The genre of dystopian novel from We by Zamyatin to 1984 by Orwell - Research Paper Example

? Lecturer: The genre of dystopian novel from We by Zamyatin to 1984 by Orwell We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell are examples of dystopian literature. This is genre of fictional writing that is utilized to discover the social and political structures in a dark, nightmare world. Therefore, Clute and Nicholl (p.361) defines dystopia as a fictional society or community, which is in some crucial way frightening or undesirable. Dystopias are most of the time characterized by dehumanization, environmental disasters, autocratic governments, and other traits associated with a catalystic decline in the society. We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell can be categorized as dystopian stories because they are characterized with the following: backstory, hero, conflict, and climax. First, since back story is part of the fictional world, a back story is necessary of how this world came to be or how it evolved from our current world. Secondly, the hero/protagonist intuitively feels something is wrong within the society and sets out to alter it, such as D-503 in Zamyatin’s We and Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984 .Next, in the conflict, the protagonists meets and is sometimes assisted by a group of individuals who are also attempting to escape or destroy the dystopia. Lastly, in the climax of dystopian literature like We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell, the dystopia is often not brought down, thus the stories remain unresolved. The elements of dystopias differ from political, environmental and social issues. The dystopian societies as the one depicted in We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell culminated in a wide series of sub-genres of fiction and were utilized to raise awareness of the real world issues in relation to environment, religion, society, politics, economics, technology, and psychology, if left unaddressed, led to a dystopia-like condition in the future. Currently, dystopias have taken the form of a multitude of speculations, for example, poverty, pollution, political repression, and societal collapse. We is a classic dystopian novel that was set in the 26th century. Its message of hope and warning is as timely as the end of the 20th century as it was in the beginning (Parrinder, p.18). Yevgeny Zamyatin was a marine engineer and a Russian writer wrote this novel in 1919-1921. The novel was written as a consequence of author’s personal experiences during his life in the Newcastle suburb of Jesmond, the Russian revolution of 1905, and 1917, as well as the during his work in the Tyne shipyards during the First World War (Thomas, 314). This book by Zamyatin is one which ended up influencing other dystopian authors such George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Orwell’s 1948 is a futuristic piece of work that the novelist chose to turn inside out the last two numbers of the year he had authored it, 1948 into 1984 to depict issues that would be solved by that time. Zamyatin is hailed as the grandfather of satirical futuristic dystopia genre. He goes ahead and takes the totalitarian and confirmative concepts of modern industrial society to a very extreme conclusion, portraying a state that trusts in free will which is the source of unhappiness, and that the lives of the general public is controlled with the mathematical precision founded on the system of industrial efficiency which was formulated by Fredrick Taylor (Clute and Nicholl, 85). An examination of myths and symbols show that Zamyatin’s work is easily comprehended as an internal drama of a conflicted modern man as compared to the external drama reality in a failed utopia. Furthermore, the city is laid out as a mandala which had many archeotypes and was subject to an archetypical conflict. The utilization of color and other forms of imagery depicts that Zamyatin advocated for the same subjectivist as had Kandinsky as well as other European Expressionist painters. Zamyatin’s We novel is considered to be the first dystopian novel, since it was influential in the formation of genre and important in any study of literature. Dystopian stories such as We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell have been set in a future projected virtual time that involve technological innovations not accessible in the reality of the actual present. The dystopian fiction is categorized generically as a science fiction (Amey, 23). Zamyatin’s we is a classic of the dystopian science fiction. Here in the society, the people are allowed to live out of public view two times a week for only one hour. They are only referred by numbers instead of the names. The males were assigned odd numbers prefixed by consonants, while females were given numbers prefixed by vowels. Beehler (p.95-85) asserts that the characters in We include (1) D-503 who is the narrator of this novel and the manufacturer of the spaceship, which is about to get underway a short while after D commences to write. He pens down this novel as an explanation of his society to any extraterrestrial life that is experienced. D is actually a mathematician and comprehends his world around him via mathematic rationalizations (2) 0-90 is D’s lover and friend although he views her as childish and less intellectually stimulating as I-330 (3) I-1330 is a beautiful and mysterious woman that seduces D. D quickly falls in love with her and realizes her revolutionary ideas