Dystopian Novel, We: Journal, Part One

"But our Table of Hours! Why, it transforms each one of us into a figure of steel, a six-wheeled hero of a mighty epic poem. Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour and the same moment, we— millions of us—get up as one. At the same hour, in million- headed unison, we start work; and in million-headed unison we end it And, fused into a single million-handed body, at the same second, designated by the Table, we lift our spoons to our mouths. At the same second, we come out for our walk, go to the auditorium, go to the hall for Taylor exercises, fall asleep...." (12)

This passage embodies the essence of the One State, the society in the novel We. The repetition of words and phrases such as "unison," "as one," and "million-headed unison" parallels the society of the One State's scorn of individualism. The citizens of the One State rejects individualism and instead accepts conformity in order to become "a figure of steel, a six-wheeled hero of a mighty epic poem." Also it reveals the methods of which the One State suppresses freedom. The Table of Hours transforms the citizens of the One State from "I" to "we" by regulating their lives. In order to promote conformity the Table regulates the citizens' lives to the point where it dictates we they "lift [their] spoons to [their] mouths [...] [when] we come out for our walk, go to the auditorium, go to the hall for Taylor exercises, fall asleep..." all for the purpose of fostering uniformity. At this point, the protagonist, D-503, is completely loyal to the One State, firmly believing in its tenets and infallibility. D-503 is still the average One State citizen, before he transforms later to his "monkey" self.