Anthem Chapters 6 - 9
Equality 7-1521 has not written anything for thirty days as he has not visited his tunnel. He gets caught on the night when he wrote last. Equality 7-2521 made the mistake of not watching the sand in the glass, which indicated his time of returning to the city. He hastily runs through the dark and empty streets towards the city after the entertainment time is over. The writer denies disclosing his whereabouts to the Council when he is presented before them for his transgression. He is sent to the Corrective Detention center in a stone room with no windows where two men stand naked with leather aprons and hoods over their faces in the corner. They tear away Equality 7-2521’s clothes and tie his hands to the iron post. He is beaten, and the pain of severe blows travels through every bone of his body.
The writer loses count of the blows on his back till his body becomes numb and he stops feeling. He sees the flaming iron grills in front when a fist knocks him at his chin. When asked where he was, he could utter only ‘the light..the light..’ and nothing beyond it. The judges leave Equality 7-2521 imprisoned for several days, and he can barely move his body. The door opens twice every day for food and water. The judges visit him frequently, seeking answers, but he holds to his resolve of keeping his secret. As thirty days elapse, Equality decides to escape from prison before the meeting of the world council of scholars. The Council did not have guards on guard in the detention center as people have never defied the Council. The first place he visits after escaping his detention is his tunnel, where he is relieved to find his experiment safe and untouched. He plans on traveling to the house of scholars the next day to confess his discovery.
Part seven begins in the dark forest, where the writer has to sleep on the moss for several nights till the beasts find him and feast on his body. He remembers carrying his glass box to the council the same morning, hoping to get praised. The Collective 0-0009, the wisest scholar, asks him to introduce himself. The Council is shocked as they couldn’t bear to witness the audacity of a street sweeper entering the Council. Despite their initial displeasure, the writer captivates their attention when he claims to hold the future of humankind in his hands and explains the whole phenomenon.
The Council is terrified of the invention and behaves strangely. Equality 7-2521 assures them about the design's reliability and offers them the power of the sky. He also requests to be made one among them to work further on such inventions to bring new light to men. Collective 0-0009 breaks the silence by condemning and degrading Equality 7-2521 for violating the law. They accuse him of thinking his mind is superior to his brethren's wisdom. A street sweeper can never be wiser than a scholar, they tell him. Democracy 4-6998 threatens him to be burnt at the stake. Collective 0-009 asks everyone to calm down as no such crime has ever been committed, and they are not the ones to decide on the subject. The word of the World Council will be considered final. Scholars considered candles a boon to humanity. The candles took almost fifty years for the council’s approval. All the inventions invented previously, which did not have the support of the majority, were destroyed. Collective 0-0009 orders the writer’s device to be routed. Shocked at the decision, the writer grabs his box, calls them ‘fools,’ and jumps out of the window. He runs blindly, and his feet take him to the Uncharted Forest, the only place devoid of men. Equality 7-2521 had no plans of coming to the forest. He considers himself doomed as he will have to spend the remaining days alone with no road to redemption. The glass box he holds gives him the strength and solace to continue. He realizes his death is imminent as some fang would ultimately kill him. The writer is struck with pain when he thinks of the Golden One, whom he shall never see again but thinks it to be best as he is the one to be doomed.
Part eight begins with Equality 7-2521’s first day in the forest. It is not an ordinary day, as everything seems to be different. There are no bells, strict breakfast, or working times to wake him up. He laughs aloud and swings across the branches in delight, falling on the soft moss. Equality 7-2521 is free to hunt and eat what and when he wants. He pursues a bird and roasts it on the fire for his meal. No food seemed more satiating to him than the one he cooked himself. Then, he stands by a river and looks at the reflection of his face. He is amazed at his beauty as he doesn’t look anything like his comrades. Equality 7-2521 is more confident than ever after knowing how he looks.
Equality 7-2521 finds a place to rest at night and laughs at the thought that he is doomed as a criminal. He writes on the paper he hid in his tunic and has a lot to speak about himself but cannot understand his thoughts. It is the writer’s second day in the forest. Neither does he wish to write or talk to anybody. He hides while hearing footsteps nearby and is glad to discover the Golden One who is searching for him. She claims to have traced his footsteps through the wilderness. Liberty 5-3000 promises to follow Equality 7-2521 wherever he goes. Unlike his brothers, she wishes to be damned with him as he walks with his head held high.
Liberty 5-3000 bows and kneels before Equality 7-2521. They kiss when Equality 7-2521 reaches to help her up. The sensation drives them mad, and they are shocked to know that such joy has been kept a secret from humankind. He assures the golden one to be fearless in solitude and forget all good and evil. They should be thankful and joyous to be together in their new world. They walk for many days into the unending forest, holding hands and realizing the ecstasy, which is not shameful. The writer finds his new life much more fulfilling than the previous one, but the delight confuses him. The Golden One confesses her love to Equality 7-2521 but cannot express it adequately, for she knows no particular word to affirm it.
Analysis
Through the character of Collective 0-009, the readers come to understand the present dilapidated condition of the world. The scholar explains the tedious process through which the inventions of the scholars are approved by the world council. In the past, the inventions of scholars have been destroyed because they failed to be approved by the councils. The process is indicated to be so tedious that the simple invention of the candle took fifty years to be approved and adopted. This description forms a crucial criticism of Collectivism as viewed by Rand. With this argument, she targets the arguments that Collectivism is innately good, but that its progress and implementation had failed in places due to men like Stalin. These men had abused the system for their gain rather than the good of the people. Rand argues that Collectivism is in itself flawed and that all collectivist societies would perpetuate injustice because the consensus among leaders would be nearly impossible to achieve.
Rand claimed that Anthem did not possess any of the traditional literary structure that is denoted to novellas, and as such, it had no climax. However, the protagonist’s meeting with the World Council of Scholars can be seen as the climax of the action, since it leaves him unalterably changed and unable to return to his earlier existence. After this interaction, Equality comes to realize that he had been driven to create the light not for its use to his fellow brothers, but for himself, and for the invention itself. This is another crucial aspect of Rand’s theory of Objectivism.
