Anthem Chapter 7 Analysis

In a forest (the Uncharted Forest)

The forest is dark. Leaves rustle over Equality's head, black against the gold sky.

They sleep on soft, warm moss.

<p>They feel they have no bed now, except for the moss and that they have no future, except for the beasts of the forest.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They feel they are old now but that they were young that morning when they went to present their box of light to the Scholars.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>No one stopped them, as nobody from the Palace of Corrective Detention was around and nobody else knew of their invention and experiences.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They were meeting in the great hall.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It was a solemn meeting.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Equality 7-2521 saw the sky in the great windows, blue and glowing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They sat around a long table.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They looked like shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A painting of the 20 illustrious men who had invented the candle.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They did not know what to make of him. They stared at him in wonder and curiosity.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It was torn and stained with brown stains that had been blood.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Our greeting to you, our honored brothers of the World Council of Scholars!</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council of Scholars, first speaks to Equality.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Equality 7-2521 says, Our name is Equality 7-2521 and we are a Street Sweeper of this city.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>As if a great wind strikes the hall, the Scholars, all at once, become angry and frightened.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They tell them that they themselves do not matter, even if they are only a Street Sweeper, but that what they bring is very important.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Terror strikes the Scholars when the light is activated. The Scholars leave the table and huddle against a wall, in fear.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Equality 7-2521 laughs and says, Fear nothing, our brothers. There is a great power in these wires, but this power is tamed. It is yours. We give it to you.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They will not move and remain terrified.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>We give you the power of the sky! We give you the key to the earth! Take it, and let us be one of you, the humblest among you.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They remain silent and stare at Equality 7-2521 with evil in their eyes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They say that they are a wretch who has broken all laws to boast their infamy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They call Equality a gutter-cleaner and say, How dared you, gutter cleaner, to hold yourself as one alone and with the thoughts of the one and not of the many?</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>You shall be burned at the stake.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>No, they shall be lashed until there is nothing left under the lashes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They say that the World Council should decide what to do with Equality 7-2521.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>What will happen to their light.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They feel it should be destroyed because it was made by an individual and not by many.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Collective 0-0009</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>You have worked on this alone? They later say, after Equality responds 'Yes', 'What is not done collectively cannot be good.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'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.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>This box is useless.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'Should it be what they claim of it, then it would bring ruin to the Department of Candles.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'This would wreck the Plans of the World Council, and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'And if this should lighten the toil of men, then it is a great evil, for men have no cause to exist save in toiling for other men.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They say that it must be destroyed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Equality grabs the light box and calls the Scholars fools and 'thrice-damned fools'. Then Equality breaks a window with their fists and jumps out, with their light box in their arms, and ran.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They feel they do not have many days left to live and that a wild beast will most likely kill them with its fangs when Equality enters the forest.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Equality 7-2521 is pained when they remember the Golden One, who they have left behind.</p> Signup and view all the answers