Anthem Summary

SPOILER ALERT

(Do not read if you want your experience with the book to be spoiled)

          Anthem by Ayn Rand is a book that is a journal of a man named Equality 7-2521. It is based in a futuristic time period that requires all people to be a part of a brotherhood and care for everyone like a brother. They have strict rules like how one cannot associate with a women unless they are in the Palace of Mating or that one cannot choose their own occupation or even say certain things. The big rule in their society is that they are not allowed to have a personal identity; their brotherhood is their identity, meaning everyone is the same and no one gets special treatment. They refer to themselves as "we" and everyone else in the plural form as if they are a group. They are only allowed to have their name and number for identification.

          Equality 7-2521's dream is to be a scholar and study things beyond his schooling; however, it does not turn out that way. The Council of Vocations (the people who decide everyone's occupations) gives Equality 7-2521 the occupation of Street Sweeper.  Although he is bummed, Equality 7-2521 decides he is going to be a great Street Sweeper.

          While on his daily Street Sweeper duties, Equality 7-2521 and his fellow Street Sweeper, International 4-8818, find a manhole of some sort buried beneath some weeds. They clear the weeds and pry open the manhole. International 4-8818 is scared to go down because he does not want to get in trouble with the Council since it is forbidden to do anything the Council does not know about. So Equality 7-2521 goes down alone. The manhole leads down into a tunnel and he realizes that this tunnel under the ground was made by the people of the Unmentionable Times (or our time period nowadays). When he comes back up to the surface, Equality 7-2521 makes International 4-8818 promise never to tell anyone about this tunnel because he is so fascinated by its secrecy.

          Each night, when everyone is asleep, Equality 7-2521 goes down into his newly found tunnel and writes in secret. He writes in secret because people are not allowed to write unless the Council lets them; just another thing people are forbidden to do. He begins to write and tell his life story, the same story that is Anthem.

          One morning when Equality 7-2521 begins his job, he notices a beautiful, blonde girl working in the fields. Everyday he stares at her and she notices and begins to stare at him. They cannot speak to one another because it is forbidden. Equality 7-2521 hears another woman call the girl Liberty 5-3000; however, in his mind he does not call her that. He calls her the Golden One and that, in itself, is a sin to the Council. One is not allowed to give another a name that distinguishes them from the rest. After many days of communicating with each other with their eyes, Equality 7-2521 speaks to her. They talk for awhile, with no one looking, until some women come to get the Golden One. They try to speak to each other whenever they get the chance. When Equality 7-2521 goes back to work, he begins singing, which is another sin.

          One is not allowed to sing for no reason and Equality 7-2521 gets reprimanded for it; however, he tells them he is singing out of happiness. Afterwards, he begins to wonder how this new world came to be. He writes about the great war which the Evil Ones and all the things of the Evil Ones were destroyed. All their buildings and books and languages were vanquished and he wonders what the words of their world were like. He then writes of a story about how he witnessed the execution of a man who spoke the Unmentionable Word. When the man was dying, he was looking right at Equality 7-2521 like he was trying to tell him the word. He pictured this man as a saint for standing up against this world and finding out what this word was.

          In the tunnel one night, Equality 7-2521 makes a discovery while he is experimenting with different things. The discovery he makes is that he can control lightning, the "power of the sky." Although nowadays it is light that a light bulb makes, to Equality 7-2521, it is a new discovery. He makes the realization that the Men of the Unmentionable Times already knew this secret but the World Council made sure it never came up again; however, Equality 7-2521 rediscovers it. He is so excited by his discovery that he feels like he has to share it with someone. After a few more nights, Equality 7-2521 fashions the light into a glass box, where he can turn on the light and make the light emanate whenever he pleases. He remembers that the World Council of Scholars are to visit the city in one month and he makes a plan that he will show them the light when they visit.

