or freedom without happiness - is there no third way?"
Tuzovsky I.D. Bright tomorrow? Dystopia of futurologies or futurology of dystopias. Chelyabinsk Academy of Culture and Arts. 2009

Here the distant future is drawn, XXXI century. Universal “mathematical infallible happiness” reigned on Earth. It is provided by the United State. But the happiness that it gives people is only material, and most importantly, in general, identical and obligatory forms for all. Everyone gets satiety, peace, occupation according to his abilities, full satisfaction of all physical needs - and for this he must give up everything that distinguishes him from others: from living feelings, his own aspirations, natural attachments and motives. In a word, from your own personality. The very concept of "man" is replaced by the concept of "number", and everyone wears gold plaques with the assigned number on the chest.

Everyone lives according to the laws of the Tablet of the Hour: they get up and lie down at the same time, at the same time they bring spoons to their mouths; all together, four numbers in a row, go for a walk. Strictly on certain days they love each other. The love of each and every one is a subject accessible to all; it is regulated by "pink coupons" from the doctor for sexual sessions with you. All personal feelings and preferences are forbidden.

All this is called the state of "ideal lack of freedom" in contrast to the "wild freedom" of previous centuries.

However, human nature does not tolerate such a prosperous, but impersonal existence. Despite the impeccably organized structure of life, living human emotions and passions make their way through and make themselves felt. The hero-narrator, D-503, a mathematician in the civil service, enthusiastically bowing to the One State and its reason, begins to feel these feelings in himself. He falls in love, he is disturbed by dreams and strange thoughts. And the same thing - vague aspirations for something, unexpected emotions - are found in thousands of "numbers". This resistance of human nature to mechanical prosperity culminates in a conspiracy against the One State and an uprising. They are headed by I-330 - the woman whom the hero fell in love with. This is a rebellion in the name of love, in the name of the right to one's own feelings and passions, in the name of a return to natural life.

The novel is built as a first-person narrative - in the form of the protagonist's diary entries. But this is not a diary in the usual sense - it is an artistic imitation of a diary. A significant place in it is occupied by what is commonly called the stream of consciousness - the direct reproduction of the spiritual life of a person, his internal reactions to the phenomena of the surrounding world. The stream of consciousness as a way of depicting in those years was just part of world literature, and Zamyatin, following M. Proust and along with D. Joyce, gave his first examples. In the records of D-503, a person's position in the society of the future is conveyed through the flow of his inner speech, an inner monologue.

E. Zamyatin builds this monologue with great skill, tracing day after day how a living person awakens in one of the units of the mechanical multitude, the life of the soul, the world of feelings and inclinations, the voice of passions wake up. The writer portrays this as a painful spiritual drama of the hero, as his discord with himself. This is a discord between the secret existence of the personality in D-503 and the impersonal existence of the "number".

The story of D-503's love for I-ZZO-th may seem purely personal, private against the background of conflicts full of significance in the state of the future - the construction of the Integral and a conspiracy against it. But it is no coincidence that it permeates the entire narrative. It is in her, this authentic human drama, that Zamyatin's main idea finds a figurative embodiment - his anxiety about a person, his hopes and doubts in a brighter future.

In fact, what happens to the hero of Zamyatin is something that is forever repeated on Earth and repeated many times in literature: a beautiful, alluring woman pushes him out of the usual rut of generally accepted life into another reality, into a circle of unknown joys and anxieties, which appears dangerous and attracting at the same time. . However, for the world in which Zamyatin's heroes exist, this is not just another drama of the meeting of a man and a woman - it is a shock to its very foundations, a refutation of its fundamental prohibitions on the personal life of "numbers". And Zamyatin's ordinary earthly history is filled with ontological meaning. The love of two people for each other, regardless of the “pink coupons” and the Table of Sexual Days, is a manifestation of true being in the world, organized and emasculated by the “beneficent yoke of the mind”, this is the message that human existence inevitably exists outside the One State and never will be defeated.

The scenes of love meetings, which are key in the narrative, combine emotional, sensual intensity and a clear, as if graphically verified drawing: “She was in a light, saffron-yellow, ancient dress. It was a thousand times angrier than if she was without everything. Two sharp points - through a thin fabric, smoldering pink - two coals through the ashes. Two tenderly round knees...” This is not eroticism - this is the ever-living human nature acting in its bodily fullness.

