Anthem Rand (chapters 1-6)

Summary
The first half of Anthem tells about a boy named Equality 7-2521 who lives in an totalitarian society. When he was younger he was different from the other boys his age. He was smarter and taller and asked many questions. His teachers disliked him for this reason and forbade him to ask them . The Council of Vocations, the rulers of this society, control what occupations its inhabitants hold when they become of age. Equality 7-2521 wanted to be a scholar but was told it was a sin to want it and given a job as a street sweeper. Here he works with his friend,International 4-8818, and keeps a journal. He seems to question authority more than once in this section.He is told its forbidden to be miserable. Its ironic because he sees misery all around him, since none of his "brothers" as they are called seem to be happy. When he discovers electricity, Equality 7-2521 begins to question whether the scholars he wanted so badly to be apart of knew everything there was to know about his world. He decides to go against what his society believes and believe that he knows more than the scholars, which was also a taboo in his society. He invents a lightbulb and is determined to bring it to the scholars in order to share his knowlegde with them. From this point on he begins to defy the decorum of his society more and more.He wants to do things like see his reflection and become reassigned as a scholar which were all forbidden things. He escapes from a corrective center ,which was also forbidden, in order to go to a council meeteing to present his invention to them. From the moment he found the tunnel he has been going further and further against his societys rules.


Quote
“Many men in the Homes of the Scholars have had strange new ideas in the past . . . but when the majority of their brother Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men must.”(Rand 54)


Reaction
This quote shows how in this society, everyone is controlled even the people in a position of power such as the scholars. If an idea endangered the workings of society it was voted againsted and abandonded with no questions asked.