Equality's Quest For Equality

“The mind is a powerful force. It can enslave us or empower us. It can plunge us into the depths of misery or take us to the heights of ecstasy. Learn to use this power wisely.” – Unknown. Equality had loads of motivation that came from within him. He wanted to learn and be helpful to his brothers, but in the end he was actually motivated to find himself.

In the beginning Equality had dreams, just like everyone else in this world. His first dream was to be a scholar. This is shown when he says “But we wish not to be a leader, even though it is a great honor. We wished to be a scholar.” pg. 25. He wanted to be able to have the power to be educated on new things for his brothers. He was always getting into trouble for being smarter

than this rest of his pupils. “ This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick.” Pg. 21. Another dream that came to him later was to learn everything about the world, which came from his curiosity. That lead to his determination to help his brothers by learning. This is shown by “We shall go down.” pg. 31 and “The Council does not know of this hole, so it cannot be forbidden.” pg. 31. If people in the world had this curiosity that lead to determination the world would be a driven place. Everyone would try to do better things to help his fellow people.
Equality was the selfless brother that wanted to create his other brothers better. He thought of learning how to create electricity that would benefit his brothers. The World Council thought Equality was going to ruin the world. But even without their approval, he had the drive to keep pursuing his dreams. He worked many nights on his invention and experimented to make sure it was correct. This is all shown when he said “We can give our brothers a new light, cleaner and brighter, than any they have ever known.” pg. 60. The world would be a crime free, nice, loving community if everyone had the drive to benefit one another. No one would be caught up in themselves trying to make themselves better. But more as a whole community trying to make everyone work as one gigantic unit. There would be no fighting, killing, or disagreements because everyone would be more worried about helping one another than picking a fight.
Toward the end of the book you can tell Equality was turning selfish.

He stopped learning for his brothers and more for himself. The tunnel at first was a symbol to benefit his brothers, but the longer he was down there alone. The more it became for him to learn about himself and to teach himself. After the World Council denied his proposal he left the city. He wanted to learn and to be alone. Being alone was the greatest transgression of all. If you were alone, you might come to like it and even prefer it. “Each night, we ran to the ravine,.... Each night, for three hours, we are under the earth, alone.” pg. 35. “We have come to see how great is the unexplored, and many lifetimes will not bring us to the end of our quest.” pg. 36. An also “But we, Equality 7-2521 are glad to be alive” pg. 47. All of these quotes show us that Equality is turning selfish. Everyone needs to be a tiny bit selfish. If you don’t have that inside you, then you have no reason to try an help

anyone.
In the end, Equality has found a house on top of the mountains with the Golden One.

In this house there are new things they have never seen. What intrigues him most is all the manuscripts that he finds and he reads. Through reading manuscripts Equality learns about himself. He also learned the word I, which allows Equality to adequately define who he is. Him finding himself shows that sometimes you have to be selfish to be selfless. This is all stated in the quotes “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debt from them.” pg.96. And “To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.” pg.101. Both quotes show how you have to be your own person before you can help others.

In conclusion, the world would be a better place if everyone was motivated like Equality. But for this to happen everyone has to be a tiny bit selfish to all be selfless. This is also why I picked the quote I did to start my essay. Which is “The mind is a powerful force. It can enslave us or empower us. It can plunge us into the depths of misery or take us to the heights of ecstasy. Learn to use this power wisely.” – Unknown. If you have to sharpest mind you can abuse it and it can enslave you or vice

versa.