42 pages • 1 hour read
Ayn RandAnthem
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Parts 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1 Summary
Equality 7-2521 is writing, which is against the law, as he has not been assigned to work as a writer by the Council of Vocations—the branch of government that assigns careers. Equality 7-2521 has committed other crimes, including spending time alone, and faces uncertain punishments if he is caught. He is writing from an underground tunnel using a stolen candle for light. If discovered with the stolen candle, he would face 10 years in the Palace of Corrective Detention. Equality 7-2521 is 21 and is six feet tall, which is considered socially unacceptable because he is taller than most of his peers. He is also cursed with curiosity, a quality that is anathema to the society in which he lives. Equality 7-2521 repeats the slogan on the Palace of the World Council, which reads “We are all one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great we, One, indivisible forever” (5), but it has not helped. The World Council is the governing body that took over after the Great Rebirth, but Equality 7-2521 knows little about the times before the Great Rebirth, as it is illegal to talk of the Unmentionable Times. As a result of the Great Rebirth, mankind discovered the Great Truth: “that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together” (5).
Equality 7-2521 has been cursed his entire life. He fought with his brothers in the Home of the Infants. While in the Home of the Students, where children are educated from age five to 15, he found the subjects too easy, though he tried to forget or misunderstand the lessons. He tried to emulate Union 5-3992, who conformed to expectations, but he failed and was beaten often. Equality 7-2521’s main crime during childhood was Transgression of Preference—he preferred lessons on the Science of Things and longed to be assigned to the Council of Scholars, who devise all modern inventions, the most recent being the wax candle invented 100 years prior. He would also be allowed to ask questions at the Home of the Scholars, whereas questions are forbidden elsewhere in society. When Equality 7-2521 reached the age of 15, he was given a Life Mandate to work as a Street Sweeper. Though this was very different from what he had hoped for, he was happy with the assignment, seeing it as an opportunity to atone for his curse and his guilty conscience by conforming to his role as a Street Sweeper. Equality 7-2521 settled into a daily routine, spending the day at work and the evening at the required Social Meeting, followed by three hours of Social Recreation at the City Theatre before returning to the Home of the Street Sweepers, where he slept in the collective sleeping hall. He was supposed to follow this routine until he turned 40 and was sent to live his last few years at the Home of the Useless. However, he committed a crime and deviated from his routine two years ago.
Equality 7-2521 was working with Union 5-3992 and International 4-8818, who was ostracized for smiling and for drawing. Equality 7-2521 made another Transgression of Preference by considering International 4-8818 a friend. Union 5-3992 had a bout of convulsions, so Equality 7-2521 and International 4-8818 left him under a tent and continued working behind the City Theatre near the Uncharted Forest. They found a grate covering a tunnel, and, against International 4-8818’s warnings, Equality 7-2521 climbed down into it. The tunnel, made of concrete with a steel grate bottom, was from the Unmentionable Times. Equality 7-2521 crawled a way into the dark tunnel, then returned to the surface, where International 4-8818 suggested they should tell the City Council of the tunnel. Equality 7-2521 disagreed, saying that if they reported it, he would be whipped to death. Referring to himself as “we,” as is customary in their society, International 4-8818 acceded, saying, “Rather shall we be evil with you than good with all our brothers” (15). After this discovery. Equality 7-2521 started leaving the Social Meeting and going down into the tunnel each night. He has stolen candles, writing supplies, and materials discarded by the House of the Scholars, and he spends his nights reading and performing experiments. Although he would be severely punished if discovered, Equality 7-2521 feels peaceful in the tunnel.
Part 2 Summary
Men and women are not allowed to be attracted to each other, but Equality 7-2521 is attracted to Liberty 5-3000, who works in agriculture at the Home of the Peasants, located along Equality 7-2521’s daily work route. The first time he noticed her, he stopped, watched her, and overheard someone say her name. He watched her each day after that, and one day Liberty 5-3000 made brief eye contact with him. The next day, they exchanged smiles, and after that they greeted each other with a simple and discreet gesture. In his thoughts, Equality 7-2521 renamed Liberty 5-3000 Golden One. In the spring, men 20 and older and women 18 and older are taken to the City Palace of Mating for the Time of Mating. They are divided into pairs by the Council of Eugenics, where they are mated. The children are taken from their mothers to be raised by the government. Equality 7-2521 has participated twice in the Time of Mating. When Equality 7-2521 finally speaks to Liberty 5-3000, he tells her that she is beautiful and that, in a crowd comprised of all other women, he would look only at her. He confesses that he calls her Golden One in his mind. Golden One says she is 17, meaning she has not participated in the Time of Mating. Three other women approach, and Golden One resumes her work. That evening, Equality 7-2521 is reprimanded for singing without cause.
