Anthem Essay, Research Paper

A young man lives in a place where the word “I” does not

have meaning. It is a society where there are no

individuals. It is, however, a place where you strive to

serve your brothers. Equality 7-2521 was taught from birth

that the individual is not important. He is in a crazed

society where the only form of government is collectivism.

Equality, at age 21, has absolutely no freedom. He is a

a strong, tall young man who stands about six feet. However,

in this society, anyone who is six feet tall was considered

to be evil. His dream of going to the House of Scholars

is lost and he is sent to the Hose of Street Sweepers

instead. Here the rules are very strict. He is not allowed

to laugh or sing for any reason. These are a couple of

hardships that Equality has to face so far in this mixed up

society. His troubles get greater and greater until finally

he does something about it.

All through his life, Equality thinks he is not capable

of accomplishing anything. Through time though, he discovers

that he is capable of doing many things by himself and more

importantly that he is an individual. When he is in the

tunnel, he discovers a light. This provides him with the

confidence that he is able to do things. Other experiences,

such as falling in love with Liberty and seeing his

reflection in the pond also help him to believe in himself as

a strong individual.

Equality later realizes that he has commited sins as he

was growing up. He thinks by showing his invention to the

House of Scholars that he would be forgiven for his

wrongdoings. He hopes to show his invention to society and

find a way into the House of the Scholars. He also wants to

prove that being tall does not make you an evil individual.

He feels that he has sinned because he was sent to the Palace

of Corrective Detention when he did not reveal where he has

been. He wishes to be forgiven for being sent there. Even

though entering the tunnel is against the law, he feels that

he is going to discover things that would improve the society

that he is living in.

Equality tries to get the House of Scholars to accept

him for the last time. He finds out when and where they are

going to meet and devises a plan. He decides to escape from

the Palace of Corrective Detention and go to where the

meeting is being held.

He arrives at the Council of Scholars and look at him in

astonishment. The members are afraid at first because they

do not know exactly what Equality is presenting to them.

After they realize what it is that Equality is showing them,

they are very insulted that a mere street sweeper was

belittling their intelligence as Council members.

Upon hearing that his idea is rejected, he leaps out the

window and runs to the Uncharted Forest where no man

survives. He finds out that Liberty has followed him into

the forest. They come together and find an abandoned house.

They enter it and see things that they have never seen

before. They find clothes, 2 beds in one room, and one thing

that shocked them the most, a mirror. After looking at the

mirror, he now knows for sure that he is an individual. He

now understands that the word “I” that he had learned

from

the manuscripts of the Unmentionable Times has meaning. He

knows that he lives for himself and not for others. He

realizes that he is his own self and he determines his own

fate. He then changes his name to Promethus which is a Greek

God who stole the light of the 600’s and gave it to man.

Promethus had suffered just as Equality had, and Equality

admired him very much and chose his name to be his own.

Liberty also changed her name. Equality gave her the name

Gaea after the Greek Goddess who was the mother of earth and

all the God’s. Gaea becomes pregnant and they both decide to

raise their child as an individual and to never let it

experience the hardships they had faced in the crazed society

of Collectivism.

Equality makes it his duty to rescue the other friends

he had left behind. He feels that they deserve the same

freedom that he is now experiencing. He plans to “save all

men and women whose spirit has not been killed within them

and suffer under the yoke of brothers.” Equality wants to

bring his friends to his fortress and start over a new

beginning in which the dreadful word “we” will never again

have meaning.