Equality 7-2521 - Characters, Anthem | Anthem by Ayn Rand - Summary, Themes and Characters - Novels PDF Download

Equality 7-2521's got it all. He's young, beautiful, tall, strong, fearless, and brilliant. (See "Characterization" for more on all of those qualities, and on why he's got such a ridiculous name.) Equality 7-2521 re-invents the electric light, and in so doing, manages to surpass the best Scholars of his society by leaps and bounds in only a couple of years. And Equality 7-2521's brilliance doesn't just extend to science alone. By the end of the novella he's writing impassioned philosophical anthems on the meaning of life.

Equality 7-2521 is the classic Ayn Rand hero. For one, he's a little too good to be true. He's so superior to everybody else, in every way (body, character, mind), and he seems to have no weaknesses at all. The only thing that looks like a weakness in him is the initial sense of guilt he's inherited from his society about pursuing his own happiness (i.e., science, his love for Liberty 5-3000). In any case, he's moved beyond his guilt by the end of the novella, when he arrives at Randian "egoism" as the solution to all of life's questions. (There's more on "egoism" below; for now let's just say it's the philosophy that holds selfishness = good.)

That's the other thing about Equality 7-2521 that makes him a classic Randian hero – he's an unrepentant egoist, and he's eager to make us unrepentant egoists too. Ultimately, his whole character is meant to be embodiment of Rand's philosophical ideal. So let's get to know this guy a little bit better, starting with his number one passion: science.

Equality 7-2521 the Scientist

At his core, it seems like Equality 7-2521 has always been a scientist. Since he was a kid, he's wanted to know about the world and its mysteries, and about life and its meaning. Not even the strongest discouragements of his society can quiet that desire, which he calls his "curse":

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. (1.25)

Initially it looks like Equality 7-2521's main driving force is just curiosity, a desire to know for knowledge's own sake. That's what leads him to start conducting experiments underground, and to eventually discover electricity. But as the story progresses, two other motivations get mixed into Equality 7-2521's passion for science.

One of them is a sense of the power science can bring. It's only once Equality 7-2521 discovers electric light that he seems to fully realize science's usefulness as a tool. Science can harness the power of nature for human purposes and let humans do things they never dreamed of before. But as soon as he's made the light-box, Equality 7-2521 perceives this right away, with awe:

The power of the sky can be made to do men's bidding. There are no limits to its secrets and its might, and it can be made to grant us anything if we but choose to ask. (5.6)

It's his appreciation of the usefulness of his invention that makes Equality 7-2521 so eager to go to the Scholars of his society and teach them about electricity: he sees in it such a remarkable potential to improve the human lot. And at the end of Anthem, when Equality 7-2521 is considering returning to the cities to free the others, he's fully aware of the advantage his scientific knowledge will give to him:

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 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. (12.12)

There's also a third element to Equality's relationship to science, which develops once he's invented electric light: pride. Equality 7-2521's scientific accomplishments give him a sense of having done something important and worthwhile, and make him appreciate himself as an individual in a new way. It's only after his hands have made a light that Equality 7-2521 starts to appreciate his body, because of what it has done:

Yes, we do care. For the first time do we care about our body. For this wire is a part of our body, as a vein torn from us, glowing with our blood. Are we proud of this thread of metal, or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these two? (5.10)

This passage also reveals the extent to which Equality 7-2521 sees himselfin his inventions. They are extensions of him. He's able to see his own mind physically present in the world beyond his body, through the objects he's created. He's also able to make the world look more as he wants it to look. You might say science is a way of enlarging himself as an individual. It enables him to encompass the world around him.

All three elements clearly play a role in Equality 7-2521's passion for science. If you ask why he engages in science, it might not be possible to choose one of them over the others, at least by the end of the story. But there also seems to be a conflict between them, especially between the idea of science as a tool and science as an end in itself (his earliest motivation). Is it good to know the truth because it's useful, or is it just plain good to know the truth, regardless of whether or not it is useful? It's not entirely clear what Equality 7-2521 thinks by the end of the novella.

Equality 7-2521's Egoism, or "How I learned it's not about We, it's about ME!"

Equality 7-2521's development as a character throughout Anthem can be seen as a progressive move towards the distinctive way of thinking he discovers and presents in the final chapters of Anthem. It's an egoistic way of thinking, because it asserts that the only goal of any individual human being should be to pursue his own happiness, and not to subordinate his happiness to the service of others (or God, or anything else):

For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no 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. (11.8)

Now that is quite a shift from the way Equality 7-2521 thinks when we first meet him. Before, because of what his society had taught him, Equality 7-2521 was tempted to feel guilty just for being alive. He was taught that being alive was a burden to the earth, and other human beings, and needed some higher purpose (or "warrant") to be justified. He was also taught that the only way to justify one's life was the service of others. That had to come before any desire for individual happiness, which was base and evil. In other words, he had to always think about the collective group and never about himself. This way of thinking comes across in Equality 7-2521's language: he can't even refer to himself as an "I" – only as a "we." (See "Speech and Language" in "Characterization" for more on this topic.)