The nervous, excited story about the love experiences of D-503 is constantly intersected by the story of the construction of the Integral, about the everyday life and celebrations of that world ruled by the United State with its merciless logic of mathematical equations, physical constants, proven theorems. All this is stated in a dry and strict language, as it were, of a report, a reportage. The very verbal fabric here conveys the atmosphere of an almost mechanical existence devoid of joys and passions. And at the same time, the author's irony is guessed here, a hidden mockery of the social structure, which makes people simply functional units of the labor collective. This is the smile of an artist who values a living person above the interests of any state.

But the ending of the novel is gloomy. The rational and soulless machine of the United State overcomes resistance. An operation has been developed and is being carried out without exception to remove a person's fantasy, and with it all human - dissatisfaction, live experiences, and imagination. Thus, the personality is destroyed in People, and the uprising is doomed to defeat. And the hero, in whom the individuality was awakened, is subjected to an operation and is again impersonal, again faithfully serves the soullessness of the One State and betrays his beloved.

Zamyatin's "We" can be called a warning novel. A warning against the future as it will be if everything goes the way it started. These fears of the writer had serious grounds. The revolutionary society was indeed ready to reject the entire human culture, morality and psychology precisely as individualistic. And the new, “proletarian” culture, the new morality and psychology were presented as entirely collectivist, completely unrelated to the world of the individual. And the “new” proletarian mass itself was presented as impersonal, devoid of individual experiences, knowing only class feelings. Researchers have already drawn a parallel between Zamyatin’s “We” and the judgments of one of the theorists of proletarian culture A. Gastev, who found in “... proletarian psychology a striking anonymity that allows one to qualify a separate proletarian unit as A, B, C or as 375, 075, 0 etc.". Gastev predicted in the near future the emergence of such working “collective complexes”, “in which there seems to be no longer a human individual face, but there are ... faces without expression, a soul devoid of lyrics, an emotion measured not by a cry, not by laughter, but by a manometer ".

It is possible that Zamyatin directly parodied these Gastev ideas. But it's not just about them. Born as a warning against social and ideological extremes, the novel "We" is important not only for its criticism of these extremes, it has not just a historical and literary significance. He continues to live, because he is involved in the most acute, not losing tension problems of the century.

We now know how Zamyatin's futurological fantasies resonated in quite concrete historical practice. The author of the novel "We" was repeatedly reproached for distorting the socialist future. One of the best Soviet critics Alexander Voronsky passionately argued with him. He condemned the writer precisely for the fact that he "depicted communism in the form of some kind of super-barracks." "... The pamphlet misses the target," Voronsky argued. Alas, this turned out not to be the case. Reality in our country for a certain time surpassed even Zamyatin's worst fears: in the 30s and 40s. millions of people were turned into "numbers", but these numbers were not written on gold plaques, but on camp jackets. And A. K. Voronsky was among those who were shot under one of these unnamed numbers.

Written in 1920, Zamyatin's novel since 1921 has been widely circulated in manuscript lists - so wide that literary criticism of the 1920s happened to polemicize on magazine pages with this as yet unpublished novel. In 1924-1925. the novel "We" was published abroad in translations into Czech, English and French, and in 1927 appeared in Russian in the Prague magazine "Will of Russia" (in excerpts and in reverse translation from Czech). It is one of the first in a series of dystopias of the 20th century. These are works about the future, which depict it by no means as ideal and bright. They predict a social structure in which the human person will be devalued, suppressed by the power of machines or political dictatorship. O. Huxley's Brave New World (1932) and J. Orwell's 1984 (1948) are considered classic examples of dystopias. One could speak of Zamyatin's influence on these authors. J. Orwell's novel seems especially close to Zamyatin's "We". However, the author of "1984" himself claimed that he got acquainted with Zamyatin's book after he had written his own. Apparently, this is indeed the case and testifies, first of all, how sensitively and accurately the free writer's thought reacted to the danger lurking in socialist utopias about the ideal structure of human society.

There is a point of view that Zamyatin's novel was inspired not only by the realities of post-October Russia, that Zamyatin warned not only and not so much about the danger of the coming totalitarianism, but even more about the danger of the growing power of things, technology, and progress. There is no point in arguing about it. Zamyatin really saw the other side of Western civilization. Evidence can serve, for example, full of irony story "Islanders" (1917), written in England and about England. And yet, in 1920, in Russia tormented by war communism, Zamyatin was worried, presumably, not by the future power of things and machines over people, but already in those days by the power of a totalitarian state advancing on a person. He understood that she was a more real and more dangerous threat to the human future. And the main point of his warning is directed precisely against any form of dictatorship. Machines, the world of things in its dystopia is only a tool for the United State. Zamyatin imagined, of course, that they themselves did not pose a danger: it was important what they served.

