Zamyatin uses a metaphor that likens tangents of a graph to the One State. ‘Tangents’ are ‘straight lines’ that never intersect the actual graph itself. These metaphorically represent the people within the One State, suggesting that they do not contradict the state’s laws, that they live without questioning. Though ‘wild’ and ‘[zigzagged]’, the tangents are similar in a way that they will eventually merge into a ‘straight line’. This once again conveys the idea that all people that belong to the One State is represented by a collaborative whole, that even though they may be different in the slightest regards, they are all part of a society where ‘I’ is not present, but rather ‘we’.
This concept is further explored, emphasis is placed on the shape of the line of the graph. Instead of having curves and other shapes, the line that is the representation of the One State is ‘a great, divine, precise, wise, straight line.’ The tangent of this type of line is straight itself and in addition to this, it is a horizontally straight line, this shows that everyone is supposed to be absolutely equal in the totalitarian society. There is no allowance for any differences, everyone is on the same platform with equal rights and thus nothing to hide from others. This straight line is even present when people walk – they form straight, non-disrupted lines, the idea of tangents to straight lines is the foundation of ‘the mathematically perfect of the One State.’
