Nature And Animal Imagery In Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'Onestate'

In Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, nature and animal imagery portray the suppression of irrationality, as well as the authoritative power of OneState, which emphasize D-503’s difficulty in choosing conformity over rebellion.

D-503’s compliance to the Benefactor is demonstrated by the animal imagery that depicts unity, hence conveying his willing acceptance of State control.The Benefactor exerts his control over the entire OneState – an ideal that was willingly accepted by D-503 at the start of the novel, as depicted by his admiration of the State, which persuade him to remain loyal. Initially, D-503 welcomes the superiority of the Benefactor and he adores the Numbers’ unity, stating that: “we are one, powerful, million-celled organism”. The metaphor

D-503’s animal characteristics embarrass him, such as his “shaggy paws”, which remind him of his ancestry and differentiates him from other Numbers. The comparison of his hands to the paws of a wild animal, exposes D-503’s irrational nature,, as well as and remindsing both the reader and himself that he contains ancient, human DNA. Through the reminder of his savage-era characteristics, D-503 questions his position conformity to OneState. Moreover, ‘shaggy’ denotes of D-503’s long, unkempt hair, whilst implying that, like the messy hair on his hands, his life is also similarly tangled due to his irrationality and unclear. Thus, the animal hair makes D-503 question his role in society and position in whether he fully conformsfidelity to OneState rule. D-503’s frequent concerns over his hairy appearance suggests that individuality makes him feel isolated from other Numbers. His concerns are evident when describing himself as having “monkey’s hands”. The animal imagery of comparing his hands to those of a monkey, depicts the ancestry that resides in D-503, by linking his hereditary background to wild animals. Since monkeys are primitive, dangerous animals, it depicts the lack of order and savagery and disobedience that inhibits both monkeys and D-503. However, monkeys also connote of

D-503’s discovery of Mephi leads him to doubt his conformity to State power. His uncertainty is apparent when he questions: “maybe I’m a microbe… pretending like me to be phagocytes”. Since microbes are organisms that cause disease, the comparison of the rebels to microbes suggests that D-503 views his irrationality as an illness and threat. Through Tthe metaphor indicates, the repression of Numbers is indicated, since OneState attempts to contain them with through the force of the metaphorical ‘phagocytes’, who kill the disease: the rebellion, forcing them to comply to OneStates. Hence, Zamyatin criticises the State’s repression of individuality by alluding to the totalitarian control of the Russian government in the 20th Century. Moreover, juxtaposing the two contrasting microorganism’s highlights that whilst D-503 believes he is breaking State law, the rebels think oppositely. Consequently, they reverse the roles of microbes and phagocytes: depicting ‘disease’ as those that follow the authoritarian rule of the Benefactor, hence defying governmental control for rebellion. Therefore, D-503’s similarity to the rebels allows himself to doubt his conformity to the