The Uncharted Forest In Ayn Rand's Anthem

The world as we know it today is full of individualism, opportunity, technology and freedom; but what if one day in the future all of that were to come to an end? In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, there used to be a world such as this, but can now only be called The Unmentionable Times. Nearly all of the remnants of this time now lie deep within the Uncharted Forest, which very few dare to enter. The only civilized place left now is the City, in which everyone lives systematically. The Forest and the City may show significant differences on the surface, but upon closer inspection they both hold surprising similarities.
The Uncharted Forest is a massive, dense overgrowth of tall trees and foliage outside of the City which is scarcely explored by man. This contrasts greatly with the City because it is bland, clean and very systematic. Equality describes where he lives in the city, saying “So we went to the Home of the Street Sweepers. It is a grey house on a narrow street… there are five long tables with twenty clay plates and twenty clay cups on each table.” (Rand 27) Along with the dinning hall, the sleeping quarters are also

laid out in a numerical pattern, suggesting that everything must be orderly and “perfect”.
The people of the City see the Uncharted Forest as evil for it holds dangerous beasts and secrets from the Unmentionable Times.

Before Equality ventured into the Forest even he had thought such things. He said “We do not wish to look upon the Uncharted Forest. We do not wish to think of it… once or twice in a hundred years, one among the men of the City escape alone and run to the Uncharted Forest without call or reason. These men do not return. They perish from hunger and from the claws of the wild beasts which roam the Forest.” (Rand 47-48) After Equality fled to the Forest after the rejection of his invention, he found the Forest to be somewhat of a newfound freedom. Here he finds a house from the Unmentionable Times in which he learns the Unspeakable Word, “I”, and comes to understand and appreciate the individuality that comes from

it.
In the City, there is no freedom, no individuality. There are many rules and restrictions on the people of the City, such as the fact that they cannot like one school subject more than another or favor one person over any other and at the age of 15 your job is chosen for you. Equality recites a prayer they must all say each night saying, “ “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen.” ” (Rand 21). This is clear evidence that in the City, no one has any freedom or individuality over one's life. In the Uncharted Forest, however, there are no rules and Equality finds that it may be the only place in the world to be and individual and be free because of the house he finds containing the word “I”.