As the plot unfolds, however, he gets more in touch with his human side, and his records become more expressive, irrational, and confused. He fully subscribes to the government’s idea that the collective’s welfare is more important than individuals’ personal freedom, believing that happiness is achieved through a commitment to logic and rationality and the removal of desires. In his early records, D-503 is completely subservient to the One State.
Should ciphers break any of the State’s strict laws, they are punished by execution via a mechanical contraption known as the Machine of the Benefactor. Even their sex lives are not in their own hands: the State assigns ciphers sex partners, and they must request a “pink ticket” to engage in scheduled, passionless sex with their state-sanctioned partners. Ciphers’ daily lives are precisely organized around a carefully controlled scheduled called the Table of Hours. The government rips them of their individuality, forcing them to wear identical uniforms (“unifs”) and harshly condemning all acts of personal expression. Ciphers live in transparent, glass houses. The One State is cut off from the wild, free world by a massive barrier called the Green Wall. As such, citizens (called “ciphers”) live under the oppressive, hyper-watchful eye of government-appointed police offers called Guardians. The Benefactor believes that the freedom of individuals is secondary to the welfare of the State. D-503 writes his records to be read by the conquered alien civilizations so that they might have a better understanding of the values and history of their new authoritarian overlords.Ī God-like, cruel dictator known as the Benefactor rules over the One State. D-503 works as a mathematician and engineer, and is the lead designer of the Integral, a rocket ship the One State will use to travel to alien planets to spread the doctrine of complete subservience to the government and an absolute reliance on logic, mathematics, and rationality to govern public life. The action takes place in the distant future in the One State, a civilization ruled over by an authoritarian government. We unfolds over the course of 40 “Records” written by the novella’s narrator, D-503.
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