"We"

Zamyatin was looking for new ways of creativity. He believed that after the revolution, life became different and should be portrayed differently. Neither Tolstoy's realism nor symbolism can adequately reflect the new reality - they must be replaced by neorealism.

E. Zamyatin argued with the theorists of the Proletcult, who argued that the "mechanization" of life also affects the psychology of the proletariat, that over time there will be no individuality, individual thinking, but there will be an "objective psychology of the whole class." In many ways, the novel "We" is directed against such an interpretation. However, this work is not limited to political controversy. The novel "We" became a model of the dystopian genre.

Allegorical dystopias have existed in literature for a long time. In Russian literature, the novel by M. Kheraskov “Cadmus and Harmony” (1786) is called the first dystopia, the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor from the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov". It has something that is one of the hallmarks of this genre - the motif of imposed happiness, which is led to by force. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, many works appeared in Russian literature that have signs - more at the level of socio-philosophical than artistic - of dystopia.

Dystopia is a refutation in an artistic form of faith in the achievement of a just world order in historical reality. If utopia depicts a perfect world, most often isolated, an “earthly paradise”, then dystopia debunks the principles of an ideal society, it traces the motif of “expulsion from paradise”. A utopian society is most often shown through the eyes of an outside observer who finds himself there and admires the new world order. The world of the future in anti-utopian works is shown from the inside, from the position of an inhabitant of this world, who can learn all the principles of this society from his own experience. Utopian works are fantastic works, since it is possible to demonstrate the structure of the new world only with the help of fantasy. Dystopia is also fantastic, the main techniques of this genre are parody and grotesque. It is no coincidence that the dystopian novel appeared at a time when a state arose that embodied the dreams of mankind about universal happiness.

In dystopian novels, two types of "ideal" society are clearly distinguished. In the novels "We" by E. Zamyatin and "Invitation to Execution" by V. Nabokov, the well-being of the state and citizens is based on the satisfaction of the most primitive needs.

This is “the prosperous non-existence of adult idols” (V. Nabokov). The later novels of the German writer G. Hesse "And the Grass in the Beads" and the American science fiction writer A. Asimov "The End of Eternity" offer a different principle of prosperity. However, the principle of the structure of society is the same: it is based on the spiritual! the lack of freedom of the people who inhabit it. The dystopian novel, however, is not only a social satire, but a philosophical genre, involving reflections on the principles of the organization of human society, on the inner freedom and lack of freedom of the individual.

The United State shown in the novel "We" is the realm of the victorious utopia. People in it do not think about housing, 111 years - the state provides them required level life comfort. Life in the United State is extremely mechanized. But for the convenience of existence, one had to pay with the loss of a name and individuality. The United State is not a parody of the Land of Soviets, because in 1920-1921 the Soviet state was just being created. However, the system that dominates the One State demonstrates what the violent movement towards happiness, general planning and "mechanization" leads to. The existence of numbers can be equated with the existence of people in the "golden age", at least, the citizens of the United State themselves think so.

The state is built on the principle of incompatibility of happiness and freedom. The concept of “ideal lack of freedom” seems to the citizens of the United State to be the only reasonable principle for building a society: rooms according to the schedule get the opportunity to satisfy all natural needs. The needs for food, love, and "spectacles" are satisfied. Humanity has been brought to happiness with an iron hand. Happiness has a formula: "Happiness is equal to bliss divided by envy." This formula does not take into account only the spiritual needs of man. Numbers do not know such words - their happiness remains in the field of physiology.

Development, movement forward in the United State is no longer possible. Numbers prosper, the state machine is debugged. But no movement means no progress. For Zamyatin, there were two most important states of society - entropy and revolution.

In the article “On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Things” (1923), he wrote: “When the fiery-boiling sphere (in the spider, religion, social life, art) cools down, fiery magma is covered with dogma - a hard, ossified, motionless crust.

