It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others
think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It
is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears
but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression
blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. The
laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations
bid them so. May we be forgiven!

But this is not the only sin upon us. We have committed a greater
crime, and for this crime there is no name. What punishment
awaits us if it be discovered we know not, for no such crime has
come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it.

It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air.
Nothing moves in this tunnel save our [-hand-] {+hands+} on the paper. We are
alone here under the earth. It is a fearful word, alone. The laws
say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for
this is the great transgression and the root of all evil. But we
have broken many laws. And now there is nothing here save our one
body, and it is strange to see only two legs stretched on the
ground, and on the wall before us the shadow of our one head.

The walls are cracked and water runs upon them in thin threads
without sound, black and glistening as blood. We stole the candle
from the larder of the Home of the Street Sweepers. We shall be
sentenced to ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention if
it be discovered. But this matters not. It matters only that the
light is precious and we should not waste it to write when we
need it for that work which is our crime. Nothing matters save
the work, our secret, our evil, our precious work. Still, we must
also write, for--may the [-council-] {+Council+} have mercy upon us!--we wish to
speak for once to no ears but our own.

Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron
bracelet which all men wear on [-the-] {+their+} left wrists with their names
upon it. We are twenty-one years old. We are six feet tall, and
this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet
tall. Ever have the Teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and
frowned and said: "There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521,
for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers." But
we cannot change our bones nor our body.

We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts
which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes which men may
not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us
and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret
fear, that we know and do not resist.

We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be
alike. Over the portals of the Palace of the World Council, there
are words cut in the marble, which we {+are required to+} repeat to
ourselves whenever we are [-tempted:

    "WE ARE ONE IN ALL AND ALL IN ONE.
    THERE ARE NO MEN BUT ONLY THE GREAT _WE_,
    ONE, INDIVISIBLE AND FOREVER."-] {+tempted:--"We are one in all and all in one.

There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever."--+}

We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps us not.

These words were cut long ago. There is green mould in the
grooves of the letters and yellow streaks [-on-] {+in+} the marble, which
come from more years than men could count. And these words are
the truth, for they are written on the Palace of the World
Council, and the World Council is the body of all truth. Thus has
it been ever since the Great Rebirth, and farther back than that
no memory can reach.

But we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth,
else we are sentenced to three years in the Palace of Corrective
Detention. It is only the Old Ones who whisper about it in the
evenings, in the Home of the Useless. They whisper many strange
things, of the towers which rose to the sky, in those
Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons which moved without
horses, and of the lights which burned without flame. But those
times were evil. And those times passed away, when men saw the
Great Truth which is this: that all men are one and that there is
no will save the will of all men together.

All men are good and wise. It is only we, Equality 7-2521, we
alone who were born with a curse. For we are not like our
brothers. And as we look back upon our life, we see that it has
ever been thus and that it has brought us step by step to our
last, supreme transgression, our [-crime-] {+crimes+} of crimes hidden here
under the ground.

We remember the Home of the Infants where we lived till we were
five years old, together with all the children of the City who
had been born in the same year. The sleeping halls there were
white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds. We
were just like all our brothers then, save for the one
transgression: we fought with our brothers. There are few
offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers, at any age and
for any cause whatsoever. The Council of the Home told us so, and
of all the children of that year, we were locked in the cellar
most often.

When we were five years old, we were sent to the Home of the
Students, where there are ten wards, for our ten years of
learning. Men must learn till they reach their fifteenth year.
Then they go to work. In the Home of the Students we arose when
the big bell rang in the tower and we went to our beds when it
rang again. Before we removed our garments, we stood in the great
sleeping hall, and we raised our right arms, and we said all
together with the three Teachers at the head:

"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."

Then we slept. The sleeping halls were white and clean and bare
of all things save one hundred beds.

We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those years in the Home of
the Students. It was not that the learning was too hard for us.
It was that the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be
born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be
different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to
them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked
upon us.

So we fought against this curse. We tried to forget our lessons,
but we always remembered. We tried not to understand what the [-Teachers-]
{+teachers+} taught, but we always understood it before the Teachers
had spoken. We looked upon Union [-5-3992,-] {+5-3992+} who were a pale boy with
only half a brain, and we tried to say and do as they did, that
we might be like them, like Union 5-3992, but somehow the
Teachers knew that we were not. And we were lashed more often
than all the other children.

The Teachers were just, for they had been appointed by the
Councils, and the Councils are the [-voice-] {+voices+} of all justice, for
they are the voice of all men. And if sometimes, in the secret
darkness of our heart, we regret that which befell us on our
fifteenth birthday, we know that it was through our own guilt. We
had broken a law, for we had not paid heed to the words of our
Teachers. The Teachers had said to us all:

"Dare not choose in your minds the work you would like to do
when you leave the Home of the Students. You shall do
[-that which-] {+what+} the
Council of [-Vocations-] {+Vocation+} shall prescribe for you. For the Council of
Vocations knows in its great wisdom where you are needed by your
brother men, better than you can know it in your unworthy little
minds. And if you are not needed by your brother [-man,-] {+men,+} there is no
reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies."

We knew this well, in the years of our childhood, but our curse
broke our will. We were guilty and we confess it here: we were
guilty of the great Transgression of Preference. We preferred
some work and some lessons to the others. We did not listen well
to the history of all the Councils elected since the Great
Rebirth. But we [-love-] {+loved+} the Science of Things. We wished to know.
We wished to know about all the things which [-make-] {+makes+} the earth
around us. We asked so many questions that the Teachers forbade it.

We think that there are mysteries in the
[-sky,-] {+sky+} and [-under-] the water and in
the plants which grow. But the Council of Scholars has said that
there are no mysteries, and the Council of Scholars knows all
things. And we learned much from our Teachers. We learned that
the earth is flat and that the sun revolves around it, which
causes the day and [-the-] night. We learned the names of all the winds
which blow over the seas and push the sails of our great ships.
We learned how to bleed men to cure them of all ailments.

