Yevgeny Zamyatin — We [91]

Now, think of a square, a living, beautiful square. And imagine that it must tell you about itself, about its life. You understand, a square would scarcely ever think of telling you that all its four angles are equal: this has become so natural, so ordinary to it that it’s simply no longer consciously aware of it. And so with me: I find myself continually in this square’s position. — Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, 91

Note

The extended metaphor of the square creates a brilliant defamiliarization effect, making the narrator’s totalitarian reality sound as self-evident and geometric as a definition while exposing the unbridgeable gulf between his worldview and the reader’s.