Equality 7-2521's society also promised that "toiling" for others was in fact the only way to be happy anyway: "There is no joy for men, save the joy shared with all their brothers," it taught him (9.31). It's important to note that the two ideas are distinct. The first idea is about whether one needs some justification for being alive (and whether individual happiness is a justification or not). The second idea is a claim about what makes people happy (work).

Now, in the end, Equality 7-2521 rejects both of these ideas. First he starts to get suspicious about the idea that happiness is to be found in toiling for others, because it just doesn't jive with his experience. In spite of all the work he did, he was never happy before. In fact, he was miserable. It's only once he starts to live for himself, and not for the sake of others at all, that he finds genuine joy:

But the only things which taught us joy were the power we created in our wires, and the Golden One. And both these joys belong to us alone, they come from us alone, they bear no relation to our brothers, and they do not concern our brothers in any way. Thus do we wonder. (9.31)

Science and his love of Liberty 5-3000 are the two things which make Equality 7-2521 feel that "the earth is good and that it is not a burden to live" (2.11). And they have nothing to do with serving others.

If you notice in that passage, though, Equality 7-2521's still sounds a little uncertain (i.e., he "wonders"). That may be because he's also still missing something, namely, the word "I." Even as he's realizing that his individual happiness matters, he still can't speak of himself as an individual. For him to start thinking of himself as the center of the universe, he needs to be able to think of himself. And that's why it is so important when Equality 7-2521 finally discovers the word "I" at the start of Chapter 11. He just can't get enough of it, and says the word over and over again: "I am. I think. I will. My hands . . . My spirit . . . My sky . . . My forest . . . This earth of mine. . . ." (11.2).

Can't you just hear the great cosmic "ta-da!" when you read that? Or at least imagine an appropriately epic soundtrack? Equality 7-2521's finally found himself! (For more on this process of finding himself, check out the theme "Identity"). And when he finds himself, Equality 7-2521 also finds a philosophy of egoism too.

Not only does Equality 7-2521 now confidently reject the idea that working makes for others make him happy, he also rejects the idea that he needs any justification for being alive at all. His happiness is the only meaning his life needs, and the only possible goal it can actually have. Bye bye, great WE. Hello ME! Equality 7-2521 even celebrates his discovery of egoism by giving himself a new name: Prometheus. (See "Names" in "Characterization" for more on this.)

What's interesting is that Equality 7-2521 never gives us a reason for reaching the conclusion that his own happiness is all that matters. He just suddenly goes from feeling some strong obligation to serve other people to feeling no such obligation at all. Clearly, by the end of the book he doesn't even believe such an obligation exists anymore: "I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them" (11.12). But unlike his recognition that toil doesn't make him happy, it's unclear where this certainty that he owes nothing to other human beings comes from. What made him stop feeling that obligation?

Is Equality 7-2521's Really an Egoist?

The fact is, in spite of proclaiming himself a good egoist, Equality 7-2521 never seems to fully get over that earlier concern with helping others. Even after deciding that his own happiness is all that matters, he's still interested in going back to liberate all of the oppressed members of his society:

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. (12.23)

Why does Equality 7-2521 want to do this, if not for the fact that he actually cares about other people's happiness? Doesn't that make him not an egoist?

Not necessarily. From his perspective, he could of course say that he wants to free his "fellow men" not from any sense of obligation, but by his own free choice. It will make him happy to do it, and that's why he'll do it. He's still being a good egoist after all.

But is that answer satisfying? Think of it this way: would it give Equality 7-2521 any satisfaction to help others if he didn't care about their happiness himself? Saying he only cares about their happiness because it makes him happy puts the cart before the horse. It's because their happiness mattersto him that it makes him happy to promote it in the first place, right? And once we start making other people's happiness a component of one's own happiness, it's unclear whether we're actually in purely egoistic territory anymore at all.

A similar problem arises when we consider Equality 7-2521's relationship to his main passion, science. Does Equality 7-2521 pursue science because it makes him happy? Or does he do it because knowledge seems like an end in itself? That's the reason he gives earlier in Anthem, and the two are not the same. In the first case, Equality 7-2521 would be driven to pursue science essentially because it's fun to pursue it. In the second case, he would pursue it because he thinks pursuing it is important, or valuable. And his enjoyment itself would be a consequence of the importance he gives to what he's doing.

