We are sitting at a table and we are writing this upon paper
made thousands of years ago. The light is dim, and we cannot see
the Golden One, only one lock of gold on the pillow of an ancient
bed. This is our home.

We came upon it today, at sunrise. For many days we [-had-] {+have+} been
crossing a chain of mountains. The forest rose among cliffs, and
whenever we walked out upon a barren stretch of rock we saw great
peaks before us in the west, and to the north of us, and to the
south, as far as our eyes could see. The peaks were red and
brown, with the green streaks of forests as veins upon them, with
blue mists as veils over their heads. We had never heard of these
mountains, nor seen them marked on any map. The Uncharted Forest
has protected them from the Cities and from the men of the
Cities.

We climbed paths where the wild goat dared not follow. Stones
rolled from under our feet, and we heard them striking the rocks
below, farther and farther down, and the mountains rang with each
stroke, and long after the strokes had died. But we went on, for
we knew that no men would ever follow our track nor reach us
here.

Then today, at sunrise, we saw a white flame among the trees,
high on a sheer peak before us. We thought that it was a fire and
{+we+} stopped. But the flame [-was-] {+as+} unmoving, yet blinding as liquid
metal. So we climbed toward it through the rocks. And there,
before us, on a broad summit, with the mountains rising behind
it, stood a house such as we had never seen, and the white fire
came from the sun on the glass of its windows.

The house had two stories and a strange roof flat as a floor.
There was more window than wall upon its walls, and the windows
went on straight around [-the-] corners, though how this [-kept the-] house {+kept+}
standing we could not guess. The walls were hard and smooth, of
that stone unlike stone which we had seen in our tunnel.

We both knew it without words: this house was left from
the Unmentionable Times. The trees had protected it from time
and weather, and from men who have less pity than time and weather.
We turned to the Golden One and we asked:

"Are you afraid?"

But they shook their head. So we walked to the door, and we threw
it open, and we stepped together into the house of the
Unmentionable Times.

We shall need the days and the years ahead, to look, to [-learn,-] {+learn+} and
to understand the things of this house. Today, we could only look
and try to believe the sight of our eyes. We pulled the heavy
curtains from the windows and we saw that the rooms were small,
and we thought that not more than twelve men could have lived
here. We thought it strange that [-men-] {+man+} had been permitted to build
a house for only twelve.

Never had we seen rooms so full of light. The sunrays danced upon
colors, colors, {+and+} more colors [-that-] {+than+} we thought possible, we who
had seen no houses save the white ones, the brown ones and the
grey. There were great pieces of glass on the walls, but it was
not glass, for when we looked upon it we saw our own bodies and
all the things behind us, as on the face of a lake. There were
strange things which we had never seen and the use of which we do
not know. And there were globes of glass everywhere, in each
room, the globes with the metal cobwebs inside, such as we had
seen in our tunnel.

We found the sleeping hall and we stood in awe upon its
threshold. For it was a small room and there were only two beds
in it. We found no other beds in the house, and then we knew that
only two had lived here, and this passes understanding. What kind
of world did they have, the men of the Unmentionable Times?

We found garments, and the Golden One gasped at the sight of
them. For they were not white tunics, nor white togas; they were
of all colors, no two of them alike. Some crumbled to dust as we
touched
[-them.  But-] {+them, but+} others were of heavier cloth, and they felt
soft and new in our fingers.

We found a room with walls made of shelves, which held rows of
manuscripts, from the floor to the ceiling. Never had we seen
such a number of them, nor of such strange shape. They were not
soft and rolled, they had hard shells of cloth and leather; and
the letters on their pages were [-so-] small and so even that we
wondered at the men who had such handwriting. We glanced through
the pages, and we saw that they were written in our language, but
we found many words which we could not understand. Tomorrow, we
shall begin to read these scripts.

When we had seen all the rooms of the house, we looked at the
Golden One and we both knew the thought in our minds.

"We shall never leave this house," we said, "nor let it be taken
from us. This is our home and the end of our journey. This is your house,
Golden One, and ours, and it belongs to no other men whatever
as far as the earth may stretch. We shall not share it with others,
as we share not our joy with them, nor our love, nor our hunger.
So be it to the end of our days."

"Your will be done," they said.

Then we went out to gather wood for the great hearth of our home.
We brought water from the stream which runs among the trees under
our windows. We killed a mountain goat, and we brought its flesh
to be cooked in a strange copper pot we found in a place of
wonders, which must have been the cooking room of the house.

We did this work alone, for no words of ours could take the
Golden One away from the big glass which is not glass. They stood
before it and they looked and looked upon their own body.

When the sun sank beyond the mountains, the Golden One fell
asleep on the floor, amidst jewels, and bottles of crystal, and
flowers of silk. We lifted the Golden One in our arms and we
carried them to a bed, their head falling softly upon our
shoulder. Then we lit a candle, and we brought paper from the
room of the manuscripts, and we sat by the window, for we knew
that we could not sleep tonight.

And now we look upon the earth and sky. This spread of naked rock
and peaks and moonlight is like a world ready to be born, a world
that waits. It seems to us it asks a sign from us, a spark, a
first commandment. We cannot know what word we are to give, nor
what great deed this earth expects to witness. We know it waits.
It seems to say it has great gifts to lay before [-us, but it wishes a greater gift for-] us. We are to
speak. We are to give its goal, its highest meaning to all this
glowing space of rock and sky.

We look ahead, we beg our heart for guidance in answering this
call no voice has spoken, yet we have heard. We look upon our
hands. We see the dust of centuries, the dust which hid [-the-] great
secrets and perhaps great evils. And yet it stirs no fear within
our heart, but only silent reverence and pity.

May knowledge come to us! What is [-the-] {+this+} secret our heart has
understood and yet will not reveal to us, although it seems to
beat as if it were endeavoring to tell it?

Equality 7-2521 begins his next journal entry sitting at a table with paper that is thousands of years old. He cannot see the Golden One sleeping on the bed in the dim light. They find the house earlier in the morning after crossing a mountain chain that has been protected by the Uncharted Forest from discovery by the Cities. Their path through the mountains is dangerous, but they know this way that no one can follow them. At sunrise, they see what they think is a fire but actually turns out upon further investigation to be the reflection of the sun on the glass of a house's windows. The house has two stories, a flat roof, and many windows, and it is made of the same hard substance as his secret tunnel. They realize without speaking that the house must be a remnant from the Unmentionable Times, hidden by the trees from time, weather, and man. Neither Equality 7-2521 nor the Golden One are afraid, so they enter the house of the Unmentionable Times and explore the house. The rooms are small, suggesting that only a few people lived in the house, although they find it hard to imagine that men were allowed to live in such small groups. The rooms are full of light and color, and the glass on the walls reflect instead of being transparent. The house holds many strange objects, including globes of glass that contain metal strands such as those in Equality 7-2521's tunnel. The sleeping hall is small, with only two beds, and they are surprised that the men of the Unmentionable Times were allowed to live in groups of two. The clothes in the house are colorful, unlike the City's plain white togas and tunics, and some of the less fragile clothes still feel soft and new. One of the rooms is full of shelves holding many manuscripts which are bound with hard leather and cloth rather than curled into rolls. They are fascinated by the small letters on the page and by some of the words which are in their language but unfamiliar, and they decide to begin reading tomorrow. After seeing all the rooms, he decides to claim the house as their own, and she agrees. He gathers wood for the fireplace and water from the nearby stream, and he kills a goat, which he cooks in a copper pot they find in the strange cooking room. Meanwhile, the Golden One continues to stare at her reflection in the mirror. When she falls asleep on the floor after dark, he carries her to a bed and lights a candle before bringing paper from the manuscript room and sitting sleeplessly by the window. Equality 7-2521 looks outside at the mountains and moonlight, which seem to hint at the renewal of the world. He feels that the world is waiting for his words, but he does not know what he must say. On his hands, he sees the residue of centuries which hides many secrets, and he feels both pity and respect as he ponders what his heart wishes to reveal to him.

