Going hand-in-hand with power is the notion of repression: the state's main means of control and part of the reason why everyone lives in those Criss Angel glass boxes. They don't want people to think individual thoughts or have individual needs. Your lovers are assigned to you, and if you have dreams, they consider you crazy.
In We, repression is defined in machine-like terms. The state is a machine, the citizens beneath it are units, and everything is defined in mathematical terms. Anything the state can't control is out beyond the Green Wall, and hey, there's no way that's coming down, amirite?
Questions About Repression
- How is the characters' eagerness to serve the State a reflection of its level of repressiveness?
- What specific symbols of repression appear in the One State? How are they used?
- Does MEPHI exercise any sort of repression? If so, can you cite some examples?
Chew on This
Repression is equated with bliss, with happy characters eagerly espousing the tools of their enslavement.
Repression is blissful only because the characters do not realize it. Once they do, they fight full-bore against it.