We

D-503 waxes lyrical in his journal about the upcoming “Day of Unanimity” and how glorious it will be. He suddenly writes that “all that I wrote about Unanimity is of no value” (54). For, as he says, “I want one thing. I want I-330” (54). It is clear not just that D-503’s love for I-330 trumps concern for the Benefactor and the One State but also that he wishes to defy the latter if it will please her. Indeed, he risks confrontation with the Guardians and arrest because he believes this woman they take away is I-330. The fact that D-503’s declaration is in writing supports the theory of The Conformist and Subversive Potential of Writing. Right on the page, both the conforming purpose of the journal, to glorify the One State, and his desire to rebel exist in an edgy juxtaposition. Nevertheless, there is a big leap between his commitment to rebellion and what she asks of him next. As I-330 explains to D-503 days before the proposed action, the Mephi intend to seize control of the Integral by having D-503 lock its crew in the dining room after the launch. As she says, then “we may direct the tubes of the motor downward” (68).

I-330 hopes that when they turn the power of the rocket’s thrusters toward the One State and destroy symbolic buildings like the “Accumulating Tower,” they can incite an uprising. This is an example of how the dystopian narratives both perpetuate and annihilate The Religious Character of State Collectivism. Authoritarian regimes rely on heavy state-glorifying symbolism to capture the collective imagination of the masses and saturate them with the party line. When rebels destroy edifices that exist to enshrine authoritarian power and righteousness, they symbolically strike a blow against the regime. In some cases, they disable state mechanisms of control. Presumably, I-330 and the Mephi think that given the crisis caused by the Day of Unanimity’s disruption, such a show of the One State’s weakness will be enough to inspire citizens to destroy the Green Wall and revolt. Yet, D-503 has strong reasons to resist his involvement in this. Even discounting the vagueness of how the destruction of buildings will cause a revolution, and what will come after, D-503 would be risking a lot with his participation in the rebellion. It is not just that he would hazard his own life, but that he will betray his colleagues, and potentially kill thousands of innocents. Worse, he will invert the purpose of his life’s work, the Integral, and renounce everything in which he once believed. This is a hefty price for a plan that he likens to covering “the muzzle of a gun with your hands” (64), which promises minimal chance of success. This raises the question of how I-330 manages to convince D-503 to participate in the scheme. Part of the answer lies in her rhetorical and rational persuasion of D-503. She shows him that life beyond the Green Wall is not only possible but recognizably human. She goes on to suggest how it is superior to life in the One State. As she says, the original humans who stayed beyond the Green Wall when the newly formed state herded all others into cities went into the woods and “learned there from the trees, beasts, birds, flowers and sun” (64). As I-330 adds, “they preserved their warm red blood” (64). I-330 thus presents an image of a society where people integrate themselves with nature. She contrasts this with the bleak life in the One State where “numbers crawled over you like lice” (64), and Industrial Modernity Alienates Humans from Nature and Themselves because the rules of the One State remove humanity from life’s vital currents.

Illustrating a powerful motif, I-330 also suggests that the One State is synonymous with walls. As she says, “the day has come for us to destroy that Wall and all other walls, so that the green wind may blow all over the earth” (61). She links the One State to artificial boundaries and sclerosis, whereas she associates the Mephi’s new society with liberating movement and freedom. This dichotomy between motion and stasis, or “entropy and energy” (64) forms part of I-330’s final rhetorical push against D-503. In response to his claim that “no other revolutions may occur” (68) as the One State has found the formula for happiness, she argues that new revolutions are always necessary. Evoking the figure of Mephisto, she claims that even the most perfect revolution is fated to reification, and hence that youth and energy must always surge up to replace the old and staid.

However, such arguments are in themselves not enough. They can convince D-503 only because they employ persuasion on an emotional level. He sees his old source of community, in work and the One State, fractured. The Mephi offer a new group identity through opposing the One State. More than that, they appear to offer a sense of unity and communion with nature itself. This contrast appeals strongly because of the long separation of humanity from nature. After he listens to I-330’s speech to the Mephi, D-503 describes how he felt “happy, shaken and rumpled, as after an embrace of love” (61). This emotion intensifies after D-503 ingests a psychedelic drug. He feels, on this drug, that there was “a simple thread binding everything together” (61) and that “all of them breathed one breath” (61). It is such a feeling of connection that it helps persuade D-503 that I-330’s arguments are right and that his role in their plan is justified. Ironically, it is the draw of becoming part of a deeper “We,” not individual freedom, which causes D-503 to take up arms against the One State’s collective. This irony rests with the fact that any collective can exert religious fervor in its members. The perception of the rightness of the cause seldom matters.