We [-love-] {+loved+} the Science of Things. And in the darkness, in the
secret hour, when we awoke in the night and there were no brothers
around us, but only their shapes in the beds and their snores,
we closed our eyes, and we held our lips shut, and we
stopped our breath, that no shudder might let our brothers see or
hear or guess, and we thought that we wished to be sent to the
Home of the Scholars when our time would come.

All {+of+} the great modern inventions come from the Home of the
Scholars, such as the newest one, which was found only a hundred
years ago, of how to make candles from wax and string; also, how
to make glass, which is put in our windows to protect us from the
rain. To find these things, the Scholars must study the earth and
learn from the rivers, from the sands, from the winds and the
rocks. And if we went to the Home of the Scholars, we could learn
from these also. We could ask questions of these, for they do not
forbid questions.

And questions give us no rest. We know not why our curse makes us
seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it. It
whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours,
and that we [-can know them
if we try, and that we-] must know them. We ask, why must we know, but it has
no answer to give us. We must know that we may know.

So we wished to be sent to the Home of the Scholars. We wished it
so much that our hands trembled under the blankets in the night,
and we bit our arm to stop that other pain which we could not
endure. It was evil and we dared not face our brothers in the
morning. For men may wish nothing for themselves. And we were
punished when the Council of Vocations came to give us our life
Mandates which tell those who reach their fifteenth year what
their work is to be for the rest of their days.

The Council of Vocations came {+in+} on the first day of spring, and
they sat in the great hall. And we who were fifteen and all the
Teachers came into the great hall. And the Council of [-vocations-] {+Vocations+}
sat on a high dais, and they had but two words to speak to each
of the Students. They called the Students' names, and when the [-Students-]
{+students+} stepped before them, one after another, the Council
said: "Carpenter" or "Doctor" or "Cook" or "Leader." Then each
Student raised their right arm and said: "The will of our
brothers be done."

Now if the Council [-has-] said "Carpenter" or "Cook," the Students so
assigned go to [-work,-] {+work+} and [-they-] do not study any further. But if the
Council has said "Leader," then those [-Students-] {+students+} go into the Home
of the Leaders, which is the greatest house in the City, for it
has three stories. And there they study for many years, {+so that
they may become candidates+} and be elected to the City Council and
the State Council and the World Council--by a free and general
vote of all men. But we wished not to be a Leader, even though it
is a great honor. We wished to be a Scholar.

So we awaited our turn in the great hall and then we heard the
Council of Vocations call our name: "Equality 7-2521." We walked
to the dais, and our legs did not tremble, and we looked up at
the {+Council. There were five members of the+} Council, three of the
male gender and two of the female. Their hair was white and their
faces were cracked as the clay of a dry river bed. They were old.
They seemed older than the marble of the Temple of the World
Council. They sat before us and they did not move. And we saw no
breath to stir the folds of their white togas. But we knew that
they were alive, for a finger of the hand of the oldest rose,
pointed to us, and fell down again. This was the only thing which
moved, for the lips of the oldest did not move as they said:
"Street Sweeper."

We felt the cords of our neck grow tight as our head rose higher
to look upon the faces of the Council, and we were happy. We [-knew-] {+know+}
we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it. We
would accept our Life Mandate, and we would work for our
brothers, gladly and willingly, and we would erase our sin
against them, which they did not know, but we knew. So we were
happy, and proud of ourselves and of our victory over ourselves.
We raised our right arm and we spoke, and our voice was the
clearest, the steadiest voice in the hall that day, and we said:

"The will of our brothers be done."

And we looked straight into the eyes of the Council, but their
eyes were as cold {+as+} blue glass buttons.

So we went into the Home of the Street Sweepers. It is a grey
house on a narrow street. There is a sundial in its courtyard, by
which the Council of the Home can tell the hours of the day and
when to ring the bell. When the bell rings, we all arise from our
beds.  [-They-] {+The+} sky is green and cold in our windows to the east. The
shadow on the sundial marks off a half-hour while we dress and
eat our breakfast in the dining hall, where there are five long
tables with twenty clay plates and twenty clay cups on each
table. Then we go to work in the streets of the City, with our
brooms and our rakes. In five hours, when the sun is high, we
return to the Home and we eat our midday meal, for which
one-half hour is allowed. Then we go to work again. In five
hours, the shadows are blue on the pavements, and the sky is blue
with a deep brightness which is not bright. We come back to have
our dinner, which lasts one hour. Then the bell rings and we walk
in a straight column to one of the City Halls, for the Social
Meeting. Other columns of men arrive from the Homes of the
different Trades. The candles are lit, and the Councils of the
different Homes stand in a pulpit, and they speak to us of our
duties and of our brother men. Then visiting Leaders mount the
pulpit and they read to us the speeches which were made in the
City Council that day, for the City Council represents all men
and all men must know. Then we sing hymns, the Hymn of
Brotherhood, and the Hymn of Equality, and the Hymn of the
Collective Spirit. The sky is a soggy purple when we return to
the Home. Then the bell rings and we walk in a straight column to
the City Theatre for three hours of Social Recreation. There a
play is shown upon the stage, with two great choruses from the
Home of the Actors, which speak and answer all together, in two
great voices. The plays are about toil and how good it is. Then
we walk back to the Home [-is-] {+in+} a straight column. The sky is like a
black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to burst
through. The moths beat against the street lanterns. We go to our
beds and we sleep, till the bell rings again. The sleeping halls
are white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds.