In the tunnel, Equality 7-2521 reflects that, despite the requirement that everyone must be happy, people seem “dull and fearful—The shoulders of our brothers are hunched, and their muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and wished to shrink out of sight” (23). However, Equality 7-2521 feels happy while in his tunnel—so happy that the Council of Home is suspicious of his cheerfulness. Equality 7-2521 notices other intrinsic nonconformers, including Fraternity 2-5503, who has fits of crying, and Solidarity 9-6347, who screams for help in his sleep. No one speaks at night because they are afraid their thoughts may not align, which is against the law. At night, Equality 7-2521 looks out the window and thinks about the Uncharted Forest. Legend holds that a few men have entered the forest, but none have returned. The Uncharted Forests exist outside all the various cities, and rumor states that it hides the ruins of civilizations from the Unmentionable Times. Equality 7-2521 has heard that men fought against the Evil Ones during the Unmentionable Times. The Evil Ones lost, and during the Dawn of the Great Rebirth, the Evil Ones’ books were burned in the Script Fire, and a word—the Unspeakable Word—was erased from the world. If anyone accidentally finds the word, they are killed. When he was 10, Equality 7-2521 witnessed the public burning of a man who had discovered the word. He believes he saw the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word look at him: “And it seemed as if these eyes were begging us to gather that word and not to let it go from us and from the earth” (26). Equality 7-2521 has been unable to guess the word, and he thinks of the man put to death as the Saint of the Pyre.
Parts 1-2 Analysis
The first two parts of Anthem serve to introduce the primary characters and to develop the setting and context. The book is set in a futuristic society based on collectivist ideals. All people are considered equal and are expected to live a life of complaisant obedience. The Oppressive Collectivism of this society is portrayed through the backstory and characterization of the protagonist and narrator, Equality 7-2521. Equality 7-2521, like every citizen, has an identification tag rather than a name. The government, presided over by the World Council, dictates that everyone be equal, similar, and altruistic.
Equality 7-2521 is a reluctant nonconformer: He believes in the World Council’s collectivist ideology and desperately wants to fit in, but he cannot help his curiosity and individuality. His mental nonconformity is reflected in his physical difference; standing at six feet tall, he is taller than his peers, an attribute that—in this book’s allegorical schema—symbolizes his moral and intellectual superiority. Although Equality 7-2521 is unique in his acts of defiance—stealing supplies, sneaking into the tunnel, writing, and performing experiences—he is not alone in his nonconformity. Several characters display various levels of rebellion. His coworker, International 4-8818, draws, smiles, and agrees to keep the tunnel secret. Liberty 5-3000 returns Equality 7-2521’s forbidden attentions, Solidarity 9-6347 screams in his sleep, and Fraternity 2-5503 cries. Each of these small displays of emotion is forbidden in their society, where service to the community is the only legitimate value. Meanwhile, only one ideal citizen is introduced: Union 5-3992, who has a neurological condition that causes seizures and who is described as having “only half a brain” (7). Equality 7-2521 is not unique in his nonconformity: Nearly every character fails to conform in some with the rigid strictures of life under the World Council, suggesting that individualism is a foundational principle of human nature.
The World Council’s Oppressive Collectivism produces a range of ill effects in the lives of its citizens. There are few close friendships and no romantic relationships in this society. The social distance between the citizens reads as ironic: The World Council expects that a collectivist society should lead to unity between the citizens, and the pervasive language of fraternity and solidarity reinforces this view. In reality, though, people are so terrified of appearing unique that they avoid talking to others. The ill effects of collectivism are further depicted through the short lifespans of the citizens: “When a miracle happens and some live to be forty-five, they are the Ancient Ones” (12). The short life span suggests that collectivism causes poor health.
Both the theme of oppressive collectivism and the collectivist society allude to Russian communism, which Rand, born in Russia, experienced. It also serves to contrast with themes centering on individuality, including Individualism and Love, which is introduce in the relationship between Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. The text, itself, is intended as a fictional manifesto and semi-autobiography that details both Rand’s personal experiences and her Objectivist philosophy.
Equality 7-2521’s character arc develops the inherent Tension Between Altruism and Egoism. The first two chapters offer context for this character arc, describing past events in Equality 7-2521’s life, leading up to the present moment, in which he is surreptitiously writing in the tunnel. He has been a nonconformer his entire life, but his interest in individuality was strengthened when he made eye contact with the condemned man he calls the Saint of the Pyre. While he does suggest that the moment of connection might have been imagined—“Perhaps it had only seemed to us” (26)—Equality 7-2521 uses the event as a justification of his curiosity and individuality. The man is killed for knowing the Unspeakable Word, which is revealed at the end of the text as being the word “ego.” Knowledge of this word is the only crime punishable by death—suggesting that a wholly altruistic society must go to great lengths to suppress the egoism that, in Rand’s philosophy, is fundamental to human nature.
The concept of egoism drives Equality 7-2521’s character arc and is intended to dramatize the underlying principles of Rand’s Objectivism. The author enriches the literary experience of the text by incorporating literary devices, such as the aforementioned Unspeakable Word. Symbolism also occurs through the tunnel, which represents Equality 7-2521’s individuality and his mind, and light, representing intellectual and philosophical enlightenment. Rhetorical devices appear in the slogans used to condition the citizens into conforming. The slogan “The will of our brothers be done” (10) is repeated multiple times in part one and employs ethos, or an ethical argument. Solecism, the use of incorrect grammar, is also employed in the form of the exclusive use of plural pronouns. Equality 7-2521 refers to himself via collective pronouns—we, our—which supports the absurd portrayal of collectivism.
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