We- Analysis

One of the interesting aspects of We was the final chapter. In this chapter, the book is spontaneously resolved by making D-503 a mindless computer-like drone of OneState. Also, I-330 and the rebels are tortured and later liquified. Sort of a let-down, a tad bit of a bummer of an ending. Not quite all too fulfilling when the main character, troubled for all his time in the novel, perhaps even from chapter 1, suddenly loses all free will and is reborn a walking corpse. That and betrayal by the one person he really loved. Or thought he loved. Either way, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, despite all logic, the ending of the novel WAS a happy ending in a highly technical and disturbing manner. NOTE TO THE READER: if you haven't caught my drift yet, I introduce you to my method of sarcastic understatement. I do NOT like the ending of the novel, nor do I support OneState. However, thinking in the computer logic that the Benefactor discusses a few chapters prior, technically this is a happy end to a troubling tale.

Throughout the novel, D-503 fights to discover what he really wants. He suddenly begins suffering from the sickness known to OneState as "soul." Well, that is a good thing in reality, to have a soul, but as the Benefactor may have put it, depending on context, soul is what prevents society from attaining a utopian society. The closest we can get to Heaven is only attainable if we sacrifice our souls. Only computers can really be happy without being unhappy. Note that this happiness and unhappiness is in theoretical terms. Without one, there cannot be the other. D-503 mentioned somewhere that society always thought of happiness as a plus sign, but never considered the opposite that mathematically had to exist, and realized that one could not have a free floating positive without negative. Continuing with this, the troubled D-503 now obtains, at the conclusion of the novel, his perfect happiness as a computerized human. He never really warmed up to the idea of the soul, and its removal from him allows him to attain some higher level of peace and fulfillment that is very similar to...well, I won't mince words, it's really no better than dying. However, he gets his impossible happiness without a negative. Zero is referred to as a nonnegative number, meaning it isn't negative. (hence the non) However, zero has no negative equivalent. Hence, the conclusion of a mathematical utopia, ending in perfection, in lack of want or unhappiness, the lack of a negative: the impartial, nonnegative number 0. Besides, a book that begins with inhuman math and logic really can't end in anything other than math and logic, can it?

But why did the Benefactor see D-503 soon afterward? Why have him witness the torture of I-330 which he did not remember and treat him to a dinner? Well, I wrote earlier that perhaps the Benefactor is trying to bring humanity to the utopian end they've been begging to reach, to end their pointless suffering in the search for perfection and paradise. It's disturbing, but in a way he may be attempting to act as the fatherly omnipresent higher being that looks to ensure that he's happy. If D-503 suddenly woke up without an imagination and thought that he'd done all this weird stuff, (weird to him in his new form) he might be a little unsettled. Maybe the Benefactor merely wanted to ensure that the whole business that had occurred was over, all in the past, and welcome in a new friendship with D-503 and an acceptance into the community. Since D-503 didn't react to the torture of the others, especially I-330, the Benefactor could relax and know that D-503 had finally found peace. Consider it a mercy killing, like when the Benefactor told D-503 that he was just being used. In fact, D-503 himself stated that his shouting was like trying to stop a bullet that was still being fired into him. Maybe all this was to forgive D-503 and double check that he's not going to go back into the suffering that he desperately wanted to be rid of, yet at the same time desperately wanted to be part of. The Benefactor put him down to end his suffering, and then granted him forgiveness. Perhaps the dinner was even analogous to the Last Supper, and would therefore be yet another symbol of friendship and new life.

So there you have it. A twisted logic that puts a happy face on the ending. The Benefactor puts on the fatherly guise, forgives D-503, and welcomes him into a community that never suffers, that is always at peace. One heck of a funny looking smiley face, but it can be made. Perhaps the crazy mathematical approach actually applies to the end of the novel, and this is somewhat right. If not, I can only state that the Benefactor was being a real jerkwad by having I-330 tortured in front of D-503, in an attempt to flaunt that D-503's one of the inhuman utopians, and really this signals the demise of all humanity and the rise of the zombie humans of OneState. This makes the ending a complete bummer and reminds us that not everything will always turn out the way we like it. It can still say that true perfection is not attainable by humans with souls and that in reality even true paradise isn't all we think it to be. I just prefer to think that there's SOME positive outcome to this story and not that everyone just up and (spiritually) dies.

I assure you I still am human and do not support crazy utopias such as these. I would sooner live in the deepest hole in the Netherworld. I am just finding some way to be really technical/argue semantics/analyze this book.