The house from the Unmentionable Times connects Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One with the achievements of the past, and they feel an instinctive kinship with the house so that they feel no fear upon discovery of the building. The house is a feat of engineering, made of concrete and exhibiting the large glass windows that characterizes much modern architecture and echoes the design principles of Howard Roark in The Fountainhead. The light and colors throughout the house contrast the whiteness of the Home of the Students and indicate that the end of the protagonist's search for the solution to collectivism approaches, since the text often equates light with his journey toward the Unspeakable Word. He emerges from the forest and ceases to run away from the City, sensing an impending solution. Of all the wonders in the house, the idea that only two people lived in the house surprises Equality 7-2521 the most. He originally estimates that the building must have provided the living space for no more than twelve people, a number that is astonishing to a reader from America or Western Europe, where almost everyone lives in much smaller units. In addition, his first conclusion hints at how tightly the dormitories of the City pack all of the City's citizens in the attempt to prevent anyone from ever being alone. Finally, he realizes that the house must have only provided for two people, and he is astonished and intensely curious about the Unmentionable Times. If the discovery of the low population density of the house most astonishes Equality 7-2521, then he is most interested in the library, which he decides he will explore. He hopes that the manuscripts, which are really books, will resolve the instinctive knowledge of his body with the questions of his mind. He cannot sleep because he feels that nature is willing him to give it a sign so that he can dominate nature as man ought to do, and he suspects that the vocabulary of the books will give him the answer. He mentions that he does not recognize some of the words from the scripts, but Rand clearly indicates with his words that once he determines their meaning, he will find his own meaning. The Golden One continues to show her physical courage as well as her submissiveness to the dominant male, as when he announces that they will live in the house, and she responds, "Your will be done." Her answer has a distinctly Biblical phrasing, again recalling comparisons to Adam and Eve and other religious or mythological first couples. Nevertheless, she displays the stereotypically female trait of vanity, choosing to stare at herself in a mirror rather than helping the narrator cook dinner. While he shares her fascination with the human body, but he chooses to act rather than merely revel in observation. The seclusion of the house in the mountains beyond the Uncharted Forest lead to questions about how far-reaching the World Council really is. Although Rand gave the World Council a universally oppressive feel, the belief of the Scholars that the world is flat suggests that the extent of the society's influence is more limited than the authorities suggest. The limited technology of Equality 7-2521's society would also restrict the ability of the regime to maintain world-wide communication, and the mountains are not marked on the City maps, indicating that the World Council may actually control a fairly small area bordered by natural obstacles such as the Uncharted Forest. This supposition leads in turn to the question of why the society would not know about bordering civilizations. Lack of curiosity may have stifled exploration, or perhaps the wars at the end of the Unmentionable Times depopulated nearby regions. Questions of the World Council's reach do not matter greatly to a reading of Anthem as a parable, but they do further undermine the image of a monolithic collectivist society presented initially presented in the novel.

Equality 7-2521 tells us he's writing on a table, on thousand-year-old paper. He and Liberty 5-3000 have found a "home." They came upon it at sunrise that day. They had been crossing a chain of mountains in the midst of the Forest, when they discovered a home. Here we enter into yet another flashback. Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 see a white flame among the trees. As they approach, they discover it's actually the light reflecting off the glass of a house such as they've never seen before. It's a two story house, with a flat roof. It's mostly windows. The walls are of the same material that Equality 7-2521's old tunnel was made out of. Both Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 know the house is from the Unmentionable Times. But neither of them is afraid. So they go in. Equality 7-2521 is surprised to find that the rooms are small. Not more than a dozen people could have lived in the house. He's also surprised to see how full of light the rooms are. And that they seem to have lots of glass, which isn't quite glass, but reflects his image back to him. Equality 7-2521 finds the only bedroom, and is astonished to realize that the house was meant for only two people. There's also a library in the house, with lots of manuscripts "of a strange shape." Sounds like books. Equality 7-2521 proclaims to Liberty 5-3000 that they shall never leave the house, nor share it with anyone else. It's theirs alone. Liberty 5-3000 responds, "Your will be done" . Equality 7-2521 goes to gather wood, and kill a mountain goat for food. Liberty 5-3000 spends the whole day staring at herself in the mirror. When the sun sets, Liberty 5-3000 falls asleep on the floor in the midst of a whole horde of clothes and pretty trinkets she's gathered. Equality 7-2521 carries her to bed, then goes to the library and starts to go through the books by candlelight. Equality 7-2521 looks at the sky and the mountains and feels as if the world still has great secrets and gifts to reveal to him. What secrets is the world still holding from him?

Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One discover a house in the depths of the forest, a house such as they have never seen resting on a broad summit with the mountains behind it. The house has two stories, a flat roof, and walls made more of glass than of any other substance. They immediately understand that no one they know built this structure. The house is a remnant of the Unmentionable Times. Equality 7-2521 realizes that they will need years to understand all that they find in the house. They are surprised by the smallness of the rooms and decide that no more than 12 men could have occupied them. When they come to the bedroom and find only two beds, they are baffled by the recognition that this building was home to but two persons. They find clothes that are not limited to white tunics or togas, but are of diverse colors and styles. They encounter mirrors, and Equality 7-2521 notices on the walls the same globes of wire-filled glass that he had seen in his tunnel. He is amazed when he comes to the library and finds shelves of books. He ascertains that they are written in their language and decides that the next day he will begin to read them. When they look at all of the house's rooms, Equality 7-2521 says to the Golden One that the house is theirs. It belongs to them alone; they will not leave or allow it to be taken from them. He says that they will not share it with others in the sense that they do not share their love or their joy or their hunger. The Golden One agrees. That night Equality 7-2521 does not sleep. He senses that the earth awaits his command, that in some way he and the Golden One are to give it "its goal, its highest meaning." He does not know what word he is to speak or what deed he is to perform. He knows only that the final fulfillment of the earth's promise must come from him and those like him, but he lacks the knowledge necessary to bring these great deeds to pass. What is the secret, he wonders, that his heart has grasped but his mind is yet to comprehend?

Their discovery of a home surviving from the Unmentionable Times is significant because it links them in physical action, as well as in spirit, to the attainments of the lost era. Equality 7-2521 had intended to build a home, which would be a great accomplishment. But a home that he would build would not express the kinship existing between him and the freethinkers of the past who had reached such lofty achievements. By finding and occupying a home from the forgotten era, Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One not only derive practical benefits from the lost advances but also immerse themselves in the world they seek to re-create. The great thinker who re-invents electric light links himself inextricably with the independent thinkers of the past who originally created it. Equality 7-2521 realizes that the books in the home can provide the knowledge possessed by those of the Unmentionable Times, secrets lost for centuries. His decision to study the books is a continuation of his crusade to gain both scientific understanding of nature and a moral and philosophical understanding of humankind. His research into the "power of the sky" and his harnessing of electricity to create light are obvious examples of his scientific discoveries. But his philosophizing is of even greater importance. He is one of the few in his society, like the executed Saint of the Pyre, who searches for the Unspeakable Word and for the precious knowledge represented by this word. Equality 7-2521's noblest quality  is his unflinching quest to rediscover the individualistic nature of man and the political liberty that such a nature requires. Against every type of social opposition, he persists in this endeavor until, in this chapter, with the books at his disposal of those who understood these sacred truths, he stands on the threshold of the wisdom he seeks. He is as great a philosopher as he is a scientist. The books of the individualistic, capitalist past will give him the knowledge denied to those in his collectivist present.

Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One climb up into the mountains so that no one can follow them. They have hiked for several days when they see what they believe to be a fire but in actuality is the sun reflecting off the windows of an abandoned house. It is a two-story house with huge windows. Equality 7-2521 wonders how the house remains standing with so little wall to hold it up. They determine that it must be a house from the Unmentionable Times that was protected from the weather and time by trees. Equality 7-2521 asks the Golden One whether she is afraid, but she tells him she is not. Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One enter the house, and they are amazed at the house and its technology. They are astounded by the idea that a house could be so small, such that it obviously housed no more than a dozen people. They are amazed by the colors in the house, as well, and are shocked to learn that houses could be a color other than white, brown, or gray. They discover mirrors and lightbulbs. They then find the bedroom and discover that it contains only two beds and they conclude that only two people lived there, and they are amazed by the privacy. In the closet, Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One find clothes, and the Golden One is amazed at the sight of so many colors. Many of the clothes have turned to dust, but many survive. Equality 7-2521 also finds a library with shelves of books, and he is amazed that there are not manuscripts. He looks through some of the books and discovers that he knows the language but that there are many words he does not know. Equality 7-2521 tells the Golden One that they will move into the house and never leave it. They will not share it but will live there together until they die. The Golden One answers, "Your will be done. Equality 7-2521 goes out into the forest around the house, gathers wood and water, and kills a mountain goat to cook for dinner. The Golden One does not help him because she cannot be torn away from the mirror, where she stands staring at her own body. After sunset, the Golden One falls asleep in front of the mirror amid the finery she has discovered in the house, and Equality 7-2521 carries her to bed. He then lights a candle and returns to the library to read through the night, too excited to sleep. As he stares out on the night below him and the sky above, he meditates on his new commandment to live and speak and give meaning to the world. He seeks guidance in his heart, and stares at his hands where he sees the history of centuries, both good and evil, and he is filled with reverence and pity. He wonders what the secret is that his heart is begging to tell him

Equality 7-2521's switch from the use of the word "we" to the use of the word "I" to mean himself signals the internal resolution of Anthem. Chapter XI is the culmination of all that Equality 7-2521 has learned about the evils of collectivism is the first time he sees clearly. In the sense that the novella is really about a man's internal battle with himself to discover individualism, Chapter XI could be considered the resolution of the story's conflict. Rand herself considered Chapters XI and XII to be the most important in the story. They are the place where she lays out in plain language the meaning of objectivism, egoism, and individualism. These philosophies place the individual above all else, and they savor freedom over the goods of society. Rand suggests that society should be sought out only when a person chooses it, as a second thought to what the individual wants, and that it should be only with those people whom the individual chooses. In Rand's view, any other kind of life, in which another person is more important than or as important as the self, is a lie that ultimately brings about great evil. Critics of Rand are repulsed by the blatant selfishness she professes. They argue that humankind comes together into society in order to provide and be provided for, and that in the company of others, humans gain as much from their peers as they give to them. Religious critics and others also argue that the individual has a moral obligation to care for those less fortunate than him- or herself. Rand directly engages these critics by mocking well-known passages of the New Testament. In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes that the three things that endure are faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. He says that love endures beyond even the end of the world, when faith and hope are no longer necessary virtues. Rand is deliberately offering a different triptych with her lofty estimation of thought, will, and freedom. She suggests, by implication, that of these, freedom is the cornerstone of all life and that without it nothing else endures. Moreover, Rand often announced that she was writing directly against those who believed that selfishness was a vice. She was offering an entirely new way of living, and she believed that it was the only way to live. The language and imagery of Anthem, in addition to being laden with religious and philosophic references, is extraordinarily heavy-handed. In his moment of triumph, Equality 7-2521 stands on a mountain top at dawn--quite a melodramatic image. In his lowest moments, he suffers at the hands of men less worthy than he in a dungeon at the Palace of Corrective Detention. In this way, Rand offers a philosophy that is very easy to navigate. When she wants to mark a character as good, she makes him or her beautiful and strong. When she wants to mark a character as evil, on the other hand, she makes him or her ugly and weak. The most obvious example of this dichotomy comes in the form of the Golden One, whose physical beauty is unsurpassed, and who is, as her name suggests, blonde. By contrast, the council members are shapeless and frightened. This same kind of opposition appears in the explanation of Rand's philosophy: collectivism is like stone, crushing those beneath it, while freedom is a treasure, and the sense of self is a god to be exalted and worshipped. Rand wants us to read Anthem seriously, in a straightforward manner. The imagery is meant to guide us directly to the right answer, the right philosophy, with a minimum of guessing and side-tracking.

Together, the Unconquered and the Golden One cross the mountains, leaving behind their childhood civilization. Soon they come across a house built in the Unmentionable Times. In the house they find old scripts, which inspire Equality 7-2521 to learn more about the past.


I am. I think. I will.

My hands . . . My spirit . . . My sky . . . My forest . . .
This earth of [-mine.-] {+mine .+} . . .

What must I say besides? These are the words. This is the answer.

I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head
and I spread my arms. This, my body and spirit, this is the end
of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning.
I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for
being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant
and the sanction.

It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty
to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my
ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and
the [-judgement-] {+judgment+} of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the
truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is
the only edict I must respect.

Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are
false, but only three are holy: "I will it!"

Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding
star and the loadstone which point the way. They point
[-on-] {+in+} but one
direction. They point to me.

I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the
universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know
not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me
on earth. And my happiness needs no [-nigher-] {+higher+} aim to vindicate it.
My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is
its own goal. It is its own purpose.

Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish.
I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs.
I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on
their altars.

I am a man. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine
to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before!

I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune
of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to
the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my
treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of
these is freedom.

I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I
ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no
man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of
them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must
do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without
reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I
honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.

I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters.
And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love
and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our
hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the
temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his
temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with
others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold.

For the word "We" must never be spoken, save by one's choice and
as a second thought. This word must never be placed first within
man's soul, else it becomes a monster, the root of all the evils
on earth, the root of man's torture by men, and [-of-] an unspeakable lie.

The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens
to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and
that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the
word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which
the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal
the wisdom of the sages.

What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it?
What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is
my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and [-the-] impotent, are
my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to [-agree-] {+agree,+} and to
obey?

But I am done with this creed of corruption.

I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of
plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.

And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the
earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being,
this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride.

This god, this one word:

"I."

Beginning with "I am. I think. I will" and a naming of things which belong to him, such as his hands and his spirit, Equality 7-2521 explains that he has found his answer. He stands on the mountain's peak and spreads his arms, knowing that his existence is the answer. He needs no reason to exist because he is his own reason. He names his eyes and ears as the organs which give significance and beauty to the world. His mind and his judgment are the only things that can find truth, and his will is the only thing that can make his choices. Some words are wise and others are false, but only the words "I will it" are holy. He knows now that he is the end of his journey, and he does not care of the overall significance of the earth because he knows about happiness. The fulfillment of happiness, in his view, is its own purpose. Furthermore, he refuses to be a tool for anyone else's accomplishments or happiness. Declaring himself to be a man and his own miracle, he decides that he cannot share or give away his treasures of thought, will, and especially freedom. He cannot help "the poor of spirit" by giving up his own spirit. He owes nothing to his brothers, but neither does he require anything of them. In particular, he states that he is not by default a friend or an enemy to other men because love and honor must be earned. However, he will seek friends that he respects rather than slaves or master in an unequal power relationship. They are individuals and do not need to be together except if they wish. Continuing to speak in the first person singular, Equality 7-2521 rejects the use of the word "We" as the default word. The collectivism implicit in the word "We" does nothing but cause stagnation and the sapping away of the strength of the good, the wise, and the strong. Life is nothing if every man is subject to all others. He declares himself as "done with this creed of corruption." He is finished with the slavery conveyed by the word "We." In its place, he substitutes the word "I," which is the god that will give men control over the earth and over their own lives.