Dogmatization in science, religion, social life, art is the entropy of thought; the dogmatized no longer burns, it warms, it is warm, it is cool. The process of dogmatization and subsequent revolutionary explosion, according to Zamyatin, is inevitable. By entropy, he meant "the desire of world energy to rest - to death." Entropy implies the absence of freedom, and freedom is what occupies the most important place in Zamyatin's concept of man. Moreover, for him the most valuable person who has inner freedom. Such freedom is impossible for one who is guided only by reason. The mind limits the person. Zamyatin always welcomed manifestations of everything irrational.

The ideal not only number, but also a person for Zamyatin is the number 1-330, in which reason and the irrational coexist. It is 1-330 that expresses the author's cherished thoughts: “And what kind of last revolution do you want? There is no last one, revolutions are endless. The latter is for children: children are afraid of infinity, but it is necessary that children sleep peacefully at night ... "; “To you, a mathematician, is it not clear that only differences - differences - temperatures, only thermal contrasts - only they have life. And if everywhere, but throughout the universe, equally warm - or equally cool bodies ... They must be pushed - so that fire, explosion, hell. And we will collide."

The central character of the novel D-503 is afraid of such thoughts of his beloved. He, following all the inhabitants of the United State, sings of the "divine-limiting wisdom of walls, barriers." The wall separates "the machine-made, perfect world from the unreasonable, ugly world of trees, birds, animals...". The natural principle is alien to the mechanized world of numbers. In general, in the novel "We" rational and virational are opposed at a completely material level. The natural principle is expressed not only in speeches 1-330, but also in the Ancient House, its interior and utensils filling it, the heroine's old dresses, and finally, in what exists behind the Green Wall.

Color symbolism is very significant in the novel. The world of the United State is dominated by transparent, cool tones: unifs are gray-blue, the sky is “blue, not spoiled by a single cloud”, “sterile, immaculate”, eyes 0-90 are also blue, not overshadowed by a single cloud. This is a glass world, and its colors are shades of glass. Lack of freedom manifests itself even at the level of regulation of colors.

In the irrational world, everything is different. The Ancient House is dominated by "wild, unorganized, crazy - like the music of that time - the diversity of colors and forms." The dominant color of the Ancient House, 1-330 is a fiery, yellow-gold.

The poetics of numbers, which is very essential in the structure of the novel, is also subordinated to the intensification of the main conflict. Being a mathematician, Zamyatin sees the symbolism of numbers like no one else. The world of the United State is the world of the number line. Numbers for its citizens replace art.

The totalitarian system uses numbers to designate a person. A numerical designation can belong to any person or object, while a name is unique. This standardization was used in practice in relation to those who ceased to be people for the state system, but became "camp dust", lost their value as a person, became an ideal cog in the state mechanism. In the novel "We" there are no camps, but the unification of all citizens is brought to perfection. Those concepts that cannot be expressed using numbers have a different variant of the name, which also depersonalizes: the Benefactor's Machine, the Ancient House, etc.

In a world where people are deprived of their usual names, the function of "speaking names" is performed by their numbers. So, about 0-90, the hero says this: “Darling Oh! - it always seemed to me - that she looks like her name: 10 centimeters below the Maternal Norm - and that's why she is all round-turned, and the pink O - mouth - is open to meet my every word. And one more thing: a round, plump fold on the wrist - such things happen in children. To the left of the D-503, 0-90 steps in the line, and to the right - 1-330, "thin, sharp, stubbornly flexible, like a whip." The hero's pursuer is "some kind of double-curved, like the letter S." Portrait characteristics are also inherent in the citizens of the United State, no matter how they strive for unification. And these portrait features are associated with the numbers that are assigned to them.

The rebels, who reject everything that forms the basis of the United State, nevertheless choose the mathematical symbol - y7! as their motto. But for a person from the world of mathematics, this sign is more revolutionary than many loud slogans. The fact is that in the history of mathematics there was a time when all operations were carried out on a number line. Involvement in mathematical operations of "imaginary numbers" led to the fact that mathematical analysis became possible, operating on a plane, since the axis of "imaginary numbers" is perpendicular to the axis of prime numbers. But when “complex numbers” entered into mathematical use, among which is y-1, it became a revolution in science, because it made it possible to operate in four-dimensional space.