Thus have we lived each day of four years, until two springs ago
when our crime happened. Thus must all men live until they are
forty. At forty, they are worn out. At forty, they are sent to
the Home of the Useless, where the Old Ones live. The Old Ones do
not work, for the State takes care of them. They sit in the sun
in summer and they sit by the fire in winter. They do not speak
often, for they are weary. The Old Ones know that they are soon
to die. When a miracle happens and some live to be forty-five,
they are the
[-ancient ones,-] {+Ancient Ones,+} and [-the-] children stare at them when
passing by the Home of the Useless. Such is to be our life, as
that of all our brothers and of the brothers who came before us.

Such would have been our life, had we not committed our crime
which {+has+} changed all things for us. And it was our curse which
drove us to our crime. We had been a good Street Sweeper and like
all our brother Street Sweepers, save for our cursed wish to
know. We looked too long at the stars at night, and at the trees
and the earth. And when we cleaned the yard of the Home of the
Scholars, we gathered the glass vials, the pieces of metal, the
dried bones which they had discarded. We wished to keep these
things and to study them, but we had no place to hide them. So we
carried them to the City Cesspool. And then we made the
discovery.

It was on a day of the spring before last. We Street Sweepers
work in brigades of three, and we were with Union 5-3992, they of
the [-half brain,-] {+half-brain,+} and with International 4-8818. Now Union 5-3992
are a sickly lad and sometimes they are stricken with
convulsions, when their mouth froths and their eyes turn white.
But International 4-8818 are different. They are a tall, strong
youth and their eyes are like fireflies, for there is laughter in
their eyes. We cannot look upon International 4-8818 and not
smile in answer. For this they were not liked in the Home of the
Students, as it is not proper to smile without reason. And also
they were not liked because they took pieces of coal and they
drew pictures upon the walls, and they were pictures which made
men laugh. But it is only our brothers in the Home of the Artists
who are permitted to draw pictures, so International 4-8818 were
sent to the Home of the Street Sweepers, like ourselves.

International 4-8818 and we are friends. This is an evil thing to
say, for it is a {+great+} transgression, the great Transgression of
Preference, to love any among men better than the others, since
we must love all men and all men are our friends. So
International 4-8818 and we have never spoken of it. But we know.
We know, when we look into each other's eyes. And when we look
thus without [-words,-] {+works,+} we both know other things also, strange
things for which there are no words, and these things frighten us.

So on that day of the spring before last, Union 5-3992 were stricken
with convulsions on the edge of the City, near the City Theatre.
We left them to lie in the shade of the Theatre tent and
we went with International 4-8818 to finish our work. We came
together to the great ravine behind the Theatre. It is empty save
for trees and weeds. Beyond the ravine there is a plain, and
beyond the plain there lies the Uncharted Forest, about which men
must not think.

We were gathering the papers and the rags which the wind had
blown from the Theatre, when we saw an iron bar among the weeds.
It was old and rusted by [-man-] {+many+} rains. We pulled with all our
strength, but we could not move it. So we called International [-4-8818,-]
{+4-8818+} and together we scraped the earth around the bar. Of a
sudden the earth fell in before us, and we saw an old iron grill
over a black hole.

International 4-8818 stepped back. But we pulled at the grill and
it gave way. And then we saw iron rings as steps leading down a
shaft into a darkness without bottom.

"We shall go down," we said to International 4-8818.

"It is forbidden," they answered.

We said: "The Council does not know of this hole, so it cannot be
forbidden."

And they answered: "Since the Council does not know of this
hole, there can be no law permitting to enter it. And everything
which is not permitted by law is forbidden."

But we said: "We shall go, none the less."

They were frightened, but they stood by and watched us go.

We hung on the iron rings with our hands and {+our+} feet. We could
see nothing below us. And above us the hole [-open-] upon the sky grew
smaller and smaller, till it came to be the size of a button. But
still we went down. Then our foot touched the ground. We rubbed
our eyes, for we could not see. Then our eyes became used to the
darkness,
[-but-] {+and+} we could not believe what we saw.

No [-men-] {+man+} known to us could have built this place, nor the men known
to our brothers who lived before us, and yet it was built by men.
It was a great tunnel. Its walls were hard and smooth to the
touch; it felt like stone, but it was not stone. On the ground
there were long thin tracks of iron, but it was not iron; it felt
smooth and cold as glass. We knelt, and we crawled forward, our
hand groping along the iron line to see where it would lead. But
there was an unbroken night ahead. Only the iron tracks glowed
through it, straight and white, calling us to follow. But we
could not follow, for we were losing the puddle of light behind
us. So we turned and we crawled back, our hand on the iron line.
And our heart beat in our fingertips, without reason. And then we knew.

We knew suddenly that this place was left from the Unmentionable Times.
So it was true, and those Times had been, and all the wonders
of those Times. Hundreds upon hundreds of years ago men knew
secrets which we have lost. And we thought: "This is a foul
place. They are damned who touch the things of the Unmentionable
Times." But our hand which followed the track, as we crawled,
clung to the iron as if it would not leave it, as if the skin of
our hand were thirsty and begging of the metal some secret fluid
beating in its coldness.

We returned to the earth. International 4-8818 looked upon us and
stepped back.

"Equality 7-2521," they said, "your face is white."

But we could not speak and we stood looking upon them.

They backed away, as if they dared not touch us. Then they
smiled, but it was {+a+} not a gay smile; it was lost and pleading.
But still we could not speak. Then they said:

"We shall report our find to the City Council and both of us
will be rewarded."

And then we spoke. Our voice was hard and there was no mercy in
our voice. We said:

"We shall not report our find to the City Council. We shall not
report it to any men."

They raised their hands to their ears, for never had they heard
such words as these.

"International 4-8818," we asked, "will you report us to the
Council and see us lashed to death before your eyes?"

They stood straight [-all-] of a sudden and they answered:

"Rather would we die."

"Then," we said, "keep silent. This place is ours. This place
belongs to us, Equality 7-2521, and to
[-no-] {+not+} other men on earth.
And if ever we surrender it, we shall surrender our life with it
also."

