First look - We (record One and Two) & We Modern vs ancient

We - first look

Method of narration - first person
Types of language showing through - mathematical and idiomatic language

other ideas -
Irony
Conformity

key word -
dichotomy

The first look we get into the world of One State is through a news article that D 503 has copied word for word. The article allows us an insight into how the One state is run. We see the One State as a totalitarian state, the control even the newspaper has over the people controlling all the information they know about the world they live in.

The One State also differs dramatically from the world we would imagine as the 'perfect' world. We would imagine freedom as the key aspect to this world where as the one state controls nearly every minute of the lives of the people living there. This changes the view on everything we see in the text as our perception on their world is that it is wrong as we have been brought up with different values on what the world should be like.

In Record Two the paragraph starts with D-503 describing spring, the way he looks into spring for a small moment allows D-503 to break away from the mathematical way life is usually seen through, "the wind brings the yellow honey-dust". After the short poetic burst D-503 goes back to talking through logically about the world around him. We also see that D-503 sees the integral as more than a mathematically designed machine but more as a piece of art.

We modern vs Ancient:
The main thing we see about the modern in We is the Green wall. The Green wall symbolizes the divide between the 'modern' city and the way the world used to be in the ancient times outside the on the 'wild' side. The wall acts as a sort of seperation of values and lifestyles, it creates a barrier stopping all of the information from the outside getting into One State thus stopping corruption of residents and also allows full diplomatic control.

In the modern all of the buildings are made of 'glass' eliminating privacy within the ciphers own homes. In addition privacy is eliminated in public as all ciphers have to walk in fours, thus stopping private conversations that could be enforcing ideas that contradict the diplomatic way. In addition ciphers have an individual schedule preventing them from having time to think outside of the benefactors way.

In contrast the people living outside of the wall are living similar lives to the way we do now 'ancient'. These people believe in freedom,privacy and individuality - the compete opposite of the way the people inside the glass wall are being forced to live. These ancient values have been twisted in the one state to show the people there that the other way of life will corrupt them as people and make them 'bad' people. The Journey D-503 is taken on however is something that the One State did not think of - the minutes of free time there schedules do allow is enough to let D-503 be taken on a journey showing him what the other side is truely like.