It seems to us as if it's the second of those two motivations which moves Equality 7-2521 to do science. After all, he only realizes he enjoys it after he starts to do it and make progress. Initially, he does it because he just feels he has to. And if that's how Equality 7-2521's relationship to science works, it could work the same with the other components of his happiness too. Does he really love Liberty 5-3000, for instance, because it makes him happy to do so? Or is his happiness a result of the fact that she matters to him? Perhaps her happiness matters to him as much as, or more than, his. That seems to be how Liberty 5-3000 feels, at least, since she's clearly willing to die for Equality 7-2521.

Simply put, Equality 7-2521 doesn't seem to be a selfish character, even though he upholds a philosophy which glorifies selfishness. What he might mean when he proclaims that his own happiness is his own goal is that he has no purpose in life besides doing what matters to him as an individual (as opposed to just blindly obeying someone else). But a whole lot more matters to him than just himself. In fact, we suspect that much of what really matters to him (i.e., science, Liberty 5-3000, his quest to liberate his "brothers") matters as much or more to him than "himself." In our opinion, that's why, at the end of the day, he is a hero

Equality 7-2521 Timeline

• We meet Equality 7-2521, our narrator. He's in a dark underground tunnel, and he's apparently sinning just by writing to us.
• Equality 7-2521 tells us about his society, and about his childhood.
• When he was younger, Equality 7-2521 says, he used to get in more fights with the other kids than he should have.
• When he was a Student in school, Equality 7-2521 discovered he was smarter than everyone else. This made his teachers unhappy. He tried to hide his intelligence, but didn't succeed.
• Equality 7-2521 also dreamed of being a Scholar, which was wrong (since no one is supposed to care remotely about what they do with the rest of their lives).
• When he was 15, Equality 7-2521 was punished by the Council of Vocations for all his transgressions. He was made a Street Sweeper.
• Equality 7-2521's life as a Street Sweeper went on uneventfully for four years, until one day he stumbled upon a hole that led to an underground tunnel from the Unmentionable Times.
• Equality 7-2521 has been going down to the tunnel every evening for the last two years to write and conduct experiments. He pulls this off by sneaking out during Social Recreation time, and returning before it is over.
• One fine day, Equality 7-2521 sees Liberty 5-3000 working in the fields and develops a crush on her. He keeps looking at her for every day after that and starts to call her the Golden One in his head. Whoops – there's another Transgression of Preference.
• Equality 7-2521 finally talks with Liberty 5-3000 one afternoon. He is pleased to discover the feelings are mutual, and that she's a virgin.
• Equality 7-2521 discovers electricity alone in the tunnel.
• Some time later, Equality 7-2521 has another conversation with Liberty 5-3000 and reveals that he has named her the Golden One. She's named him the Unconquered.
• More time passes. Equality 7-2521 creates an electric light. Now he just has to come out of hiding and show the fruits of his research to everyone. He decides the meeting of the World Council of Scholars in his own City the next month will be the perfect opportunity.
• Unfortunately, Equality 7-2521 gets so excited with his new invention that he loses track of time and returns to the House of the Street Sweepers too late. He's caught.
• Because he refuses to reveal where he's been, Equality 7-2521 is sent to the Palace of Corrective Detention and whipped a whole lot. Still, he doesn't talk.
• Equality 7-2521 is imprisoned for a month. When he realizes that the time for the World Council of Scholars has almost arrived, he breaks out of prison and prepares to present his invention.
• Equality 7-2521 goes to the World Council of Scholars to show them his electric light. They want to kill him and destroy is invention. Equality 7-2521 decides it's time to leave the City for good.
• Equality 7-2521 flees into the Uncharted Forest, where he won't be followed. He enjoys frolicking around and enjoying his first experience of real freedom.
• Liberty 5-3000 finds Equality 7-2521 in the forest; she'd been following him. They have a lot of fun frolicking together.
• Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 come across a house from the Unmentionable Times which is filled with all kinds of technology. And books. Lots of books. Equality 7-2521 is set for life.
• Equality 7-2521 discovers the word "I" during his reading. This moment is a big deal.
• Equality 7-2521 shares with us the realizations he's had about freedom, happiness, the meaning of life, etc. He now worships the human ego.
• Equality 7-2521 chooses new names for Liberty 5-3000 and himself, and reveals that Liberty 5-3000 is pregnant with his child. He swears he will keep the torch of freedom alive, and one day liberate his brothers.