So last time, for motifs, I analyzed Zimyatin's use of lips. I've realized now that it's not just women whose lips are noticed (the old doctor has 'scissor-lips'). Moreover, it's not just lips that are described in depth and personified. I think that his description of people in general has become a huge part of the novel, although, I'm not sure if it falls under the category of motif anymore. It might fall more under language, since it's more like imagery. The way he describes people is no longer limited to lips, as it was in the beginning; he also describes their cheeks, their eyes, their ears, their body type, using all sorts of metaphors and similes. The old woman who works in his building has gill-cheeks, the guardian who is twice-bent like an 'S' has wing-ears, etc. His descriptions have become a way of illustrating the differences in each person, and I believe D-503 is describing them harshly, with a negative tone, because he has been trained to dislike anything that differs from societal norms. The society in the novel believes that being different, or not uniform, is ugly, which is why in the beginning D-503 spoke of wanting different noses.
I also analyzed the use of windows as motifs in my last entry. While there's been a continued mention of windows, there hasn't been much symbolism beyond what I mentioned last time. There has, however, been more description of how many windows actually exist. Every characters' walls are windows, and they can see each other. This gets rid of the value of privacy in the One-State, which is just another dystopian characteristic.
In my last, I discussed the color pink. But now I've noticed the prominence of the color yellow. It seems to me that everything from the past, everything "ancient" or "primitive" or natural, is described as being yellow. The yellow Buddha in the Ancient House, for instance, haunted D-503 in his dreams for some time. The yellow eyes of the beast outside the Green Wall were brought back later in I-330's "yellow eyes". Yellow is a contrast of blue, and in the beginning, D describes the things he loves about the One-State as perfect, unaffected blue (O's eyes, the sky, etc.) showing that there is a direct contrast between the One-State and nature. As the color yellow becomes more prominent, so does D's connection to (or at least his notice of ) the primitive/natural world.
For setting, I didn't come up with much last time, except that they live in the future. It's become more apparent now just how different they are in their culture. They look back on the "Ancients", or people like us presently, pityingly. In their new society, there's no nature inside the "Green Wall" that surrounds the settlement. It appears, from descriptions, to be a glass wall with an electrified dome that stretches overhead keeping the nature and wilderness out. D-503 sees an animal on the outside, and describes overgrown forests and trees and an abundance of nature on the other side. This contrasts the new civilization, which has no nature. It also shows how disconnected the One-State is from true human nature and possibly develops a theme of how society should not strive to disconnect with their primitive past. That could also be proved through the Ancient House museum, which is used as a base for a rebellion against the government– the rebels connect with their past, with their predecessors, with their "primitive" background. Depending on how this works out in the end, this may be depicted as a good thing or a bad thing.
Last time I analyzed the use of first person narrative, and how it could be confusing sometimes. Well let me tell you, it is even more confusing now! This narrator is so unreliable I don't even know what to do with myself. It's become impossible to tell if he's dreaming or living in the reality, and he himself says he can't tell. Half the time he's against the society, and thinking about having a soul, and then the other half he's back to normal and hates himself for having a "sickness", or soul. So I'm confused half the time, and it's killing me. Metaphorically of course. It's become really hard to tell exactly what's going on, because of the terms he uses, and his occasional habit of not explaining who or what he's talking about if he switches topics, and sometimes he just stops midsentence! I suppose Zimyatin does this to illustrate how D-503 is going kind of crazy, because all of the sudden he's beginning to question this society and culture he's considered perfect his whole life. And he doesn't know how to handle it, because he thinks what he's doing is wrong, but then he's forced to question whether or not it actually is wrong, and maybe everything else he knows is wrong... It's confusing, but that sure is an effective way to illustrate someone's stress and confusion in that kind of situation.
I also analyzed the use of windows as motifs in my last entry. While there's been a continued mention of windows, there hasn't been much symbolism beyond what I mentioned last time. There has, however, been more description of how many windows actually exist. Every characters' walls are windows, and they can see each other. This gets rid of the value of privacy in the One-State, which is just another dystopian characteristic.
In my last, I discussed the color pink. But now I've noticed the prominence of the color yellow. It seems to me that everything from the past, everything "ancient" or "primitive" or natural, is described as being yellow. The yellow Buddha in the Ancient House, for instance, haunted D-503 in his dreams for some time. The yellow eyes of the beast outside the Green Wall were brought back later in I-330's "yellow eyes". Yellow is a contrast of blue, and in the beginning, D describes the things he loves about the One-State as perfect, unaffected blue (O's eyes, the sky, etc.) showing that there is a direct contrast between the One-State and nature. As the color yellow becomes more prominent, so does D's connection to (or at least his notice of ) the primitive/natural world.
For setting, I didn't come up with much last time, except that they live in the future. It's become more apparent now just how different they are in their culture. They look back on the "Ancients", or people like us presently, pityingly. In their new society, there's no nature inside the "Green Wall" that surrounds the settlement. It appears, from descriptions, to be a glass wall with an electrified dome that stretches overhead keeping the nature and wilderness out. D-503 sees an animal on the outside, and describes overgrown forests and trees and an abundance of nature on the other side. This contrasts the new civilization, which has no nature. It also shows how disconnected the One-State is from true human nature and possibly develops a theme of how society should not strive to disconnect with their primitive past. That could also be proved through the Ancient House museum, which is used as a base for a rebellion against the government– the rebels connect with their past, with their predecessors, with their "primitive" background. Depending on how this works out in the end, this may be depicted as a good thing or a bad thing.
Last time I analyzed the use of first person narrative, and how it could be confusing sometimes. Well let me tell you, it is even more confusing now! This narrator is so unreliable I don't even know what to do with myself. It's become impossible to tell if he's dreaming or living in the reality, and he himself says he can't tell. Half the time he's against the society, and thinking about having a soul, and then the other half he's back to normal and hates himself for having a "sickness", or soul. So I'm confused half the time, and it's killing me. Metaphorically of course. It's become really hard to tell exactly what's going on, because of the terms he uses, and his occasional habit of not explaining who or what he's talking about if he switches topics, and sometimes he just stops midsentence! I suppose Zimyatin does this to illustrate how D-503 is going kind of crazy, because all of the sudden he's beginning to question this society and culture he's considered perfect his whole life. And he doesn't know how to handle it, because he thinks what he's doing is wrong, but then he's forced to question whether or not it actually is wrong, and maybe everything else he knows is wrong... It's confusing, but that sure is an effective way to illustrate someone's stress and confusion in that kind of situation.
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