We Identity Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Record.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As I write this: I feel my cheeks burn. I suppose this resembles what a woman experiences when she first hears a new pulse within her—the pulse of a tiny, unseeing, mini-being. This text is me; and simultaneously not me. And it will feed for many months on my sap, my blood, and then, in anguish, it will be ripped from my self and placed at the foot of the One State. (1.9)
D-503 looks at his diary as an extension of himself, and also something that is absolutely in the services of the State. In that sense, we really are looking at his soul written onto the pages.
Quote #2
Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour, at the same minute, we wake up, millions of us at once. (3.6)
This really is fascism in its purest form. Identity is determined by the State and each individual member of the State must fulfill it perfectly.
Quote #3
I see myself as a part of an enormous, vigorous, united body; and what precise beauty! Not a single superfluous gesture or bow, or turn. (7.3)
This is typical of D-503's early thoughts: viewing himself as a small component in a great whole rather than a man with individual thoughts or feelings.
Quote #4
"This morning I went downstairs, all purified and distilled, transparent." (10.1)
The State often defines identity by transparency: the ability to see through anyone and know their innermost thoughts. D-503 is happy at this thought, indicating that his identity is still State-approved.
Quote #5
"One, the former D-503, Number D-503 and the other . . . Before, that other used only to show his hairy paws from time to time, but now that whole otherself left his shell. That shell was breaking, and in a moment..." 10.46
There's a sense of transition and change here as D-503 leaves his old identity behind and embraces a new one. Note the use of the shell (like an eggshell) as a way of signaling that change.
Quote #6
I look in the mirror. And for the first time in my life, yes for the first time in my life, I see clearly, precisely, consciously, I see myself as some "him." I am "he." (11.1)
This is a key moment, because it expresses identity as a symbol of individuality, not an extension of the State. For the first time, it is in his hands and not the Society around him.
Quote #7
It seemed as though it would splash over me and that from a man, from the finest and most precise mechanism which I am, I would be transformed into… (16.3)
Notice that this passage is a little scary. D-503 is never entirely sure about this transition, and as much as he loves being an individual, part of it scares the holy wee-wee out of him.
Quote #8
Imagine this: a human finger, cut off from the whole, from the hand—a separate human finger, stooping, bent down, skipping, running along a glass sidewalk. This finger is me. And the strangest, most unnatural thing of all is that the finger doesn't want to be on the hand, with the others, at all. (18.13)
Again, we're back to the horror imagery with fingers crawling around without a hand. There's something scary about such a deep change to yourself, even if it's just to something most of us modern-day folk would consider "normal."
Quote #9
So here I am, in step with everyone now, and yet I'm still separate from everyone. I am still trembling all over from the agitation I endured, like a bridge after an ancient train has rumbled over it. I am aware of myself. And, of course, the only things that are aware of themselves and conscious of their individuality are irritated eyes, cut fingers, sore teeth. A healthy eye, finger, tooth might as well not even be there. Isn't it clear that individual consciousness is just sickness? (22.18)
So yeah, even when he's free and clear of the State, he still looks at himself as a "sickness." In some ways, he can never banish the State from his identity, just as he can never entirely banish the individual.