ANTHEM BY: ANY RANO (50-105)

Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One(the blond head that he loves) climb up into the mountains so that no one can follow them and while they are there they find an abandoned house. They assumed that the house must be a house from the Unmentionable Times that was protected from the weather and time by trees.

Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One enter the house, and they are amazed at the house and its technology. They are astounded by the idea that a house could be so small, such that it obviously housed no more than a dozen people. They are amazed by the colors in the house, as well, and are shocked to learn that houses could be a color other than white, brown, or gray. Equality 7-2521 also finds a library with shelves of books, and he is amazed that there are not manuscripts. He looks through some of the books and discovers that he knows the language but that there are many words he does not know. Equality 7-2521 tells the Golden One that they will move into the house and never leave it. They will not share it but will live there together until they die. The Golden One answers, “Your will be done.”
His new commandment is to live and speak and give meaning to the world. He seeks guidance in his heart, and stares at his hands where he sees the history of centuries, both good and evil, and he is filled with reverence and pity. He wonders what the secret is that his heart is trying to tell him.
Equality 7-2521 realizes the meaning of the word “I” and realizes what has been missing from his world. He writes about standing at the summit of a mountain and realizes that he has reached the end of his quest to find the meaning of things because he is the meaning of things. His eyes’ seeing makes the earth beautiful, and his ears’ hearing makes the earth sing. His mind’s searching gives the earth truth. He only command respect or should respect. In his new view, the only three holy words are “I will it!”
Equality 7-2521 realizes that the goal of his existence, no matter what may come of the earth, is his personal happiness. He is not a means to an end, and he is not a servant of his brothers. His miracles are his and his alone, and he will protect them from others at all costs. He says that his treasures are his thoughts, his will, and his freedom, and the greatest of these is freedom. He owes nothing to his brothers. They owe him nothing, and he wants nothing from them. He chooses his friends and he chooses when to join with them and when not to. He neither commands nor obeys.
In Equality 7-2521’s view, the word “we” must always be a second thought to men, after the word “I.” When it is allowed to become a major thought, it is the root of all evil and becomes a great lie. The word “we” enables the weak to steal from the strong and becomes a stone that crushes all those beneath it. Equality 7-2521 vows that he is finished with the old society and collectivism. He has seen the face of god, and he will raise it above the earth so that everyone may worship at its altar. His new god is “I.”

The end of this story was very interesting and allowed me to think back to Huck Finn because Equality 7-2521 always would refer to "we" and would live his life in a very structure way until he realized that there's other important things in life and the things that he was taught and those who he respected wasn't right. The same as Huck when he realized that treating Jim lower than a human and when realizes that he has emotion too and did things the way he wanted to do not what society made it seem like. Over all Anthem was a great book and i recommend it to everyone who likes to read about they way society is and someone who changes their values and go against everyone else.

ANTHEM BY: ANY RANO (1-50)

 A youth named Equality 7-2521 writes in a journal from underground, where he is alone in an abandoned railroad tunnel. He and his friend International 4-8818 discovered the tunnel when they were working as street sweepers behind the theater near the edge of the unnamed city where they live. Equality 7-2521, ignoring International 4-8818’s objections that it is forbidden because the Council has not allowed it, goes down into the tunnel to explore. He states that the tunnel must have been built by men during the Unmentionable Times of long ago, and therefore it must be an evil place. He is drawn to the train tracks that he finds there, and when he come out from the hole, he makes International 4-8818 promise not to tell anyone about the hole. International 4-8818, an artist who is strong and funny, is very upset by this idea because it might be forbidden, but out of a sense of loyalty to Equality 7-2521, he agrees, though even the sense of loyalty that he feels upsets him because preference of one person over another is not permitted by the Council.

Equality 7-2521 describes his childhood at the Home for Infants, where he lived with all the other boys of his age, in a white room with a hundred beds and nothing else in it. At the age of five, he moved to the Home of the students, where he lived until he was fifteen. He was a troubled child because he often fought with the other boys who lived there. His teachers disliked him because he was too smart, and the authorities chastised him because he was taller than the others. He tried to be like the other children, but his curse kept him from achieving normalcy. He especially tried to be like Union 5-3992, a dull and stupid boy in his class. His curse made him curious and pushed him to ask questions, which his teachers eventually forbade.
When he turned fifteen, Equality 7-2521, like all the other boys, was assigned his task for the remainder of his life by the Council of Vocations. Equality 7-2521 wanted to be assigned to the Home of the Scholars, who develop all technology for the society, including the candle, the most recent invention, discovered a century earlier. He wanted to be a scholar more than anything, even more than being a leader. Equality 7-2521 sinned by wanting, so he was forced with a profession that he didn't value, which was a street sweeper.

Reading the first few chapters of this novel I was extremely confused but well engaged in the reading because in the back of my mind I though about decorum, which this contained a lot of. It was so intriguing to know how strange this society was and how everything is so well organized. It reminded me of  "I-Robot" with Will Smith, the robots were trained to certain things and if they disobeyed they would basically be put down and just like Equality, because he "wanted" he has was considered to be a sinner and was forced to do something he didn't want to do.