The Repressive Governments Of Zamiatin's We And Orwell's 1984

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of its citizens is by the use and abuse of a system by which each
member of society receives a number at birth instead of given a name (Goldstein 54). The
numbers are assigned according to sex and occupation. For example, D-503, the main
character in We, is male, and is thus assigned a consonant for his prefix while his female
partner, O-90, is assigned a vowel. As D-503 is an engineer, he receives a 5 as his first
number. All state poets such as O-90 have numbers under 100. (Zamiatin 46). This use of
numbers instead of names creates a sense of unity and oneness of purpose in the
contented, complacent Numbers of the United State. "The most striking thing about the
Numbers' "names", is how easily they incorporate their assignment into their lives, and
their contempt for the "old way" of naming." (Gregg 549)

The Numbers' numbers are sewn onto their tunics called "unifs", front and back in large
enough print that anyone, ". . .up to one hundred meters away can read your ...

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of the curtains doesn't completely conceal the activities of those inside. A closed
circuit video recorder transmits every activity in every apartment to the Bureau of
Guardians where it is watched constantly.

The purpose of this tyranny is to eliminate the human emotions of envy or jealousy that
naturally arise from human sexual relations. (Richards 546) But by doing away with
jealousy, love also is taken away, and thus the institution of marriage. The Numbers are
free to pursue their lives free of any thought to the well being of a spouse or children
while giving up the inherent need of companionship and relationships (Gregg 549).
Replacing these vital establishments ...

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