Chapter Eleven begins powerfully with the simple statement "I am. I think. I will." The contrast between the softer plural pronoun "We" and these short, sharp sentences is jarring in its intensity. In reading the books in the house's library, Equality 7-2521 has rediscovered "I," the Unspeakable Word, thus fulfilling his quest and allowing him to fully articulate the philosophy towards which he has strived. With "I" newly in his vocabulary, his internal conflict and search for a replacement to collectivism have resolved, reconciling his instinct with his consciousness. His society used words to restrain him, but now he uses words to free himself from collectivist doctrine, and he recognizes that he made an error when he sought a reason for existence. His search has in one sense culminated in a word, but in the broader sense, it has culminated in his self. His journal entry about his finding of the Unspeakable Word is not a narrative but rather the explicit statement that summarizes the goals of the novel. The tone is triumphant, as evidenced by his proud, brief sentences and the setting of the chapter on the summit of a mountain. He uses the word "I" or "my" in nearly every sentence and at the beginning of several paragraphs, as well as at the end of the entry, emphasizing the exultation that accompanies his discovery. He observes his body in the context of his surroundings, associating his mind with his body as the single entity of ego. In other novels, Rand refers to this principle as egoism, as opposed to the collectivist ideal of altruism, and she makes a secular god out of the individual's ego. Equality 7-2521 learns to favor egoism over altruism because he has seen the evil effects of the worship of altruism. As he states in his journal, what collectivism deems righteous sacrifice is actually a thinly veiled form of manipulation and of victimization of the strong. Reflecting the views of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Nietzsche, Rand rejects the assumption that the strong and the valuable should serve the weak, and in place of this philosophy, she has her protagonist suggest that each individual should earn his own happiness and self-respect. In the society of Anthem, men learn to serve the state first and to place his self second, but Equality 7-2521 sees that this ideals merely take away individual rights while providing nothing in return. The protagonist does not entirely eliminate the concept of "We," since to erase the word from the language would be the unwarranted exploitation of language through the evil omission of an entire concept, but he declares that "We" must take second place to its first-person equivalent. In other words, society cannot be a monolithic entity and must recognize itself as a group of disparate individuals. The state cannot dictate the worth of an individual, and each member of a group must see himself as a person first and a member second. Similarly, friendship and love are not obligatory groupings but the natural result of shared values, and the ability to choose one's friends make the connections stronger than they would be in a collectivist world. By finding the inspiration for his new ideas in books from the Unmentionable Times, Equality 7-2521 returns to the individualist ideas of the Enlightenment in the Western world, as he originally did when he experimented with electricity. Although he does not say so explicitly, his main goals can be expressed as the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" of the American Declaration of Independence, which in turn reflects the writings of the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke. His ideas also apply to the economic system of capitalism, which opposed Soviet Communism through much of the twentieth century. He wants each man to work at what he loves for the work's own sake, and the novel suggests society will be more productive and progressive as a result.

Equality 7-2521 has finally discovered the first-person singular. At last, he tells us, he's found "the words," and "the answer," he was looking for. He, himself, is the meaning of things. Equality 7-2521 needs no reason or "warrant" to be. He is his own reason for being. His own will is the only thing he needs to obey. Equality 7-2521 has realized his own happiness is his highest end. He needs no higher end to justify it, because it's the purpose of his life. He does not need to justify his life by serving others. In fact, Equality 7-2521 doesn't owe anything to anyone. If he's going to love anyone else, that person has got to earn it. The word, "we," is a dangerous word, Equality 7-2521 says. Actually, it's the root of all evil. If it's made the most important word, that is. It allows the weak to steal from the strong. Equality 7-2521 proclaims that he is done with "we." It is a monster. Now, instead, he sees the face of god. God is "I."

"I am. I think. I will." So opens the chapter in which Equality 7-2521 re-discovers the lost and holy word, the forbidden idea for which the Saint of the Pyre was burned at the stake. The acquisition of this knowledge fulfills the intellectual quest on which Equality 7-2521 had embarked as a 10-year-old -- the attempt to discover and understand the Unspeakable Word. He had searched for meaning in life, and now realizes that he is the meaning. He had wished to find a warrant for being, but now understands that he needs neither warrant nor sanction. He is the warrant and sanction of his existence. He is overcome with the emotional experience of his intellectual realization: he has a right to his own life. He is not a mere appendage of a group. He can choose his own path in life -- his own interests, his own profession, his own wife, his own home. He is a free man, able to choose his goals, and then work strenuously to achieve them. Related to this is his realization that no individual -- neither himself nor any other human being -- is a tool to be employed by others for some end they seek to accomplish. Humans are not servants, he claims, to bow and scrape before society, to render obedient service. An individual is "not a sacrifice on their altars." Equality 7-2521 realizes, after studying the books of the Unmentionable Times, what the proper relation is between individuals. He owes no unchosen obligations to his brothers and sisters, nor do they owe him such. He states that he is neither a friend nor a foe to others, "but such as each of them shall deserve." Love, he claims, must be earned -- and that requires more than the sheer fact of being born; it requires the attainment of virtue. Equality 7-2521 will choose friends from among his fellow humans, but neither masters nor servants. He says that he will love and respect his friends, but neither command nor obey them. And when humans come together in friendship and in love, they will join hands only beyond each one's "holy threshold," and each will respect the personal boundaries of the other. Looking back on his past life in the city -- and thinking sorrowfully of those innocent people still trapped there -- he realizes that the horrors of his former society are the result of destroying the personal boundaries that each individual properly claims as their own. Equality 7-2521 proclaims that he is forever done with the code of "we," with this creed of evil and destruction. He sees clearly the beneficent consequences that can result -- as they did in the past -- when society recognizes the sacred rights of individuals to mind, soul, values, and life. He observes the face of a god, the god sought by humans since the inception of the world, the god who will grant joy and peace and pride. "This god, this one word: I."