and association with the rebel group, Mephi. (4) Benefactor is the leader of One State who is seen by his subjects as a leader and a god. (5) R-13 is D’s comrade and one of the poets in the One State. R, D and O share a very close friendship up until D becomes associated with I-330 (6) S is the doctor (7) U is a woman who brought letters to D. She grew to fancy him and wished to assist him out of his delirium. She betrayed I-1330 and D when the state was searching for the Mephi rebels, and because I-1330 is captured D seriously contemplates killing U, unthinkable barbaric act. D-503 did not agree with U’s actions explaining the conflict that ensues between him and U with regard to her varied opinion on Mephis. The dystopian society portrayed in We is presided over by the Benefactor. Since dystopian stories are often centered on a protagonist who questions the society, Zamyatin depicts D as the perfect example with an intuitive feeling the some things are terribly wrong. Heroes like D are of the belief that escape or even overturning the social order is possible and makes a decision to act putting at risk his own life. D goes ahead and befriends I-1330 with the knowledge that she was associated with the Mephis. Although this may appear irrational to him he goes ahead and still act. From Zamyatin’s point of view, he found it not possible to eliminate all the rebels against a system. He says through I-330: “Revolutions are infinite” (Zamyatin, p.145). These numbers and names are personal experiences and illusions to culture and literature, or to Zamyatin, such as the name S-4711 is reference to the Eau de Cologne number 4711. Furthermore, since Zamyatin was a naval engineer, all the names used refer to the specification of the icebreaker st. Alexander Nevsky which he was sent to over see its construction after completing his training as a marine engineer. The numbers were used directly from the specifications of Zamyatin’s favorite icebreaker which was weighing 3300 tonnes, 0-90 and I-1330 appropriately divided the hapless D-503…Yu-10 was easily derived from the Swan Hunter yard numbers which were not less that three of Zamyatin’s main icebreakers ...R-13 is also found here to (Thomas, 318). Zamyatin work also makes comparisons with Bible in Genesis Chapters 1-4, where One State is viewed to be paradise, D-503 is Adam and I-1330 is considered to be Eve. The snake, in this context is symbolized with the S-4711. The novel also uses a lot of mathematical concepts symbols. The ship that D-503 is supervising its construction id termed as the integral, which he hopes that it will “integrate the grandiose cosmic equation” (Zamyatin 48). In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist is Winston Smith also intuitively feels some is not right within the society and sets out to change it. He has strong belief that he has the ability to overthrow the dictatorship of the regime led by O’Brien. His opinions also vary distinctively from those who surround him such as Julia, who worked for the Ministry of Love and her work was to author porno books for the ‘prolets’. After being brain washed she rejects and denounces Smith thus leading to clashes of opinions. Smith is also depicted as high standing and an accepted hero who eventually discovered and came to comprehend that the society was wrong and made attempts to change it or destroy it. O’Brien was the torturer and a member of the inner party. He tortured Julia and Smith in order to cure and change them, Orwell writes “we convert, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him…to make the brain perfect and we blow it (Orwell 265-269). The party even forced citizens to suppress their sexual urge, as sex was viewed as merely for procreation whose end result was creation of new party members. Violence is prevalent in dystopia either in the form of war, rampant crime which is often met by summary justice or vigilantism. The action of We is set after almost 200 years of war, which has led to the loss of an estimated “0.2 of the earths population” (Dennis, Bretton and McGiveron, p.211). The war was precipitated by unusual substance that was never mentioned in the novel. Orwell tries to imagine that in 1984 the globe is divided into three great powers: Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania; but they are at war. The same applies to the social classes which were divided into members of the inner party, outer party and the ‘prolets’. The One State is depicted by Zamyatin (188-200) as one which has political principles are flawed and led to negative consequences for the inhabitants of dystopian world, which is portrayed as oppressive. The author depicts a society which is filled with pessimistic views of the ruling One State government which is very brutal ruling with an iron hand. As a result, this dystopian government had Mephis with I-1330 as a member, the protagonist group that led resistance to enact change within the government. The Mephis were also protesting about the weak government, inequality, and oppression of the lower class. With regard to conflict in the dystopian society depicted in We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell, there is usually a group of individuals somewhere in the society who are not actually under the complete control of the government, and whom the hero of the novel puts their hope, although ha failed to change anything. In We by Zamyatin they are individuals who are outside the walls of the one state. Similarly, in Orwell’s novel of 1984 the protagonist Winston