Transcript I I I I I I I I

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Anthem, by Ayn Rand
Russian American citizen
Immigrated in
1946
Unhealthy
Ayn Rand
Novelist
Philosopher
Playwright
Screenwriter
Russian
The Two Sacred Words
Equality 7-2521, writing in a tunnel under the earth, explains his
background, the society around him, and his emigration. His exclusive
use of plural pronouns (we, our, they) to refer to himself and others is
immediately obvious. The idea of the World Council was to eliminate all
individualist ideas. It was so stressed, that people were burned at the
stake for saying an Unspeakable Word (I, Me, Myself, and Egos). He
recounts his early life. He was raised, like all children in the world of
Anthem, away from his parents in the Home of the Infants, then
transferred to the Home of the Students, where he began his schooling.
Later, he realized that he was born with a "curse": He is eager to think
and question, and unwilling to give up himself for others, which violates
the principles upon which Anthem's society is founded. He excelled in
math and science, and dreamed of becoming a Scholar. However, a
Council of Vocations assigned all people to their jobs, and he was
assigned to the Home of the Street Sweepers.
Equality accepts his profession willingly in order to repent for his transgression
(his desire to learn). He works with International 4-8818 and Union 5-3992.
International is exceptionally tall, a great artist (which is his transgression, as
only people chosen to be artists may draw), and Equality's only friend (having a
friend also being a crime because, in Anthem's society, one is not supposed to
prefer one of one's brothers over the rest). Union, "they of the half-brain,"
suffers from epilepsy.
However, Equality remains curious. One day, he finds the entrance to a subway
tunnel in his assigned work area and explores it, despite International 4-8818's
protests that an action unauthorized by a Council is forbidden. Equality realizes
that the tunnel is left over from the Unmentionable Times, before the creation
of Anthem's society, and is curious about it. During the daily three hour-long
play, he leaves the rest of the community at the theater and enters the tunnel
and undertakes scientific experiments.
Working outside the City one day, by a field, Equality meets and
falls in love with a woman, Liberty 5-3000, whom he names
"The Golden One." Also, Liberty 5-3000 names Equality "The
Unconquered."
Continuing his scientific work, he rediscovers electricity (which
he, until the book nears its conclusion, calls the "power of the
sky") and the light bulb. He decides to take his inventions to the
World Council of Scholars, so that they will recognize his talent
and allow him to work with them. He is still motivated by a
socially instilled need to aid his fellow citizens. However, one
night he spends too much time in the underground tunnel and
his absence from the Home of the Street Sweepers is noticed,
and he is arrested and then sent to the Palace of Corrective
Detention, from which he easily escapes after being tortured.
The day after his escape, he walks in on the World Council of Scholars
and presents his work to them. Horrified, they reject it because it was
not authorized by a Council and threatens to upset the equilibrium of
their world. When they try to destroy his invention, he takes it and flees
into the forest (called the Uncharted Forest) outside the City.
Upon entering the Uncharted Forest, Equality begins to realize that he is
free, that he no longer must wake up every morning with his brothers to
sweep the streets. (It's important to note that it was illegal for men of
the City to enter or even think of the Forest, therefore he was not
pursued once he crossed its threshold). He can "rise, or run, or leap, or
fall down again." Now that he sees this, he is not stricken with the sense
that he will die at the fangs of the beasts of the forest as a result of his
transgressions. He develops a new understanding of the world and his
place in it.
On his second day of living in the forest, Equality stumbles upon the
Golden One, Liberty 5-3000, who has followed him from the City. They
embrace, struggling to express their feelings for each other as they do
not know how to think of themselves as individuals. They find and enter
a house from the Unmentionable Times in the mountains, perfectly
preserved for hundreds of years by thick overgrowth, and decide to live
in it.
While reading books from the house's library, Equality and Liberty
discover that the Unspeakable Word, the one that carries the penalty of
death, is "EGO." Recognizing its sacred value and the individuality it
expresses, they give themselves new names from the books: Equality
becomes 'Prometheus', and Liberty becomes 'Gaea'. As the book closes,
Prometheus talks about the past, wonders how men could give up their
individuality, and charts a future in which they will regain it.
The last word of the
book, 'EGO', is inscribed
by Prometheus on a
rock and hung over his
front door.