Yevgeny Zamyatin — We [1196]

With an enormous effort, I forced myself to smile. And felt it like a crack in my face: I smiled— the edges of the crack spread wider, hurting me more and more… — Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, 1196

Note

The physical simile of the smile as a cracking surface of stone or brittle porcelain brilliantly captures the narrator’s estrangement from his own enforced expressions.