Equality 7-2521 has learned more than the word "I" from studying the texts of the Unmentionable Times. He has begun to understand the individualistic philosophy that underlies the meaning and value of this word. Equality 7-2521 had always understood this philosophy implicitly -- he had felt that it was true and had lived it in action. But prior to the events of this chapter, he had not the conceptual understanding of such a philosophy; he lacked the vocabulary -- the very words -- necessary to think about it. In reading the lost books, he discovers the words and the thoughts that explain and validate what he has always felt. At the emotional level, he had always believed an individual has the right to his own life. Now, for the first time, he knows this is true, understanding it as an explicit, fully articulated intellectual theory. The emotional power of this chapter must be noted. Leading to this point in the story have been pages of unrelenting collectivism. The reader has been immersed in a world in which all shreds of individuality have been ruthlessly extirpated, in which the word "we" is the only form of first-person reference known, and in which the group holds unquestioned dominion over an individual's life. Now, as Equality 7-2521 opens the chapter with the words, "I am, I think, I will," the impact of those words is profound. Equality 7-2521 has been liberated in a way far more fundamental than his physical escape. He is finally freed from the collectivist philosophy with which he has been indoctrinated all his life. Formerly, the collectivist state owned his mind, for he still accepted the truth of their principles. Even in his acts of rebellion -- during his scientific research when hidden in his tunnel, when illicitly wooing the Golden One, as he made his escape into the Uncharted Forest -- he still believed that what he did was wrong. He still thought of himself as a transgressor worthy of punishment. He had rejected the collectivist code emotionally and in action. He had asked questions and tried to understand. But given his necessarily limited amount of knowledge, he had not the capacity to reach a full level of comprehension. When he reads the books of those of the lost times, however, he acquires the vocabulary of freedom. His opening words of the chapter have all the meaning and emotional power of his final liberation from slavery. The fundamental purpose of this chapter is to explain what the events of the book have dramatized. The story has already shown that the subordination of the individual to the group leads to nothing but destruction in human life. Now Ayn Rand, through the intellectual discoveries of the hero, provides a philosophical explanation. The "I," Equality 7-2521 understands, represents the fundamental truth about a human being's nature. A human's mind and spirit are personal attributes; they do not belong to others and are not communal property. A person's innermost thoughts -- hopes, dreams, values, aspirations, loves -- belong exclusively to that person. These thoughts are the priceless items that give life its meaning and are not to be seized by others for any purpose whatever. If the content of a person's mind is to be dictated by the state, then no human life is possible, only the existence of a worker ant in unrelenting toil to the colony. The "I," or self, is sacred and must be preserved at all costs. The "we," or group, can be a positive force in humanity, but only when it is understood to be a derivative phenomenon. Human beings can form a society beneficial to all of its members only when they recognize the sovereign right of each individual to his or her own life. Equality 7-2521 knows full well what it is like when society does not recognize this truth -- indeed, he has had the lesson taken out on his hide. When the individual is denied this basic right, all that is then possible is a slave society. But Equality 7-2521 now understands that if society recognizes individuality, then benevolent interaction in numerous forms becomes possible. Clearly, persons who respect each other's rights and boundaries can bond in close friendships of the kind between Equality 7-2521 and International 4-8818. Similarly, if human beings recognize the unique and distinctive characteristics of each individual, then they are capable of romantic love, such as the relationship between Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One. Recognition of each person's unrepeatable attributes of selfhood makes it possible to choose, to value, to have preferences. Friendship and love are both discriminatory. They are preferential and not given equally to all comers. The feelings of friendship and love that give rise to close human relationships are selective responses given only to rare individuals who embody in their lives and persons the qualities that the chooser values. Such individualized responses are not possible in a society so collectivized that all recognition of individuality is expunged from thinking. Friendship, love, and valuing are functions of the self. All these inner actions are performed exclusively by individuals, not by groups; these actions are personal, not social, in nature. Societies, Equality 7-2521 now realizes, are merely groups of individuals. Societies are secondary manifestations; the individual is fundamental. Further, although Equality 7-2521's study of his ancient texts of individuality and freedom may not be sufficiently advanced to give him knowledge of economics, a further benefit to humankind exists from living in a society that recognizes and respects individual personhood: a division of labor economy. For when individuals have "inalienable rights," as one of the writers of that ancient civilization proclaimed, then they are free to choose their own interests, including their professions. When individuals pursue the careers they love, as Equality 7-2521 does with scientific research, they are motivated, even to the point of crouching in a hidden tunnel to gain several precious hours alone for their studies. Persons with that degree of incentive are significantly more productive than those whom the state forces into an occupation. As individuals with rights, they are willing to work longer and harder, for they both love their work and keep its proceeds. Such a free, capitalistic economy is far more prosperous than the collectivist dictatorship under which Equality 7-2521 formerly existed. As Equality 7-2521 studies further, he no doubt will gain these insights into economics. They are applications of what he has recently learned: that only when society realizes that each one is a sovereign individual with rights not to be abridged by the group, does life in human society become fulfilling. In the absence of this knowledge, all live under the oppressive tyranny of the collective. The name of the moral theory that Equality 7-2521 has struggled to reach, and finally understands in this chapter, is egoism. The root word, ego, means "self" or "I." The theory of egoism states that individuals should be the beneficiaries of their own actions, should strive to attain their own happiness, and should not sacrifice the self. The code that Equality 7-2521 re-discovers, and that is endorsed by the author, is known as rational egoism. This theory holds that an individual should earn the things on which happiness depends. By means of education, hard work, and honest effort, persons should strive to reach those goals that will make them happy. Rational egoism rejects the victimization of others as a means of reaching happiness; it is a theory upholding the right of all individuals to work diligently and earn the things that bring meaning and joy into their lives. When the moral code of rational egoism is applied to politics, it leads to a system of limited, constitutional government that protects an individual's inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The ethics of rational egoism leads to a politics of individualism. Equality 7-2521 understands by means of his reading that, in the past, the moral code of rational egoism was expounded by some thinkers and led to political freedom for millions of individuals. This moral code and its political consequence are what Equality 7-2521 seeks to revive in his society. In Equality 7-2521's society, egoism is considered evil and has been expunged over the centuries from its memory. In its place, society has taught an opposite code -- the theory of altruism. Altruism states that individuals have a moral obligation to sacrifice themselves for others, that satisfying the desires of other persons should take precedence in an individual's life. Under this moral code, an individual has no right to his or her own life but exists solely as a servant of others. When an altruist moral code is applied to politics, it leads to an individual's enforced servitude to society. On this view, an individual has no inalienable rights, but exists solely to serve the state. Just as a moral code of rational egoism leads directly to a politics of individualism and freedom, so the morality of altruism leads to a politics of collectivism and dictatorship. Equality 7-2521's reading teaches him that the widespread acceptance of altruism is what makes possible the horrors of the collectivist dictatorship he has recently escaped. Equality 7-2521 seeks to liberate his society from this moral code and its ensuing politics of slavery. Equality 7-2521's education now includes an intellectual understanding of the moral code by which he will live, and the code he will shun. He understands that egoism is a code leading to benevolence, an attitude of kindness and goodwill toward others. He sees from his own life, as well as from his study of the free societies of the past, that when persons are encouraged to live their own lives, they are fulfilled and happy within themselves. Because they do not have to sacrifice themselves for others, people are no threat to them. Each has a right to self-fulfillment, so each, therefore, has value. The rational egoist, Equality 7-2521 now grasps, recognizes that human beings have rights and treats them accordingly -- with respect and goodwill. Kindness toward others depends on the recognition that each individual possesses inalienable rights. Additionally, based on the brutality of the collectivist society he has escaped, Equality 7-2521 realizes the horror of the altruist code. When persons have no rights -- when they exist solely to serve the state -- then they become just so many sacrificial animals. The code of self-sacrifice leads inevitably to slavery. In spite of their claims to human love, those who advocate human sacrifice have no love for human beings. If they did, they would not urge the surrender of personal values and the sacrifice of the self to the group. Rather, they would urge all to pursue their values, to achieve them, and to reach a state of joyous fulfillment. The code of rational egoism that Equality 7-2521 plans to offer will lead humankind to personal success and happiness. The code of altruism from which he hopes to deliver them leads only to slavery and misery.

"I am. I think. I will. Equality 7-2521 realizes the meaning of the word "I" and realizes what has been missing from his world. He writes about standing at the summit of a mountain and concludes that he has reached the end of his quest to find the meaning of things because he is the meaning of things. His eyes' seeing makes the earth beautiful, and his ears' hearing makes the earth sing. His mind's searching gives the earth truth. His will is the only command he respects or should respect. In his new view, the only three holy words are "I will it. Equality 7-2521 realizes that the goal of his existence, no matter what may come of the earth, is his personal happiness. He is not a means to an end, and he is not a servant of his brothers. His miracles are his and his alone, and he will protect them from others at all costs. He says that his treasures are his thoughts, his will, and his freedom, and the greatest of these is freedom. He owes nothing to his brothers. They owe him nothing, and he wants nothing from them. Those of his brothers who earn his honor will have it, but they will not have it just by virtue of being fellow men. He chooses his friends and he chooses when to join with them and when not to. He neither commands nor obeys. In Equality 7-2521's newfound view, the word "we" must always be a second thought to men, after the word "I. When it is allowed to become a primary thought, it is the root of all evil and becomes a great lie. The word "we" enables the weak to steal from the strong and becomes a stone that crushes all those beneath it. Equality 7-2521 vows that he is finished with the old society and collectivism. He has seen the face of god, and he will raise it above the earth so that everyone may worship at its altar. His new god is "I

Finally Equality 7-2521 discovers the word "I" through his reading of the old scripts. Rand couldn't resist doing some direct sermonizing in this chapter, and these are some of her important quotes : "I am the warrant and the sanction." "It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect." "My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end." "I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I cover no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to cover."


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.

I read {+many+} books for many days. Then I called the Golden One,
and I told her what I had read and what I had learned. She looked
at me and the first words she spoke were:

"I love you."

Then I said:

"My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names.
There was a time when each man had a name of his own to
distinguish him from all other men. So let us choose our names. I
have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of
all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He
took the light of the gods and [-he-] brought it to men, and he taught
men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of
light must suffer. His name was Prometheus."

"It shall be your name," said the Golden One.

"And I have read of a goddess," I said, "who was the mother of
the earth and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea. Let this be
your name, my Golden One, for you are to be the mother of a new
kind of gods."

"It shall be my name," said the Golden One.

Now I look ahead. My future is clear before me. The Saint of the
pyre had seen the future when he chose me as his heir, as the
heir of all the saints and all the martyrs who came before him
and who died for the same cause, for the same word, no matter
what name they gave to their cause and their truth.