Then we saw that [-they-] {+the+} eyes of International 4-8818 were full to
the lids with tears {+with tears+} they dared not [-drop.
They-] {+drop, they+}
whispered, and their voice trembled, so that their words lost all
shape:

"The will of the Council is above all things, for it is the will
of our brothers, which is holy. But if you wish it so, we shall
obey you. Rather shall we be evil with you than good with all our
brothers. May the Council have mercy upon both our hearts!"

Then we walked away together and back to the Home of the Street
Sweepers. And we walked in silence.

Thus did it come to pass that each night, when the stars are high
and the Street Sweepers sit in the City Theatre, we, Equality
7-2521, steal out and run through the darkness to our place. It
is easy to leave the Theatre; when the candles are blown [-out-] and the
Actors come onto the stage, no eyes can see us as we crawl under
our seat and under the cloth of the tent.  [-Later,-] {+Later+} it is easy to
steal through the shadows and fall in line next to International
4-8818, as the column leaves the Theatre. It is dark in the
streets and there are no men about, for no men may walk through
the City when they have no mission to walk there. Each night, we
run to the ravine, and we remove the stones [-which-] we have piled upon
the iron grill to hide it from [-the-] men. Each night, for three hours,
we are under the earth, alone.

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. We have built an oven of the bricks we
gathered in the streets. We burn the wood we find in the ravine.
The fire flickers in the oven and blue shadows dance upon the
walls, and there is no sound of men to disturb us.

We have stolen manuscripts. This is a great offense. Manuscripts
are precious, for our brothers in the Home of the Clerks spend
one year to copy one single script in their clear handwriting.
Manuscripts are rare and they are kept in the Home of the
Scholars. So we sit under the earth and we read the stolen
scripts. Two years have passed since we found this place. And in
these two years we have learned more than we had learned in the
ten years of the Home of the Students.

We have learned things which are not in the scripts. We have
solved {+the+} secrets of which the Scholars have no knowledge. We
have come to see how great is the unexplored, and many lifetimes
will not bring us to the end of our quest.  [-But we
wish no end to our quest.-] We wish nothing, save
to be alone and to learn, and to feel as if with each day our
sight were growing sharper than the hawk's and clearer than rock
crystal.

Strange are the ways of evil. We are false in the faces of our
brothers. We are defying the will of our Councils. We alone, of
the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are
doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it. The
evil of our crime is not for the human mind to probe. The nature
of our punishment, if it be discovered, is not {+free+} for the human
heart to ponder. Never, not in the memory of the Ancient Ones'
Ancients, never have men done [-that
which-] {+what+} we are doing.

And yet there is no shame in us and no regret. We say to
ourselves that we are a wretch and a traitor. But we feel no
burden upon our spirit and no fear in our heart. And it seems to
us that our spirit is clear as a lake troubled by no eyes save those
of the sun. And in our [-heart--
strange-] {+heart--strange+} are the ways of [-evil!--in-] {+evil!--
in+} our heart there is the first peace we have known in twenty years.

Always speaking from a first-person plural point of view, the narrator introduces himself as Equality 7-2521. He explains that the act of keeping a secret journal without the permission of the Council of Vocations is against the law and a sin because his thoughts are not shared, but personal. However, he has committed an even greater crime. He is writing alone in a tunnel with a stolen candle, although the laws require that no one can ever be alone, and he describes himself as twenty-one years old and six feet tall. His height has made him stand out from his peers, hinting at his evil tendency to think unlike others in spite of the efforts of the World Council to unite all men and reject individuality. The Council's creed of unity has been written on their palace since the Great Rebirth ended the selfish Unmentionable Times, the study of which is forbidden and will also send Equality 7-2521 to the Palace of Corrective Detention. Equality 7-2521 recalls the life that led him to his worst crime, beginning with his early years in the Home of Infants. The narrative switches temporal registers, and we learn of this childhood -- one spent largely in a sleeping hall of one hundred beds, one peppered with fights with other children and frequent chastisement. From the ages of five to fifteen, Equality 7-2521 lives at the Home of the Students and there recites a creed every night with the other students before going to bed. The creed declares that the individual is nothing when compared to the group and the State. Equality 7-2521 does not enjoy his schooling because he is too intelligent for the subject matter and thus stands out from his classmates. He tries unsuccessfully to act like the slow-witted Union 5-3992 and is often punished for his differences. However, he believes in the Teachers because they have been appointed by the just and powerful Council, and he feels guilty because he wants a specific job after the end of his schooling, although he should accept the wisdom of the Council of Vocations. He has always preferred science and, to the Teachers' dismay, asks too many questions about the subject. The Council of Scholars states that the world is flat and at the center of the galaxy, and the schools teach how to bleed men to cure them; Equality 7-2521 wants to know more and dares to wish for a work assignment to the Home of the Scholars. The Home of the Scholars is the source of all inventions, such as glass and the candle, the latter of which had only been discovered a hundred years ago, and Equality 7-2521 wants to join their investigations. When the Council of Vocations announces their assigned vocations, Equality 7-2521 hopes to be made a Scholar even more than a Leader, an honorable profession which leads to election to the City, State, and World Councils. Instead, he is given the profession of Street Sweeper, and he decides to atone for his sin of desire by proudly working his new job. As a Street Sweeper, Equality 7-2521 lives by a strict daily schedule, and, before their daily visits to the City Theatre to watch plays about work and duty, the Street Sweepers meet with other men at a Social Meeting in the City Hall, where the Leaders give speeches and the men sing hymns about equality and collectivism. Equality 7-2521 lives in this manner for four years, knowing that at age forty, he will be sent to the retirement Home of the Useless as an Old One or, if he lives past forty-five, an Ancient One. He works in a three-person brigade with Union 5-3992 and International 4-8818, the latter of whom is too full of laughter and thus was assigned to the Street Sweepers instead of the Artists. International 4-8818 is the friend of Equality 7-2521, although they are by law not allowed to admit it. Two years prior to the writing of his journal, Equality 7-2521 is working beside International 4-8818 because Union 5-3992 is sick with convulsions, and the two discover the iron grill entrance to a tunnel among the weeds next to the City Theatre. Equality 7-2521 decides to explore it, although International 4-8818 opts to stay because he suspects that it is against the law. As Equality 7-2521 investigates the darkness, he realizes that the tunnel must be from the technologically advanced Unmentionable Times. He knows that the Unmentionable Times were horrible, but he still wishes to know more about them. When Equality 7-2521 returns to the surface, International 4-8818 asks him to report their discovery to the City Council for a reward, but Equality 7-2521 insists on keeping it for himself, knowing that International 4-8818 will not betray his friend . Afterward, Equality 7-2521 begins to sneak away to the tunnel instead of watching the plays at the City Theatre. With stolen objects and other local materials, he conducts experiments at night, and, with the help of stolen manuscripts, he learns many new things and feels no regret for his curiosity and his transgressions of the law.

