When D-503 fell in love with I-330, his perfectly ordered mathematical mind began to generate irrational thoughts, which he called a soul, and for the first time he felt truly alive.
2Reading· 오늘의 본문
We · Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1924
D-503 stood before the Benefactor's statue, a monument to perfect logic. He had always seen it as the ultimate truth. But now, after meeting I-330, a terrible conflict raged within him. His loyalty to the One State, to the Benefactor's flawless mathematical order, was a deep, ingrained instinct. Yet, I-330's questions had planted seeds of doubt. Was this perfect world truly perfect? For the first time, he felt his loyalty crack. He looked at the cold, metallic face of the statue and saw not a protector, but a jailer. The love that made him feel alive was now making him question everything he had ever known.
B2 · 128 wordsavg 25.6 w/s
Zamyatin masterfully externalizes D-503's internal schism through his relationship with the figure of the Benefactor. Initially, the Benefactor represents the apotheosis of D-503's own worldview—a deity of pure, unassailable reason. His loyalty is not merely political; it is a psychological bedrock, the core of his engineered identity. The incursion of love, however, catalyzes a profound epistemological crisis. The very concept of the Benefactor becomes destabilized. Is he the benevolent architect of harmony, or the tyrannical enforcer of a sterile, soul-crushing conformity? This conflict between ingrained loyalty and burgeoning doubt is the central fracture in D-503's psyche. His devotion to the State's logic wars against the irrational, humanizing pull of emotion, forcing him to confront the possibility that the foundation of his reality is not truth, but control. What makes We endure as a work of literature is precisely this refusal to offer easy consolation — it demands that readers sit with the discomfort of a world that does not resolve neatly, and find their own position within it.
C1 · 170 wordsavg 34.0 w/s
3Vocabulary· 핵심 어휘 & 연습
ordered
질서 정연한, 체계적인
His perfectly ordered mathematical mind could not comprehend chaos.
generate
생성하다, 발생시키다
Love caused his mind to generate strange, new thoughts.
irrational
비이성적인, 불합리한
For the first time, he experienced irrational feelings like jealousy.
soul
영혼, 마음
He began to believe he had developed a soul, something the State denied.
alive
살아있는, 생기 있는
With I-330, he felt truly alive, not just a cog in a machine.
Activity 1 · 빈칸 채우기5 questions
1. Every hour of D-503's life was carefully ____ by the Table of Hours.
2. The ____ of privacy did not exist in the One State.
3. Individual names were ____ and replaced with numbers.
4. The glass walls guaranteed there was no ____ for citizens.
5. The State was ____ declared to represent perfect happiness.