Intro
We is a Russian dystopia written in 1924, before things turned, well, dystopian back in the U.S.S.R. In the futuristic society of this novel, everything is supposed to be utopian and perfect, but it's actually hell on earth. Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote this just after the Russian Revolution, before things got too Orwellian (see 1984 for more on that).
We is a satire not so much on Marxism as on the madness of trying to plan the perfect society. In the OneState (any parallels come to mind?), there is no love, no music, no fun, no individuality. How can that possibly last, you ask? Well, pretty soon, things start to fall apart.
Quote
She looked at me in the mirror—the sharp mocking triangle of her brows lifted up toward her temples. She turned to say something to me but said nothing.
She didn't have to. I knew.
Say good-bye to her? I moved my—or somebody's—feet, hit the chair, it fell over and lay there dead, like the one in her room. Her lips were cold—as cold as the floor here in my room, next to the bed, had once been.
But when she left, I sat down on the floor and bent over the cigarette she'd thrown there […].
I can't write any more—I don't want to!
Analysis
D-503, the hero of the novel, keeps a diary (the novel is made up of his diary entries), can hardly pick up his pen here. I-330, the rebellious heroine (it doesn't end well for her), has just blown his tiny mind by introducing him to the finer things in life—all of which are officially banned in the OneState. Let's put it this way: love is totally banned in OneState, but suddenly, our hero's got it bad.
A Marxist critic would say that this is a great example of how writing is made possible by ideology. Once the main guy's ideology collapses (he sees things he'd never seen before), he can hardly write. Something's gotta give.