The Benefactor was the one character in the story of We that interested me the most. He had so much power in the society, so much control. It is as if whenever the character of the Benefactor speaks, the author speaks though him. The Benefactor was the character of wisdom in the book, the voice of reason. Although what he had to say to D-503 at the end of the book about I- 330 was not what he wanted to hear, it was still nevertheless the truth. D-503 was just a piece of the puzzle that I-330 needed to complete her big picture. He didn’t actually care about him or his feelings, and I admire how the Benefactor tells D-503 with no holding back.

However the Benefactor had offensive things to say about Christian beliefs, and these offensive things were justified because it was coming from such a strong powerful character. It is interesting to me that Zamyation built the character of the Benefactor using biblical references, but at the end of the book completely bashes Christian beliefs. For example the Benefactors hands were always described as "huge cast iron hands", which is the same way God was described in many places in the bible. When talking about the Benefactor even if it was a pronoun such as him, it was always capitalized. It is also the same way in the bible.


“Suppose they blindfolded you and force you to walk by feeling your way along, stumbling and knowing that right there, inches away, was the edge. Just one step, and all that’s left of you is a piece of flattened dead meat. Isnt that just what I am doing?” Pg 170

I like this quote because I think every once in while we all feel the way the main character is feeling at this point. Relating to the story, the main character is taking some blind risk taking that is making him constantly feel on the edge. The word choice in the second sentence makes the entire statement more powerful “a piece of flattened dead meat.” As if humans who are identified as numbers isn’t already dehumanizing, those same humans are then referred to pieces of dead meat. This quote could also easily be related to our world. The “they” in the quote could be anyone who pressures another person to do something. Although people say they don’t want others to have control and power over them, there are yet still many instances that it happens. What could drive a fourteen year old boy to come to school one day and shoot his classmates and teachers? That boy was feeling defenseless, blindfolded, like he was about to fall off of the edge. He was blindfolded for so long that the anger was uncontrollable. Although the boy and D-503 are in completely different worlds, they still felt that lost feeling described in the quote above. D-503 went against his society, which in his world is seen as horrific as the situation with the boy.



The book We introduced me to a lot of firsts. It was the first book that I read that had a character such as the Benefactor in it. The closest character in a story that I have read that I could compare the Benefactor with is God in the bible, which is probably what the author wanted. It is also the first time I read a book and did not see the ending coming. After reading Fahrenheit, the reader could assume that eventually they would go back to the city and try to recreate a better society much like one of the far past. However We did not leave the reader with much to dwell on. Those feeling of hope were quashed when I realized that they took D-503’s imagination. The ending is what ruined the book of We for me. I’m not saying I want every ending of a book that I read to end with butterflies and rainbows, but I at least want to close the book after reading the last page with every problem resolved and assume that there is hope for the society I have just read about. I also did not like that a lot of D-503’s thoughts were always cut off by “…”s. I realize that it was part of the syntax of the book and was put there for a purpose, but it made the read extremely choppy and scattered.