The society in Zamyatin's We is one that holds a great power over the people who reside in it. It holds the power to convince its people of things that are far from true. One quote that illustrates this ability is when D-503 is talking about faith, and describes it as "knowledge that is absolutely sure it's infallible"(Zamyatin 49). This quote, which completely contradicts the definition of faith in our society, demonstrates how the power of persuasion can convince anybody of anything. In this society, enough people believed that what they were told was true, and as a result everyone was forced to believe it in order to keep themselves from being prosecuted.
Going with the flow is a very popular theme of D's society, although some people do stray from the crowd. However, the moment they disobey the standards they are expected to live up to, they are publically executed in a grotesque manner. The threat of being obliterated is also a very powerful tool when trying to convince members of society that following the rules and believing what they are told and sticking to their timetable is the best bet.
While first reading We, I found myself very turned off by the ranting style of the writing and the protagonist's lack of questioning his society for a decent amount of time. However, looking back the way Zamyatin wrote his dystopic piece from such a way that differs from many other novels of the same genre was very interesting. Zamyatin chose to create a character who was very unrelatable and unlikeable in many ways, but somehow in the end I was still pulling for D-503 to rebel and stand up to the Benefactor and society. Even when everything was going so wrong, from the election to his meeting with the Benefactor, I still hoped that he would find a way to escape from the singleminded society he lived in. The ending, all though some what disappointing because of his completely unchanged life, was almost more satisfactory in a way then many other novels with standard hollywood happy endings.
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