          That night, however, he lost track of time and went back to the Home of the Street Sweepers too late. He is questioned by the council there on where he has been but he refuses to tell them. They send him to the Palace of Corrective Detention to be whipped and put in jail. He still refuses to tell and remains there until he decides to. He waits there a whole month until the World Council of Scholars come to visit. He breaks out easily since the locks are old and there are no guards. He says there are no guards because no one has ever thought to defile the Council so much to escape the Palace of Corrective Detention. He then runs to his tunnel and grabs the glass box of light and heads to the meeting place of the World Council of Scholars.

          No one stops Equality 7-2521 when he goes into the meeting room of the World Council of Scholars. When he gets there, he tells the council his whole story about his long quest, the tunnel, and of his escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention. They are awestruck that such a man would walk in on them and they become even more awestruck when he shows them the box of light. When he brings forth the light, the Council all run back against the wall in fear. Equality 7-2521 tells them not to fear it because it is just light and that he gives the power of it to the them. They remain speechless until Equality 7-2521 asks them what is wrong. They tell him that he must be burned alive or whipped until there is nothing left of his body for this transgression. The transgression is not only that he worked on something by himself without the Councils permission but that he thought of himself wiser than all his brothers. Equality 7-2521 tells them that they can do whatever they want to him but to not harm the light. When they tell him the light will be destroyed as well, he quickly grabs the light, tells the Council they are "damned fools," jumps out a window, and runs for the Uncharted Forest.

          On his first day in the forest, Equality 7-2521 feels depressed. He says the only pain he felt was when he knew he would never see the Golden One again. Besides that, he feels nothing. He does not wish to write or think of anything that had happened to him. He wishes he could forget it all. He is just glad he still has his box of light, which he says is "his living heart that gives him strength." When he gets hungry, he kills a bird and cooks it and when he sleeps he builds a ring of fire around himself to keep animals away.

          The second day however, Equality 7-2521 is given a surprise. He hears rustling in the bushes and then sees the Golden One. She tells him that she heard he ran into the Uncharted Forest so she ran after and she followed the broken twigs to him. She tells him that she would rather be damned with him than blessed with all the other people. Equality 7-2521 is so happy that she is just there and they kiss and then begin walking and talking with each other in the forest. They eat when they are hungry and rest when they are tired and Equality 7-2521 says, "a day between us and they city is an added blessing."

         They keep walking for days and get to some mountains and as they are walking up a mountain, they see a house. When they arrive at the house, they realize it was from the Unmentionable Times and it had been protected by the trees around it. When they go inside, they see many things that they had never seen before such as mirrors, colorful clothing, and shelves full of "manuscripts" or books. They agree with each other that this house will now be theirs forever for as long as they live.

          While reading the books in the house, Equality 7-2521 makes the most important discovery in the book; he learns of the word "I." He comes to the conclusion that the word "We" must never be spoken except by one's choice and as a second thought.  He says the word "I" must be placed first in a man's soul because in the temple of his spirit, he is alone. Meaning there is no brotherhood inside of him, he is just himself. Equality 7-2521 says he sees the face of god after this discovery. He says it is the same god that men have sought since men came into being; the god who grants them joy and peace and pride. He says the god is the one word, "I."

          He tells the Golden One of this discovery and the first words she says are, "I love you." Equality 7-2521 says that a man must have a name that distinguishes himself from all others and he picks the name Prometheus for himself. He does so because just as Prometheus, in one of the books he read, took the light of the gods and taught the men to be gods, he will now do the same. Equality 7-2521 (now Prometheus) gives the Golden One the name Gaea because as Gaea was the mother of the earth and all the gods, she will now be the mother of a new kind of gods.

          Prometheus goes on to tell that Gaea is now pregnant with his child and that the child will grow up to say "I' and bear the pride of it. He also says that he will eventually go back to the city and gather his group of friends (or the people he was closest to since they weren't allowed to have "friends") and lead them to his fortress (or house) in the mountains and tell them of his discoveries. He says that he will eventually rage war on the World for the freedom of Man. On the gate of his fortress he will carve the word that will be his banner in war. He says if they all are to perish in battle, the word will never die. The word is the Unmentionable Word, "EGO."