The Anthem Literary Analysis

In the society of “The Anthem”, it is after the Unmentionable Times, and the word “we” is worshipped. The society is constructed that all men will rely on each other, become “brothers” of each other. However, Equality 7-2521 was a rebel. He knew that he and his brothers were just slaves of the city. He had broken many laws, and he was taller, smaller and generally healthier than his other brothers. Then, when he became fifteen, he wanted to become a Scholar, for he was very knowledgeable, but he was chosen to become a Street Sweeper. He swept the streets near the fields where the woman of Home of Peasants would work. Then, he spotted Liberty 5-3000 who was a young woman, he would always wave at her, and she would do the same. When Equality

7-2521 was sweeping the streets, he found an underground tunnel made from the Unmentionable Times. He made his fellow Sweeper swear that nobody will know of this tunnel except for them, and he went inside the tunnel. It was full of things from the Unmentionable Times. For years he spent three hours a day inside the tunnel, learning the powers of nature, chemistry and many other things not even the council knew about. “We have stolen candles from the Home of the Street Sweepers, we have stolen flints and knives and paper, and we have brought them to this place. We have stolen glass vials and powders and acids from the Home of the Scholars. Now we sit in the tunnel for three hours each night and we study. We melt strange metals, and we mix acids, and we cut open the bodies of the animals which we find in the City Cesspool.” One day, he found the power of lightning, and made new light for men. The men were still using candles. He was going to show the new light, electricity to the World Council of Scholars when they had a meeting in his city. He would be rewarded, and he would not be guilty of all the transgressions he had made. “In a month, the World Council of Scholars is to meet in our City. It is a great Council, to which the wisest of all lands are elected, and it meets once a year in the different Cities of the earth. We shall go to this Council and we shall lay before them, as our gift, this glass box with the power of the sky. We shall confess everything to them. They will see, understand and forgive. For our gift is greater than our transgression. They will explain it to the Council of Vocations, and we shall be assigned to the Home of the Scholars.” However, and unexpected thing happened when he showed up at the meeting of World Council of Scholars. Equality 7-2521 showed them the light he found, explained to them all his journey including his transgressions, but they were not pleased by him doing all this. Instead of praising him and rewarding him for finding a new light and giving to mankind, they were determined to punish him for breaking all the laws. They were going to destroy the light, but Equality 7-2521 grabbed the light and ran away to the Uncharted Forest. No men followed, because they were afraid of the mystery in the Uncharted Forest. He explored the forest until he found Liberty 5-3000, or the Golden One following him. She said that everybody was talking about how he went into the Uncharted Forest, so she escaped the Home of Peasants to follow him.

In the Uncharted Forest, with the Golden One, he finds freedom. As they go on more into the forest, they start to figure out that they were taught lies in the city, that they were just slaves and also that they were being used. He finally decides to take a new life when he finds a house built from the Unmentionable Times. He finds new things he had never seen before. He reads a journal written from the Unmentionable Times, and he finds the word ‘I’. “It was when I read the first of the books I found in my house that I saw the word "I." And when I understood this word, the book fell from my hands, and I wept, I who had never known tears. I wept in deliverance and in pity for all mankind. I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse. I understood why the best in me had been my sins and my transgressions; and why I had never felt guilt in my sins. I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.” Him and the Golden One got names from the books he had read, and they became Prometheus and Gaea. They both understood the word “I” and decided to have new life, and learn more about

man.
Here, the city they lived in represents forced slavery, the forest a final freedom, and the house a destination meant for them all along. The worship of the word ‘we’ had made men savages, slaves, so Equality plans on bringing some of his friends and chiseling the word “ego” so nobody will ever forget it. He will definitely continue his “war” with the worshippers of the word “we” and he will never give up the true scared word, I.