Anthem's setting is that of an unclearly defined dystopian society which exists after what Equality 7-2521 calls the Great Rebirth and the end of the Unmentionable Times, an era that appears to be our own. The first paragraph establishes the sinister nature of the society, as the narrator castigates himself for breaking the law by daring to keep a journal. The mention of a Council of Vocations that controls when man can and cannot write also immediately indicates the oppression and jurisdiction over thought in Equality 7-2521's world. Throughout the first chapter, Equality 7-2521 offers no specifics of location that might place him in a particular continent or region, lending a universal feel to the dangers of his society, a sense that is further emphasized by the presence of a "World Council". At the same time, Rand's story has a clear connection to the contemporary political situation, as she wrote the novel partly as a parable to warn about the dangers of Russian Communism and the collectivist philosophy which many major thinkers had at one point in time believed to be a boon for human society. Although Equality 7-2521 himself expresses guilt rather than awareness of the injustices of his government, he consistently receives punishment from his society for his exceptional qualities, which range from his above-average height of six feet to his intelligence and curiosity regarding the sciences. Because he cannot conform and because he dares to think as an individual rather than as one of the crowd, the Council of Vocations takes away his freedom of choice and makes him a Street Sweeper rather than a Scholar . The House of Street Sweepers appears to act as a repository for two categories of men -- those such as Union 5-3992 who are too weak or dull for any other job, and those such as Equality 7-2521 and International 4-8818 who are too talented to risk having a more powerful niche in society. Equality 7-2521 shows only a nascent awareness of his ill treatment at the hands of his collectivist community, indicating that society has successfully enforced conformity in the mental as well as the physical and governmental spheres. As in many dystopian novels of the period -- such as 1984 -- and as in the Soviet Union itself, language becomes a major vehicle through which the society enforces mental compliance. In particular, although Equality 7-2521 narrates Anthem from a first-person point of view, he uses the unorthodox first-person plural form "we" rather than the singular "I." Rand suggests that the collectivist use of language represents an entire viewpoint which is ironically more sinful than all of Equality 7-2521's purported crimes. In addition, Rand names the various Councils in a manner reminiscent of the Councils and Ministries of the Soviet Union. Because of the brainwashing that characterizes the world of Anthem, the conflict in the novel has a dual nature. In one sense, Equality 7-2521 is an innovator in an emerging conflict with the stagnant status quo of his society, as he begins to defy the authorities by exploring the tunnel and by keeping it for himself so that he might conduct experiments underground; this conflict appears in turn poised to become more significant as the novel continues. At the same time, Equality 7-2521 is in conflict with himself, as his individualist nature collides with the culture of compliance that has raised him for over twenty years. The antagonist is in both cases an aspect of collectivism, but Equality 7-2521 faces physical obstacles in the first case and mental ones in the second case. Interestingly, the conventions of good and evil are reversed not only in the societal definitions of sin but also in the portrayal of black and white. Whereas white is normally the color of innocence and purity, here it appears most prominently in the oppressive sleeping halls, while black is associated with the freedom of the dark tunnel. Rand thus far presents Equality 7-2521 as the only truly outstanding individual in his city, but International 4-8818 serves as an example of a worthy man who does not quite have the qualities necessary to engage in a struggle with the oppression of collectivism. As Equality 7-2521's foil, he shares some of the protagonist's creativity and skill, but whereas Equality 7-2521 has a serious nature and prefers the sciences, International 4-8818 has "laughter in his eyes" and apparently has some skill as an artist. Both have suffered because the Council of Vocations deemed them too capable for their true vocations, but International 4-8818 is afraid of punishment and refuses to explore the tunnel with Equality 7-2521. Nevertheless, his loyalty and ability to maintain a friendship in defiance of the law make him a valuable, if not entirely admirable, character.

