The dystopian genre always implies a high level of meaning. The works of Soviet authors in the 1920s often dealt with the country's problems. The philosophical meaning of “We” by E. Zamyatin can be explained from several positions.
Reflection of the era
Zamyatin's book "We" tells about the state of the future, in which everyone is equal. In this one can see an allegory of Soviet society. Evgeny Zamyatin wrote his work in the 1920s, an era of revolutions and changes. Totalitarianism is expressed directly in his book. The very name "We" speaks of the community of the people. But equality is viewed here from a negative point of view. The Country of Integrals is characterized by a desire for identity. There are no personalities here, only one of the millions. People get up at the same time, go to work in the same formation, take a spoon in their hands at the same time. Sexual life is highly regulated. Each person to whom a number is assigned has the right to intercourse with any woman. For this, a special coupon is issued. The most prestigious profession is mathematician. Creativity and imagination are not honored here. In this one can feel the assessment of the impending repressions in the USSR.
The philosophical meaning of "We" by E. Zamyatin is to assess the apparatus of power through the prism of dystopia. The selection of people according to the story took place through the improvement of food. To solve the problem of hunger, the government synthesized food from oil. Not everyone was able to adapt to it, so only 0.2% of all humanity survived. But they began to be considered the best of the best. The Benefactor, the reflection of the top of the power structures, began to command them. Any rebellion or dissatisfaction with the system was punishable by public execution.
To raise the appropriate generation, children were almost immediately taken away from their parents. They were brought up on the canons of the New World by strangers who program a single thinking. Society is more like a sect that piously believes in the idea of government. In their mechanized life, they see no flaws.
Confrontation
The conflict of the story lies in the opposition to the Integral of the old world. The government has shielded its society from wildlife with a wall, beyond which exit is prohibited. But there were daredevils who broke the rules. Such was the friend of the narrator, a simple mathematician named I. She unraveled the imperfection of the Integral and decided, with the help of her comrades-in-arms, to carry out a coup. This is the opposition of utopia. The philosophical meaning of Zamyatin's book lies in the personification of the creative intelligentsia of the Soviet Union, imprisoned in the shackles of totalitarianism. People are gradually becoming more free, they begin to publish previously forbidden works, but they are still condemned by the authorities. Evgeny Zamyatin demonstrated an attempt to free himself from this in his story. The rebel I represents the intelligentsia here. The narrator, who is in love with her, tries to look at the realities of life with different eyes, but at the last moment he cowards and retreats. The operation to remove the Imagination begins en masse. Under this, Zamyatin expresses the zombification of society with ideology and the lack of information.