I shall live here, in my own house. I shall take my food from the
earth by the toil of my own hands. I shall learn many secrets
from my books. Through the years ahead, I shall rebuild the
achievements of the past, and open the way to carry them further,
the achievements which are open to me, but closed forever to my
brothers, for their minds are shackled to the weakest and dullest [-ones-]
among them.

I have learned that [-my-] {+the+} power of the sky was known to men long
ago; they called it Electricity. It was the power that moved
their greatest inventions. It lit this house with light [-which-] {+that+} came
from those globes of glass on the walls. I have found the engine
which produced this light. I shall learn how to repair it and how
to make it work again. I shall learn how to use the wires which
carry this power. Then I shall build a barrier of wires around my
home, and across the paths which lead to my home; a barrier light
as a cobweb, more impassable [-that-] {+than+} a wall of granite; a barrier my
brothers will never be able to cross. For they have nothing to
fight me with, save the brute force of their numbers. I have my
mind.

Then here, on this mountaintop, with the world below me and
nothing above me but the sun, I shall live my own truth. Gaea is
pregnant with my child.  [-Our son
will be raised as a man.-] He will be taught to say "I" and to bear
the pride of it. He will be taught to walk straight [-and-] on his own
feet. He will be taught reverence for his own spirit.

When I shall have read all the books and learned my new way, when
my home will be ready and my earth tilled, I shall steal one day,
for the last time, into the cursed City of my birth. I shall call
to me my friend who has no name save International 4-8818, and
all those like him, Fraternity 2-5503, who cries without reason,
and Solidarity [-9-6347-] {+8-6347+} who calls for help in the night, and a few
others. I shall call to me all the men and the women whose spirit
has not been killed within them and who suffer under the yoke of
their brothers. They will follow me and I shall lead them to my
fortress. And here, in this uncharted wilderness, I and they, my
chosen friends, my fellow-builders, shall write the first chapter
in the new history of man.

These are the {+last+} things before me. And as I stand here at the
door of glory, I look behind me for the last time. I look upon
the history of men, which I have learned from the books, and I
wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was
the spirit of man's freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from
what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him,
save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.
That is freedom. That and nothing else.

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their
chains.  [-The-] {+Then+} he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their
chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race.
But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a
man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take
away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right
of man, and there is no right on earth above this right. And he
stood on the threshold of [-the-] freedom for which the blood of the
centuries behind him had been spilled.

But then he gave up all he had won, and fell lower than his
savage beginning.

What brought it to pass? What disaster took their reason away
from men? What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and
submission? The worship of the word "We."

When men accepted that worship, the structure {+of centuries
collapsed about them, the structure+} whose every beam had come
from the thought of some one man, each in his day down the ages,
from the depth of some one spirit, such [-spirit-] as {+spirit+} existed but for
its own sake. Those men who [-survived-] {+survived-+} those eager to obey, eager
to live for one another, since they had nothing else to vindicate [-them--those-]
{+them- those+} men could neither carry on, nor preserve what they
had received. Thus did all thought, all science, all wisdom
perish on earth. Thus did [-men---] {+men-+} men with nothing to offer save
their great [-number--
lost-] {+numbers- lose+} the steel towers, the flying ships, the
power wires, all the things they had not created and could never
keep. Perhaps, later, some men had been born with the mind and
the courage to recover these things which were lost; perhaps
these men came before the Councils of Scholars. They [-were-] answered as
I have been [-answered---] {+answered-+} and for the same reasons.

But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years
of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were
going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate. I
wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word [-"I"-] {+"I,"+}
could give it up and not know what they {+had+} lost. But such has been
the story, for I have lived in the City of the damned,
and I know what horror men permitted to be brought upon them.

Perhaps, in those days, there were a few among men, a few of
clear sight and clean soul, who refused to surrender that word.
What agony must have been theirs before that which they saw
coming and could not stop! Perhaps they cried out in protest and
in warning. But men paid no heed to their warning. And they, [-these-]
{+those+} few, fought a hopeless battle, and they perished with their
banners smeared by their own blood. And they chose to perish, for
they knew. To them, I send my salute across the centuries, and my pity.

[-Their-]

{+Theirs+} is the banner in my hand. And I wish I had the power to
tell them that the despair of their hearts was not to be final,
and their night was not without hope. For the battle they lost
can never be lost. For that which they died to save can never
perish. Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which
men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this
earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but
it will break through. And man will go on. Man, not men.

[-Here-]

{+Here,+} on this mountain, I and my sons and my chosen friends shall
build our new land and our fort. And it will become as the heart
of the earth, lost and hidden at first, but beating, beating
louder each day. And word of it will reach every corner of the
earth. And the roads of the world will become as veins which will
carry the best of the world's blood to my threshold. And all my
brothers, and the Councils of my brothers, will hear of it, but
they will be impotent against me. And the day will come when I
shall break [-all-] the chains of the earth, and raze the cities of the
enslaved, and my home will become the capital of a world where
each man will be free to exist for his own sake.

For the coming of that day [-shall-] I {+shall+} fight, I and my sons and my
chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his
life. For his honor.

And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone
the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which
will not die, should we all perish in battle. The word which can
never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the
meaning and the glory.

The sacred word:

EGO

Equality 7-2521 figures out that "I" is the word he seeks when he reads one of the books in the house. When he sees the word, he understands and weeps in pity for man, knowing why he had never felt guilt for his sins and that centuries of repression will not destroy man's spirit. He reads for days and tells the Golden One about what he learns. In answer, she looks at him and says, "I love you." He decides that they must choose their own names that distinguish them from others as names used to do in the Unmentionable Times. He chooses Prometheus, after the ancient man who brought light from god to man and was punished for his kindness. For the Golden One, he chooses Gaea, after the earth goddess who was the mother of all other gods. Prometheus now sees his future clearly. He recalls the Saint of the pyre, who chose Prometheus as his heir when Prometheus was only ten years old. Prometheus is now the heir of those who died for the cause of the word "I." He plans to live in his house and survive on the products of his own hands while learning more from his books. Prometheus hopes to rebuild what the present has lost and go even further, while others with his skill continue to be held back by the weak and the dull-witted. He learns that in the past, men called his power of the sky Electricity and that electricity had been the source of many of their inventions. He decides to repair the motor that provides electricity to the house and bring light to his house. He will also use wires to create a barrier separating his property from other men because although they have the advantage of numbers, they do not have his mind. Gaea is pregnant, and Prometheus plans to raise their son as a man who understands the concept of "I" and takes pride in his own spirit. After he learns as much as he can from his new home, he also hopes to return to the City and retrieve his friend International 4-8818, as well as those such as Fraternity 2-5503 and Solidarity 9-6347 who feel their servitude and the loss of their individuality. He plans to lead them to his home and "write the first chapter in the new history of man." Looking on the history of men, he wonders how man had abandoned his spirit for so long when all he had to do was remain free of other men after freeing himself from gods, kings, and birthrights and declaring himself to hold inalienable rights. He gave up his freedom for the word "We" and lost everything he had made, and anyone who sought as Prometheus had to regain it was punished. He asks why men had not anticipated their fall and suggests that a few men might have foreseen it but went unheeded. Prometheus wishes that he could tell the men who failed to stop the decay that hope still exists because "man will go on. Man, not men." He and his friends will rebuild against the decrees of other men and of the Councils, and one day he will free the cities from enslavement. To signify his fight for freedom, he will carve the immortal word "ego" into the stone of his home.