"It is a sin to write this," our narrator tells us in the very first sentence. The narrator explains that no one can write unless they're asked to by the Council of Vocation. Writing and thinking for oneself are not allowed. The narrator also noticeably speaks only in the first-person plural. Ah yes, time for the setting: a dark tunnel, lit by candlelight. The narrator's all alone there - this constitutes another great evil. The narrator stole the candle he's using . But he, assuming it's a he, doesn't care. All that matters is his "work." Finally, we get the narrator's name: Equality 7-2521. Equality 7-2521 is 21, and six feet tall. Taller than most other people, which he tells us is a sign of evil. Equality 7-2521 was born with a curse: he's been thinking forbidden thoughts for most of his life. And he doesn't resist them. This is bad, because according to the World Council, all men must strive to be completely alike. All people must form one big, happy, indivisible "WE." It's been that way ever since the Great Rebirth, Equality 7-2521 tells us. No one remembers what the world was like before then. Anyway, since the Great Rebirth, everyone has known the Great Truth: "that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together" . Equality 7-2521 however, is not like everyone else. He never has been. And that makes him evil. He starts to tell us his story. When Equality 7-2521 was a kid, he fought with the other kids in the Home of the Infants. This makes him evil according to the state. When Equality 7-2521 was living and studying in the House of the Students from five to fifteen, he was not happy, because what everyone else was learning was too easy for him. This also makes him evil. Equality 7-2521 tried to imitate the "half-brained" Union 5-3992 so he could blend in better, but couldn't. He was different. As a result he was whipped quite frequently. Again, this makes him evil. Equality 7-2521 was also guilty of thinking about what he wanted to be when he grew up. No one's supposed to do that - it's the Transgression of Preference. Individuals are not supposed to prefer any one thing over another. . Everyone receives a job for life from the Council of Vocations, which supposedly determines the best way for each person to serve the community. According to the Teachers, there's no reason to "burden the earth with your bodies" besides serving "brother men" . Equality 7-2521 didn't absorb any of this well. For a long time, he wanted to be a Scholar. And not so much for the sake of his "brother men," but because he loved the "Science of Things" and wanted to know all about the world and its mysteries. The Scholars, by the way, are the scientists and inventors. Their most recent brilliant invention was the candle, which they came up with, um, 100 years ago. Anyway, Equality 7-2521 wanted to be a Scholar, with all his heart. But he was punished when it came time for the Council of Vocations to assign him a job. On the first day of spring, when Equality 7-2521 was fifteen, he gathered with all of the other students in a great hall before the Council of Vocations. Each student would come forward and have his profession called out by the Council. When it was Equality 7-2521's turn to come forward before the Council, he waited in suspense for his Mandate. It was Street Sweeper. Bummer! But strangely, Equality 7-2521 was happy. This was an opportunity to make up for all his sins and humble himself before his brothers, right? He accepted his assignment with joy, he tells us. So Equality 7-2521 went to the Home of the Street Sweepers. It's a pretty regular life, day-in, day-out, he says. The Street Sweepers get up every day, eat together, go to work for five hours, come back home for lunch, go to work five more hours, come back for dinner, and then go to Social Meeting to hear speeches from the community's Leaders. After that, it's time for three hours of Social Recreation - fun time! Which consists of seeing fantastically exciting plays about how wonderful is to work. Every night. Equality 7-2521 lived like that every day for four years. Normally, that would have been his life until he was forty. That's when people stop working and get sent to the Home of the Useless to live out their old age and die. But then, one day, two springs ago, Equality 7-2521 tells us, his "crime happened." And now it's time for a flashback scene. So, here's Equality 7-2521 working in his usual team of three, with Union 5-3992 and International 4-8818. . Union, if you remember, is the guy our narrator called "half-brain." International 4-8818, on the other hand, is "different," like Equality 7-2521: he liked to draw pictures for fun, which was also evil. That's why International 4-8818 also happened to wind up a Street Sweeper. International 4-8818 and Equality 7-2521 think of each other as friends, though they never talk about it. Friendship's evil too, since everyone is supposed to love everyone else equally. Anyway, International 4-8818, Union, and Equality 7-2521 are collecting trash in a ravine behind the Theater when Equality 7-2521 comes across an old and rusty iron bar on the ground. He tries to pick it up, but can't. International 4-8818 comes over to help, and together they move the dirt around the bar to discover it's actually a grate, over a hole in the ground. And Equality 7-2521 moves the grate to discover a hole leading down into a deep, dark shaft. Equality 7-2521 tells International 4-8818 he wants to go down. International 4-8818 does not think this is a good idea - it's forbidden. Equality 7-2521 goes anyway. International 4-8818 stays nearby, watching. Equality 7-2521 descends down the shaft on "rings" until his foot reaches ground. He waits for his eyes to become used to the darkness. Around him, Equality 7-2521 sees a great tunnel, with walls "hard and smooth" but not of stone. On the ground are long thin tracks of iron, only...not iron. Smooth and cold. Equality 7-2521 kneels forward and gropes along the tracks. They lead on into the dark, and Equality 7-2521 wants to follow them, but is afraid to do so without any light. So Equality 7-2521 crawls back to the shaft leading up to the hole. And realizes, as he does, that the place must be from the Unmentionable Times. Equality 7-2521 goes back up the shaft and finds International 4-8818 still waiting. Equality 7-2521 can't speak, he's so amazed. International 4-8818 tells Equality 7-2521 he plans to report what they've found to the City Council. Equality 7-2521 tells International 4-8818 they won't report it to anyone. International 4-8818 is shocked. Equality 7-2521 asks International 4-8818 if he intends to report him to the Council and see him get killed. International 4-8818 says he would rather die. Equality 7-2521 says International 4-8818 should keep his mouth shut. This place, Equality 7-2521 says, belongs to him, Equality 7-2521, and no one else. He'd rather die than lose it. International 4-8818 is on the verge of tears, and tells Equality 7-2521 that what they are doing is evil. But he'd rather do evil with Equality 7-2521 than good with everyone else. Equality 7-2521 and International 4-8818 walk back in silence to the Home of the Street Sweepers. Flashback over. Each night after that, Equality 7-2521 tells us, he would sneak out of the Theater during fun time and go down into the tunnel to spend a couple of hours there. It was easy enough to sneak back into line next to International 4-8818 when everyone left the theater. Equality 7-2521 has stolen candles from the Home of the Street Sweepers, along with paper, knives and flint. And he's also filched various vials, powders and acids from the Home of the Scholars. Every night Equality 7-2521 performs different experiments and makes strange metals. He's even made an oven of bricks he's picked up in the streets. Equality 7-2521 has also stolen manuscripts from the House of the Clerks so he can study them himself. That's a serious no-no. Manuscripts are precious. Equality 7-2521 tells us he's had his little hide away set up for two years now. And during that time, he's learned much more than he learned in ten years in the House of the Students. He's already learned things no Scholar even knows. Equality 7-2521 admits that he's evil. He's the only person on earth doing something just because he wishes to do it. But Equality 7-2521 has no shame or regret. Instead, he feels the first real peace in his heart he's ever known.

