Order, reason, knowledge: underlying conflicts

During our group discussion, these were a few of the underlying conflicts that we discovered in the book:

1. freedom v. order

• page 28, paragraph 1: "I felt trapped, imprisoned in that primitive cage, caught by the savage whirlwind of the ancient life."
• page 28, paragraph 7: "To be original is to be in some way distinct from others. Hence, to be original is to violate equality."
• page 35, paragraph 4: "Freedom and crime are linked as indivisibl as...well, as the motion of the aero and its speed: when its speed equals zero, it does not move; when man's freedom equals zero, he commits no crimes...The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom."

2. emotion v. reason

• page 87, paragraphs 2 and 3: Instead of D joining the rest of the numbers during their march, he is looking for I, wandering the streets alone. He wants to tell her he can't live without her even though he knows he's breaking the rules, his emotions are taking over his reason.

3. unknowable v. knowledge

• page 39, paragraph 1: "This irrational number had grown into me like something foreign, alien, terrifying. It devoured me-it was impossible to conceive, to render harmless, because it was outside ration."