Following Equality 7-2521's discovery of the word "I" comes the falling action and resolution of the novel. Armed with the correct word, the Golden One is finally able to complete the sentence which had so frustrated them twice before and tell him, "I love you." Equality 7-2521 then chooses new names for both of them, taking "Prometheus" for himself because in Greek mythology, Prometheus brought fire to man and thus "taught men to be gods" and giving the Golden One the name of "Gaea," the ancient Greek name for Mother Earth. Prometheus and Gaea also have parallels to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in that they plan to raise "a new kind of gods," although Prometheus' patriarchal renaming of Gaea and her humble acquiescence can be viewed as problematic. Prometheus' ceremonial changing of names is a natural corollary to his celebration of "ego," the word that ends his narrative. By discarding their assigned names, they engage in a final rejection of collectivism and of the numerical designations that made each man a disposable part rather than a viable individual. By ridding himself of the misuse of Equality in his name, the protagonist makes a statement against the idea of compulsory equality, where equality means slavery and forcibly making everyone average rather than simply allowing to men to reach their full potential without legal restrictions. Liberty 5-3000, meanwhile, changes her name to Gaea and thus causes the idea of liberty to lose its ironic meaning. Additionally, by dispensing with the appellation "the Golden One," she shows that they do not need to describe her individual characteristics to establish her overall individuality. After the renamings, Prometheus muses on the past and connects it to the future. He has presumably learned about the progress of the Western Enlightenment that he has unwittingly paralleled in his journal entries. He recounts the history of man as a dialectic of triumph, where man freed himself from everything that had enslaved him until the rise of socialism and other collectivist doctrines in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when short-sighted men willingly threw away their freedom. Rand clearly refers to the contemporary international context of the rise of Communism in the Soviet Union, which quickly turned into totalitarianism. Having completed his split from his birth society, Prometheus now sees the full dangers of collectivism and of "the worship of the word 'We,'" and he wonders how man turned away from freedom when he himself suffered so much for the cause. Prometheus' study of the past and present causes him to decide that he will not allow the future of man to slip away in the same manner as previous history. Most of man's history has been one of progress led by the human mind, and he remains confident that the human spirit will ultimately win over oppression as long as men intuitively celebrate their own minds. Like Prometheus, he plans to bring light and knowledge to his people, but he does so through the heralding of freedom in a despairing society. As he mentally reassures the men of the past who lost the battle, Rand speaks to us both in reassurance and in warning. Prometheus and Gaea will join the lessons and successes of the past to the hope of the future, and they will raise their son at the top of the symbolic and literal mountains in the knowledge that the child is a free individual. In addition to his plans for his own family, Prometheus expects to use his force of mind and will to save others, beginning with his loyal friend International 4-8818 and the other Street Sweepers who are closest to the instinctive feeling of loss that results from their servitude. He has learned many things about science and especially electricity as a preface to his actions of liberation because he feels confident that his knowledge will protect the free and oppose the numbers of the weak and enslaved. A naturally optimistic person, he believes in the power of individualism to overcome collectivism, and he expects that his chosen friends will be worthy of his trust. After a long, introspective journey of the mind, he is ready to reengage in the conflict of the individualists against a flawed society.

Equality 7-2521 explains that he discovered the word "I" when he read the first book he found in the house. When he finally understood the word, he started to cry, and dropped the book. It was that beautiful. Equality 7-2521 also understood that it had been his sense of himself - of "I" - that revolted against his society and made him sin. No matter how hard society might try, that "I" can never be completely destroyed by it. Equality 7-2521 spent days reading the books he found. At last, he told Liberty 5-3000 what he had discovered. When she learned the word "I," Liberty 5-3000 told Equality 7-2521 "I love you." Finally, What a relief. Equality 7-2521 also told Liberty 5-3000 that it was time to get some new names. He decided to be Prometheus, after a heroic figure from mythology. Equality 7-2521 decided to call Liberty 5-3000 "Gaea," after the earth goddess. Now, Equality 7-2521 - a.k.a. Prometheus - writes, he sees his own future life clearly. He will live in the house with Gaea, learn to grow their own food, and study the books carefully. Already, he's learned that the power he used in his light-box is called electricity, and that it was electricity that powered the house in which he's living. He plans to learn how to produce and control it. He'll even build an electric fence around the house, once he figures out how. Apparently, Gaea is already pregnant with Prometheus' child. When he's born , Prometheus will raise him like a real man, who knows the word "I." Prometheus plans to eventually return to his old City, to find all of the individuals whose spirit hasn't been crushed yet, like International 4-8818. He'll lead them out of the City, to Freedom. Prometheus says Freedom means freedom from one's brothers. It is only other people that can take an individual's freedom away. Prometheus wonders how it could have been possible that human beings, after slowly winning their freedom from gods, kings, and each other, could have given it up again? The answer he comes up with? People started to worship the word "we." And once that happened, civilization fell apart. Free thinking perished, and so did all of the great individuals who had kept society functioning. Prometheus is still shocked that it was ever able to happen, and that people did not see what was going on as it happened. But, he proclaims, "man will go on. Man, not men" . Prometheus swears that the day will come when he will destroy the cities and free all of the enslaved. And his home will be the capital of the new world. Prometheus promises to fight for the freedom of man, and for the holy word, which will be his banner. "The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it, and the meaning, and the glory" . The word? You guessed it: "EGO."

Equality 7-2521 says that when, in the course of his reading, he first discovered and understood the meaning of the word "I," he wept -- he who had never known tears. Equality 7-2521 reads many books for many days. When he finally lays aside his studies, he calls the Golden One and tells her what he has learned. Her first words on hearing his discoveries are: "I love you." He tells her that the code of individualism requires each person to have their own name to differentiate them from the rest of humankind. He tells her of a figure about whom he has read. He was a legendary hero who lived far in the past, who took the light of the gods and brought it to humans. In this way, "he taught men to be gods." He suffered for his deeds as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus. "It shall be your name," replies the Golden One. Additionally, he tells her of a heroine from the legends of the past. She was a goddess who was the mother of the earth and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea. He requests that the Golden One take this name, for she is to be the mother of a new kind of gods. The Golden One agrees. Prometheus looks ahead and sees the future clearly before him. Prometheus says that he will continue to live in his own house and learn to grow food by tilling the soil. He will gain much knowledge from his books and use that knowledge in the coming years to re-create the achievements of the past. He is proud of the attainments he can reach, but also saddened by the inability of others to do the same, for their minds are shackled by the collectivist philosophy that keeps them enslaved. Prometheus learns that the power of the sky was known to the freethinkers of the past; they called it electricity and used it to light their cities, heat their homes, and power their inventions. He has found the engine in the home that produces this power and will learn to repair it. He will study the wires that carry this power, learn how to use them, and then create a network of wires around his house and the paths that lead to his house. In this way, he will make the house impregnable from assault by others, for they have nothing with which to threaten him but their numbers. They use brute force, but he uses his mind. Prometheus and Gaea will live on their mountaintop in peace and security. He says that she is pregnant with his child, who will be raised as a free man. Their son will be taught the word "I" and will learn reverence for his own spirit. He will learn what pride there is in being a human individual. When Prometheus's work is accomplished -- when he has read the books, fortified their home, and tilled the soil -- he intends to stealthily venture for the last time into the city of his birth. There he will call to him all those of independent spirit who remain -- his friend International 4-8818 and all those like him. He will seek out Fraternity 2-5503, who cries without reason, and Solidarity 9-6347, who screams in the night. He will reach out to any of the men and women whose heads are still unbowed, who retain the slightest spark of autonomy and who yearn in some form for freedom. These individuals will flock to him, and they will return to his fortress. Prometheus says that here, in the uncharted wilderness, they will build their city and write a new chapter in the history of human freedom.