As the story opens, Equality 7-2521 states that it is a sin to do the writing he is doing. It is a sin to do things that do not involve others, and the words he thinks and writes are for no eyes or ears but his. This is not his only crime. He has committed one far worse and does not know what his punishment will be if discovered. One day, as he sweeps the streets with International 4-8818, they find an iron grill buried beneath the weeds and papers blown from the nearby theatre. When they pull at it, the earth falls in and they find a series of steps leading into the darkness below. Equality 7-2521, though frightened, descends. He finds an abandoned tunnel, which he immediately realizes is a remnant of the Unmentionable Times, the ancient, evil period prior to the establishment of the current collectivist state. Though it is unthinkable, Equality 7-2521 tells International 4-8818 that they will not report the tunnel to the Council; rather, it belongs to him. Each night after that, when his brothers sit in the darkened theatre watching plays about the virtue of toil, Equality 7-2521 steals away to his secret tunnel. There, hidden beneath the ground, he has three hours in which he does scientific research and performs experiments. He also steals manuscripts from the Scholars, and every night he studies. This activity goes on for two years.

Equality 7-2521 is a freethinker living in a slave state. The state requires blind obedience to its decrees, which he refuses to render. He will not sacrifice his mind to the state's commands, the essence of the story's conflict. In Anthem, Ayn Rand shows the full reality of the ideals held by the Communists, Fascists, and their intellectual supporters. The underlying principle is collectivism: Society is paramount, and the individual must be subordinated to its dictates. Collectivists hold that an individual exists solely to serve the state and has no "inalienable right" to a free life or to the pursuit of happiness. Thus the citizens of this story are like mindless robots. They are not permitted to think for themselves; they must blindly obey the commands of the Councils. In his conscious thinking, Equality 7-2521 accepts collectivism, because it is all he has been taught; nobody in this society has ever heard any different ideas. But implicitly, at the subconscious level, he holds and lives by the opposite premise, individualism: the theory that individuals have the right to think for themselves, to use their own minds and judgment in the pursuit of truth. Further, Equality 7-2521 believes that individuals have the right to choose what they want out of life -- in this case, he has the right to pursue a career as a scientist because it is what he loves. Individuals, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, have an "inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In his individualism, Equality 7-2521 espouses the same ideals that form the heart of the American political system. In his rejection of collectivism, he shuns the principles of the Nazis and Communists. The collectivism of this society explains why Equality 7-2521 is not permitted to think. If the individual must serve an all-powerful state, then it requires obedience from him. Collectivism values a blind, unquestioning allegiance -- a willingness to follow orders unthinkingly. The Councils are in no danger from the mindless brutes of a society, whose strong backs are harnessed for manual labor. The Councils must fear only one foe: the freethinking mind. Equality 7-2521 represents a danger to them for he has the brainpower to question the moral rectitude of their regime -- and the courage to stand by his convictions, even though his life is in danger. Ayn Rand suggests that the reason dictators of all kinds -- Fascist, Communist, or religious -- always prohibit freedom of speech and of the press is that they are expressions of a deeper freedom of thought and encourage the free dissemination of ideas that collectivist societies dread. Dictators know that, in a free market of ideas, their arbitrary commands will be unable to withstand logical scrutiny. Therefore, they must ruthlessly suppress the right to think freely and to criticize their policies. Thus Equality 7-2521 is not allowed to think and is forbidden to study science. Instead he is made a Street Sweeper. The teachers and Councils knew from his youth that his intelligence and eagerness to learn stood out. He was beyond his brothers and sisters in this respect. Because his questioning mind would not be stifled, he was punished continuously by the teachers -- he was lashed more often than all the other children. Two things were clear to the Councils: Equality 7-2521 had a mind of his own, and such a dangerous commodity was not to be encouraged. Therefore, he is consigned to the mindless task of sweeping the streets. Because he has the best mind, he is forbidden to think. Such is the inversion of collectivism, where things are the opposite of how they should be. Instead of glorifying the independent mind that invents the electric light and other advances -- as they should -- collectivist societies do everything in their power to stifle it. The collectivist rulers understand that the essence of collectivism is conformity to the group. It is not just that individuals must serve the group in action. Deeper, they must accept and surrender their minds to its teachings. The foundation of Equality 7-2521's individualism is not pursuing his own happiness -- this is a secondary consequence -- but following his own mind. An individualist, such as Equality 7-2521, does not conform; he does not surrender the sovereign judgment of his own consciousness. He understands that to be a human being is to be a thinker. What makes someone an individual is a commitment to live by one's own best thinking -- a refusal to betray one's mind, to yield the truth in order to follow the group. "To thine own self be true," says Polonius to Laertes in Hamlet. In Anthem, Ayn Rand shows that commitment to one's self is fundamentally commitment to one's mind. A striking aspect of this society's war on the individual is its collectivization of the language, its eradication of all singular first-person references such as "I" or "me." By extirpating these words, the rulers have removed the possibility of even thinking in individualistic terms. From infancy, children are raised to think and speak of themselves only as "we." They are not permitted to know such a concept as "I." They know of an "Unspeakable Word," that to discover and speak that word is death, but they do not know what it is. In a brilliantly original indictment of collectivism, Ayn Rand points out that to fully subordinate the individual mind to society, collectivists must wipe out the very concept of an individual. If they succeed at this, there is no possibility of standing up to the stifling call for obedience; there is no independent mind to defend and no means by which to do so. The collectivists have wiped out individualism in language and in thought, as well as in action. A further point raised in this chapter, which recurs throughout the story, is the struggle of an innovator against a society resistant to new ideas. Equality 7-2521 is like many of the great thinkers and scientists of history who have met hostility from the leaders of their times. Socrates was put to death by Athenian society for the originality of his ideas. Galileo was threatened with torture by the Inquisition for defending the heliocentric theory in astronomy -- and his earlier colleague, Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake for the same reason. In free societies such as the United States, inventive thinkers such as Robert Fulton, the Wright brothers, and innovative architect Frank Lloyd Wright, merely face opposition from private citizens who follow tradition, but are not confronted with an all-powerful dictator who demands obedience. Such innovators are often mocked and ostracized, but not put to death. But Equality 7-2521 faces a collectivist state in which freethinking has been outlawed -- much like an independent person in Nazi Germany or in Soviet Russia -- and pursuit of new truths will result in his execution if apprehended. This risk is the fate of an innovator in a Fascist or Communist society. All who do not kneel and obey shall be imprisoned or executed. Glossary World Council a global government that rules the entire world. In this world of the future, individuals possess no rights. The World Council is the highest governing body, the ultimate set of rulers who dictate policy to the rest of the world. Unmentionable Times the days of the past when humans still possessed individual rights and political freedom. The dictators regard those past days as evil, because humans were living for themselves, not for others. It is unlawful to speak of these days when individuals were free to pursue their own happiness. Great Truth the belief that human beings are not individuals but mere fragments of the whole. This society has been indoctrinated with the view that individuality is unreal, that the human race is like an ant colony in which each person is not a single, separate whole but an appendage of a larger social unity. Great Rebirth the period in which the Unmentionable Times end and the one Great Truth is taught. During this time, political freedom is wiped out and belief in living for one's own happiness is eradicated. This is the beginning of the dictatorship in which humans must exist exclusively to serve their brothers and sisters. Council of the Home the leaders of the particular barracks where a group of persons reside. Because this society supposedly has no individuals, all decisions are made by a sub-group that controls the larger group. Council of Vocations the group of rulers whose specific function is to decide an individual's occupation. By forcing the best young minds into manual labor, the leaders hope to quell any potential intellectual dissent to their regime. Home of the Scholars the residence of intellectuals and scientists whose task is to gain knowledge and discover new truths Science of Things research into the phenomena of nature. This primitive society has only the most rudimentary of scientific knowledge, and it has. regressed into a second Dark Age in which most knowledge of freer periods has been lost. This society believes the earth is flat, the sun revolves around it, and bleeding is a method of curing ailments. The Transgression of Preference the "sin" of choice, which occurs when a person favors an activity or person based on independent judgment. Any exercise of independent evaluation is banned by this society. Home of the Useless where the elderly of this society are sent at 40 years of age. They are thought to be too worn with toil to be of further use to society. This society is so lacking in knowledge of nutrition, medicine and science that the life expectancy has shrunk back into the early 40s.