Mathematics D-503 is most frightening, but also most convincing is the mathematical symbol of the revolution - y-1: “A curve or a body corresponds to any equation, any formula in the surface world. For irrational formulas, for my d / -1, we do not know the corresponding bodies, we have never seen them ... But the horror lies in the fact that these bodies - invisible - exist, they must certainly, inevitably exist: because in mathematics, as on a screen, their bizarre, prickly shadows pass before us - irrational formulas; both mathematics and death are never wrong. And if we do not see these bodies in our world, on the surface, for them there is - inevitably there must be - a whole huge world there, beyond the surface ... "

The mathematical sign of the revolutionaries becomes for the D-503 the designation of everything unusual, it even symbolizes the soul of the hero. In the United State, "soul" is a concept from the distant past, but in the present it is a serious, dangerous disease. The builder of the "Integral" is afraid of the changes that are happening to him, but does not refuse them. He gradually begins to combine mind and soul in himself, that is, there is a restoration of the personality, which has always been in the center of attention of Russian literature. The heroes of the works of L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky are painfully looking for an answer to the eternal question about the destiny of a person in life and find it in the Christian faith. Zamyatin rejects religion. In his opinion, there is no ultimate truth, and therefore a religion that declares that it owns such a truth is no less absurd than a state machine. For him, the Church is one of the instruments of subjugation of man, and hence of entropy. Zamyatin's rebels take the name Mephi, derived from Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles is one of the greatest revolutionaries in their opinion. They call themselves "anti-Christians" through the lips of 1-330.

In general, biblical motifs are quite significant in the poetics of the novel. The Day of Unanimity is called Easter. The hero says that all the torments that he endured and “brought here as a feat - all this is only ridiculous, like an ancient anecdote about Abraham and Isaac.

Abraham - covered in a cold sweat - had already brandished a knife over his son - over himself - suddenly a voice from above: “Don't be! I was joking..."". Appeal to Christian vocabulary and even biblical traditions on the pages of the novel occurs quite often. So, “guardian angels” appear here, D-503 calls numers gods: “... the gods have become like us: ergo - we have become like gods.” The supreme deity for the inhabitants of the United State is, of course, the Benefactor, although in fact he is not at all as powerful and great as it is declared. In a conversation with the builder of the Integral, the Benefactor cites a biblical example to prove his innocence: “Remember: a blue hill, a cross, a crowd. Some - at the top, spattered with blood, nail the body to the cross; others below, splashed with tears, look. Don't you think that the role of those at the top is the most difficult, the most important. If it weren’t for them, would all this majestic tragedy have been staged? He compares the United State with paradise: “...there are the blessed, with an operated fantasy (only for this reason they are blessed) - angels, servants of God ...” At the end of the novel, 1-330 goes back to the modern analogue of Golgotha - the Benefactor's Machine. In the life of the United State, in general, an important role is played by rituals that are no longer similar to Christian, but to pagan cults.

Moreover, biblical motifs are embodied in the poetics of numbers. The number three, sacred to Christians because it is associated with the Holy Trinity, permeates the entire novel. Each entry consists of three parts, the Benefactor appears three times, they torture 1-330 three times, and her name itself consists of two triples (in addition, there is a parallel with the age of Christ - 33 years).

In the center of the author's attention in the novel "We" are human personalities. But the action is largely centered around Integral. This is not just a spaceship, it is designed to bring the ideology of the One State to other planets. But what will happen after he takes off, no one knows: neither the ordinary numbers, nor Mephi, nor his Builder. "Integral" becomes simply an object of worship. Whoever owns it will win. The characters of the novel associate the resolution of all problems with the "Integral", whose purpose is unclear to them. But there is a person who knows what the "Integral" is for - ego Benefactor. He knows everything. It was he who tied the numbers "hand and foot with beneficent chains of happiness." He created the United State, embodying a utopia on earth. But, having performed a good deed, he inevitably becomes an executioner, begins to perform a punitive function.

However, the utopia is not yet complete. Even a law-abiding number can become infected with revolutionary sentiments. Even 0-90 does not want to obey the rules of the One State and give up his child. Everything is hindered by fantasy, the soul. But the state has found a solution to this problem. Separation of soul and body occurs through surgery. The separation of the soul from the body has always meant death. After the Great Operation, the spiritual death of D-503 begins. In the novel “We”, the process, which was always mysterious, incomprehensible, acquires quite specific features, but this does not make it any less terrible. On the contrary, it is worse than natural death. Yes, and death itself becomes visible - a person turns into a puddle of chemically pure water. Now death is "a sign of the inhuman power of the Benefactor."

So, the novel by E. Zamyatin "We" is a dystopia. Dystopia is possible where there is opposition to any ideological dogma. It primarily implements warning and warning functions. A dystopian conflict is a conflict between a totalitarian regime and the hero's personality.