Smith meets O’Brian a person who represents dystopia, possibly the leader of a party in the society. In this context, Smith is not contented with the way the totalitarian dictatorship regime, after meeting with Julia another co-protagonist and is later assisted by a group of persons who are also attempting to escape or destroy the dystopia. In the novel, there are individuals who were once part of the dystopia. He is not pleased with the way the government runs its affairs. Smith was tortured to confess in order to reclaim his previous job. Orwell points out that Britain is governed in a dictatorial way with ruler being referred to the Big Brother. Big Brother’s rule combined both elements of communism and fascism. However, this was typical of Nazism, Communism and Fascism and it is still applicable in today’s autocracy. Just like the Benefactor who was perceived as a god, the Big Brother (Hitler and Stalin) were symbols of power and totalitarianism and no one dared to point a finger at them with an omnipresent sign that read “Big Brother is Watching You”. The general public was spied on even to their homes thus living with no privacy at all (Orwell, 299). As noted by Thomas (314) the economic structures dystopian societies in literature have numerous variations, because the economy is often directly associated to the elements that the author is portraying as the source of oppression. Furthermore, in dystopian literature such as the ones in We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell the advanced technology is controlled exclusively by the group that is in power. On the other hand, the oppressed population is limited to technology comparable to or more outdated than what we are currently having today. Besides, so as to emphasize on the society’s degeneration, the living standards among the middle and lower classes is generally poorer as compared to that of the equivalents in the contemporary industrialized society. Conclusion Since dystopia is a genre of fictional writing that is utilized to discover the social and political structures in a dark, nightmare world, We by Zamyatin and 1984 by Orwell are good classic examples of dystopian literature (Parrinder, 18). Zamyatin portrays a nation of One State which is headed by the Benefactor; there are no people, but only numbers. Life here is portrayed as an ongoing process of mathematical precision, to make a perfectly balanced equation. The primitive instincts and passions have all been subdued. Furthermore, nature has also been subdued, and banished behind the Green Wall. The outer space is the only frontier that remains. Zamyatin’s book not only influenced other dystopian writers, but also affected the post-apocalyptic genre because it was set in a world where all was eliminated with just 0.2 % of the world’s population remaining. On the other hand, Orwell points out the importance of warning the readers in the West of the dangers of authoritarian governments. He sounded an alarm on those nations which were still unsure if they were to embrace communism. He also depicts psychological manipulation if one in engrossed in power typical of tyrannical leaderships. Zamyatin novel We and Orwell’s 1984 exhibits numerous similarities in features and other literary styles. The climaxes of the two dystopian stories remain unresolved even though the heroes manage to escape the dystopia. That is, the narratives dealt with individuals in dystopian societies who were unsatisfied and rebelled, but ultimately failed to alter anything. In both of the dystopian literature, the stories are unresolved. As a consequence, the dystopia is not brought down. Both D-503 and Winston Smith made their individual stands, but later failed. However, they gave hope to others in the dystopia. In other related literature, such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave World (1932) (Thomas, 314) the climax was the protagonist’s escape from the dystopia. In other times, the hero fails to attain anything and the dystopia continues as before. Works Cited Orwell, George. 1984. London: Signet Classics, 1950. Amey, Michael D. "Living under the bell jar: surveillance and resistance in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We." Critical Survey, Jan. 2005: 22. Literature Resource Center. Gale. 12 Nov. 2013 . Beehler, Michael. "Yevgeny Zamyatin: The Essential, the Superfluous and Textual Noise." Substance 15.50 (1986): 48-60. JSTOR. 11 Nov. 2013 . Clute, John and Peter Nicholl. Dystopia. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1995. Dennis, Bretton J., and Rafeeq McGiveron. "Zamyatin's We." The Explicator Summer 2000: 211. Literature Resource Center. Gale. 12 Nov. 2013 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/?db=LitRC>. Horan, Thomas. "Revolutions from the waist downwards: desire as rebellion in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, George Orwell's 1984, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World."Extrapolation Summer 2007: 314. Literature Resource Center. Gale. 13 Nov. 2013 . Parrinder, Patrick. "Imagining the Future: Zamyatin and Wells." Science Fiction Studies 1.1 (1973): 17-26. JSTOR. 12 Nov. 2013 . “Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937).'"Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Paula Kepos. Vol.37. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. 414-50. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. 13 Nov. 2013. . Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We (Goodreads). New York: Avon Books, 1921. Read More