The narrative begins with Equality 7-2521, the speaker and protagonist, apologetically describing his "sinful" actions in writing such an account of his own activities, since thinking and acting apart from others is strictly forbidden by the Council of Vocations. After reading a few lines, the reader soon realizes that Equality 7-2521 means himself when he uses the pronoun "we." It seems that he has no capacity to speak the word "I," as if his language has forgotten the word, which of course it has. Equality 7-2521 lives in a world where the state, the collective, dominates every last detail of society, even down to individual thinking , much like Huxley's Brave New World. Though the outward form of the society mimics democracy , the actual form is anything but republican. Only Equality 7-2521, as well as a few others encountered later by the reader, has the fortitude to oppose his world, discovering his own world of "self." Early on, Equality 7-2521 alludes to his alienation from the others, saying that he was "born with a curse." Gradually, he drifts into a history lesson of sorts, explaining the basic tenets of his state-run education. It seems the World Council, the massive organization which controls society in general, has a monopoly on all "truth," and ever since the Great Rebirth, has dominated all human culture. The Great Rebirth seems to be the major, formal step in human de-evolution, as the word "I" was replaced with the words "we" and "us," and men unselfishly chose to live for their brothers, not themselves: this is Rand's ultimate nightmare, since it denies the egoistic nature of man. This was apparently the time when innovation and productivity ended, and government collectivism seemed to make slaves of its citizens, making them ignorant and helpless robots dependent on the state. Equality 7-2521 also describes his life growing up apart from any kind of human family, but like everyone else, institutionalized and indoctrinated from birth. Like all of Rand's heroes, he is exceptionally bright, soon growing bored with his lessons. As a result of this boredom and desire to explore "the science of things," as well as his "great Transgression of Preference," , Equality 7-2521 is punished more than most his age. Soon the time comes when Equality 7-2521 has completed his education and now must stand before the Council of Vocations to be assigned a permanent life occupation. Though he wishes to be assigned to the House of Scholars, he is instead told that he will be a lowly Street Sweeper. He willingly resigns himself to such an occupation, repeating to himself the state motto, "the will of our brothers be done," showing Rand's conscious decision to mimic the Lord's Prayer. Eventually, now working as a Street Sweeper, Equality 7-2521 begins to become friends with a coworker, International 4-8818, someone who smiles continuously. One day the two are cleaning up near the outskirts of town when Equality 7-2521 comes across a metal grate which covers the entrance to an underground tunnel. Equality 7-2521 eagerly descends down the hole, realizing that he is entering a structure from the Unmentionable Times, replete with technological devices from that era, including the secret of electricity, which has been lost in modern times. After awhile he climbs back into his world, making sure that International 4-8818 doesn't speak to anyone about their discovery, knowing that it is a sin to keep things hidden from the collective, but also knowing that those who touch the things from the Unmentionable Times are said to be damned. Each night for three hours, instead of attending the City Theatre, which promotes the propaganda of collectivism, Equality 7-2521 retreats to his special underground hovel, where he illegally studies the science of things alone. Though he knows his society forbids his activities, Equality 7-2521 also realizes that for the first time in his life, he feels satisfaction and peace.