un-der-stand?…Oh-ho —we are acting!’” comments one of the Mephi. Although there it would seem like the utopia had been desecrated, the chaos lasted only a short while before the strict Benefactor again had rule, even requiring removal of each person’s imagination, including D-503. This iron fist will not allow for any more destruction and I-330 has been detained. Her goal is no longer attainable, and she deteriorates. They try to get her to talk through torture. “Then she was placed under the Bell…they began to pump the air out of the Bell…she was pulled out, then quickly restored with the aid of electrodes…This was repeated three times —and still she did not say a word. Others…began to speak after the very first time. Tomorrow they will all ascend the stairs to the Benefactor’s Machine.” One main character in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s WE adopts the motto presented in the quote, “…the destruction of the present for the sake of the better,” as a goal whose later impossibility results in that character’s mental or physical annihilation. Raskolnikov is not allowed to destroy the present because of his commonness, and he becomes severely ill and guilt ridden. Bazarov is faced with his inability to destroy order when he loves she that uses it, and becomes infected with typhus. I-330 cannot desecrate the One State because of the strict rule enforced by the Benefactor, and is killed for her crimes against Reason. Without the unattainable goal, the above novels could not have moved forward as well in plot, and would maybe not be on the “universal appeal” shelf of the corner bookstore....
