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A character in We

The Benefactor

The Benefactor is the public ruler of the One State.

The book

Cover of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
WeYevgeny Zamyatin, 1924

A numbered citizen in a glass city begins to discover the dangerous appeal of privacy and individual thought.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

The Benefactor is the public ruler of the One State. Citizens unanimously “elect” him in a ritual that displays obedience rather than political choice. He personally operates the execution machine and defends the state’s destruction of freedom as a form of cruel but necessary love. He remains in power at the end, although the breach in the Green Wall shows that his control is incomplete.

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