That the hero and heroine take new names is significant for several reasons. They reject the collectivist names that were imposed on them by the slave society in which they were raised. The name Equality 7-2521 stands for a particular aspect of collectivist thinking. The collectivists do not mean by the term "equality" the individualistic principle that all individuals possess the same legal rights and are to be treated identically by the law. The collectivists mean that all are equal in an absolute sense -- that no individual is or should be better than the crowd, that no one possesses greater talent than others or greater intelligence or greater virtue. It is the equality of an ant colony, in which all individuals are equally subordinated to and enslaved by the rulers. The collectivists seek to prevent individuals from rising, from attaining excellence, from standing out, from achieving pride in their own person and accomplishments. Individuals free to live their lives and actualize their potential -- who hold high standards in all areas of life and strive to consistently meet them -- are not readily malleable by an all-powerful state. Such individuals do not conform or obey. They are independent, living by their own thinking, pursuing their own values, striving for their own happiness. But others taught that they have no right to rise above the herd, that they must seek no distinction, that each is the same as all, such unfortunates will bow and kneel and follow. Believing themselves no more than a cog in a vast machine, they will seek no individuality and will be ready clay for their masters to mold. The hero rejects this philosophy of humanity, and consequently rejects the name that embodies it. Further, the numbers that follow every person's name are a means by which the rulers instill the same collectivist lesson. A human being is not an individual, according to the collectivist philosophy; he is merely a fragmented part of a greater whole. Mandating that numbers follow each name, in amounts running to four or five digits, signifies that each person is only one of thousands bearing the same name, belonging to the same tribe, serving the same group. No one person is unique, unrepeatable, or outstanding. She is merely a numbered and controlled member of society, a splintered part of which the group is the whole. The numbers and the collectivist names combine with the eradication of the word "I" to form a collectivist culture designed to extirpate even the knowledge of individuality. The hero and heroine, as an act symbolizing their commitment to an individualistic philosophy, must repudiate the practice of attaching numbers to a person's name. Further, even though the Golden One's given name is Liberty 5-3000, the word "liberty" is so corrupted by the collectivists that it stands for the exact opposite of its original meaning. In the collectivist culture, liberty means not the inalienable right of each person to sovereign individuality, but rather the "right" of each person to be subordinate to the group. The collectivists, in their attempt to create universal slavery, corrupt the language -- the very ideas and terms with which persons think -- so as to obliterate all thoughts that clash with their push for blind obedience. The very concepts of individualism and freedom are expropriated and used to designate meanings that are the polar opposite of their originals. George Orwell, in his famous book, 1984, shows the collectivist dictators similarly corrupting the vocabulary of liberty by making such irrational claims as "Freedom is slavery." Prometheus and Gaea, at this point in the story, finally understand the full evil of collectivism and repudiate all its forms and trappings, including the bastardized name originally given the Golden One. As befitting free individuals, they will choose their own names. From studying his books, Prometheus has learned a good deal about the history of the Unmentionable Times. Although no specific historical details are given, it is reasonable to infer that he is knowledgeable regarding the ideas of the eighteenth century Enlightenment and the creation of the United States. He says that breaking free of the bonds imposed by various tyrants, persons of past eras "declared to all his brothers that a man has rights," and so "stood on the threshold of the freedom for which the blood of the centuries past had been spilled." Prometheus here refers to the ideas of such seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thinkers as John Locke and Voltaire, who argued that rational beings owed blind obedience to neither church nor state, but possessed the right to direct the course of their own life. Prometheus also has in mind men such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the other thinkers of America's founding period, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The men responsible for the founding of the American republic were individualists who believed that the only moral purpose of government was to protect the right of individual citizens to pursue their own happiness. Clearly, from his brief commentary, Prometheus has learned these important facts of history and greatly admires these freedom fighters of the past. Further, Prometheus now knows the history of collectivism's development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although he does not mention the specific historical details, his readings will have informed him of the work of the German philosophers G.W.F. Hegel and Karl Marx, whose writings proclaimed the superiority of the nation and/or the working class to the individual. Hegel and Marx stressed the moral obligation of the individual to be subordinate to the needs of the group -- and it was largely their teachings that led to the rise of National Socialism in Germany, to Communism in the Soviet Union, and to Fascism in Italy, the context in which Rand wrote Anthem. Prometheus understands that as the collectivist doctrines spread around the globe, they eventually swallowed the free countries and turned them into totalitarian dictatorships as well. In this fictional universe created by the author, the doctrine of individual rights died in countries such as the United States because humans were gradually taught to worship the word "we" and renounce their reverence for the word "I." But Prometheus, like some Thomas Jefferson of the future, does not intend to permit the spirit of freedom to die out on the earth. It is not enough that he, his family, and his friends will live in freedom on their protected mountaintop. He intends to rekindle the battle for individual rights, to challenge the global collectivist state, and to initiate a new revolution on behalf of political freedom. Prometheus will bring more than electric light to his society; he will provide something of far greater value than that. He will bring the light of freedom back into human lives after centuries of absence. Prometheus is confident about the ultimate triumph of individualism and freedom over collectivism. The most important consideration regards the role of the mind in human life. Because the collectivists value blind obedience above all, they necessarily view the freethinking mind as their most dangerous foe. Independent thinkers like Prometheus have their own ideas and arrive at their own conclusions by a process of logical thought. They hold their own minds as sacred, enabling them to discover new truths in the field of electricity, or in biology, physics, medicine, music, philosophy, and so on. Free minds like these do not confine their judgment to issues in the professional fields they choose; they think also on moral and political issues and recognize the grave injustices of the collectivist dictatorship. They speak out on behalf of an individual's rights and in defense of political freedom. Thinkers such as Prometheus represent a profound threat to the unquestioned authority of the collectivist leaders. For this reason, collectivists are ruthless in stamping out any hint or vestige of independence in their subjects. Because the authorities recognized the precociousness of Prometheus's intellect, not in spite of it, they consigned him in his youth to the profession of Street Sweeper, denying him the logical choice of being a Scholar. Because the collectivists stifle the mind, they have lost all elements of scientific and technological progress, including in the realm of military weapons. They are utterly primitive in all areas of their lives. Prometheus knows this. He knows too that he and his wife and friends are nothing like this. They are men and women of the mind. Prometheus always knew implicitly that it was by means of independent thinking that humans survive and prosper on earth; this is why he was always fascinated by the "science of things," and why he defied all laws and rules to experiment alone in his tunnel. Now, after his reading regarding the accomplishments of the freethinkers of the past -- given his knowledge of their "steel towers, flying ships and power wires" -- he knows explicitly the importance of the mind. He and his friends will use the supreme power of their minds to defend themselves. Prometheus already plans to study the generator by means of which electric power in his home was formerly produced. He will learn to repair or replicate it. His study of electrical engineering will, in the future, enable him to create new products of immense use to his life and those of his friends. Further, he will erect a barrier of electric wires to protect his mountaintop fortress, and similarly will employ his scientific genius to create other weapons to be deployed should the collectivists make war on him. He knows that in any conflict between mind and brute force, the mind will triumph. Finally, he is confident about the outcome of any clash between himself and the collectivists due to his awareness of the undying human spirit. Speaking of the heroic freedom fighters of the past about whom he has read, he states that their battle is one that can never be lost; that the liberty they died to save can never perish. The human mind and soul will eternally hunger for freedom; this aspiration can never be killed by any dictator or collectivist state. Humans suffering under the yoke of tyranny will, when liberty is offered to them, seize the opportunity to live as free persons. Prometheus now understands that the human mind requires freedom -- successful life on earth requires it -- and therefore the soul yearns for it. The human desire for freedom cannot be squelched, and Prometheus's battle cannot be lost. Glossary Prometheus legendary titan of Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and brought it to earth. He was punished by Zeus, who chained him to a rock and had a vulture eat out his liver daily. But thereafter humans had fire to keep warm and to light the darkest night. Gaea goddess of Greek mythology who gave birth to the earth and to the titans. City of the Damned city in which Prometheus and Gaea formerly resided, and from which they fled. Ego the self. That aspect of an individual that thinks, forms values, and makes judgments. Here it refers to the need that individuals have to be liberated of the stifling restraints of collectivism, free to use their own minds and glory in their own individual uniqueness.

Equality 7-2521, who now calls himself Prometheus, after the man who "taught men to be gods," now realizes that what he always considered his curse, his individuality, was and is a glorious blessing. Now, the new Prometheus and the Golden One, who conceives of a child, believe that they will found a new race of men, a new renaissance of self. The individual explains, "the day will come when I shall break all the chains of the earth, and raze the cities of the enslaved, and my home will become the capital of a world where each man will be free to exist for his own sake."