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Comparison of 2 Novels: We & 1984

This study will compare Eugene Zamiatin's novel We and George Orwell's novel 1984. The study will focus on Zamiatin's novel in general, and specifically with respect to the following elements: the significance of the mood of hopelessness and despair of modern man, and of the warning for the future in both novels; Zamiatin's philosophy as expressed in his novel and as it influences his sociopolitical satire; the influence of the political atmosphere in Zamiatin's time; and the influence of Zamiatin's book on Orwell's book.

Zamiatin wrote We in 1920, after it had become clear to him that there were rapidly developing elements of totalitarianism in the nation of Russia after the Revolution. Once a strong backer of that Revolution, Zamiatin became a critic of its increasing tendency to pressure the people to conform. As we read in the Introduction to the novel, "The ruling principle of the rigidly controlled society in We is that freedom and happiness are incompatible: men are congenitally incapable of using their freedom for constructive ends and merely make themselves miserable by their abuse of it; most of them yearn for a materialistic happiness and are eager to surrender their troublesome freedom and to be reduced to the status of lotus-eaters" (Rudy viii).

On the very first page of the novel itself, Zamiatin writes of the intention of the United State (the fictional Utopia) to "subjugate to the grateful yoke of reason the unknown beings who live on other planets . . . If they will not understand that we are bringing them a mathematically faultless happiness, our duty will be to force them to be happy. But before we take up arms, we shall try the power of words" (Zamiatin 3).

We see a number of important elements in this passage. We see that Zamiatin is going to take an ironic and satirical approach to his condemnation of the fictional United State and of the increasingly totalitarian Russia which was represented by t...

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Comparison of 2 Novels: We & 1984. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:14, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702871.html