Equality In Ayn Rand's Anthem '

“Anthem” by Ayn Rand takes us on a journey through the eyes of a young man named
Equality 7­2521 living in the future in which people have lost all knowledge of individualism and where all decisions are made by committee ­ the Council. Equality 7­2521 struggles immediately from the beginning of the story because he is “cursed” by being intelligent and inquisitive and having individual thought, which is against the society in which he lives in. Growing up as a young boy, his dream is to become a scientist and work on new discoveries and inventions. Instead, at fifteen years old, Equality 7­2521 is assigned by the Council to a menial job of being a street sweeper. His day­to­day life is very routine and mundane and he rebels against this life and starts conducting research in a secret tunnel where he discovers and re­creates electricity. He also defies the ‘rules” by trespassing into an open field where he comes to find friendship with a woman – a forbidden act of his society. One day the Council finds him coming back late one night from the tunnel and throws him in jail where he is viciously

I think. I will.” (page 94) For the first time Equality 7­2521 is realizing that as a human being, he exists, which means he has the ability to think. With the ability to think for one’s self comes the ability to carry out actions and to do things for one’s self. The quote symbolizes that when applied to life, Equality 7­2521 has free will ­ a choice in how he lives, his own destiny and the path that he wants to follow. In Anthem, the society is one in which everyone is equal and no one is superior to anyone else. However, society comes with a price as no one is able to think or speak for themselves. When Equality 7­2521 realizes that he can think and speak for himself in his “new world” then his new reality stems from