Anthem

Quotes

Anthem Famous Quotes Explained

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Quotes Anthem Famous Quotes Explained

“I am. I think. I will.”

Equality 7-2521 utters these words after he discovers the word “I” in Chapter XI. After proceeding through all his life using the word “we” to refer to himself, for the first time he experiences freedom and the joy that accompanies it. Once he is able to express himself using his new word, Equality 7-2521 is able to imagine a whole new life for himself and the Golden One, in which they live on their own land and eat food they produce. Rand believes the “I” must be the primary thought of the individual, while the “we” can be a second thought, at best. When the two are reversed, society becomes oppressive rather than liberating for men, and the dystopian world presented in Anthem comes into being. When the “I” is allowed to maintain its primacy, the world has beauty because the individual sees it and has meaning because the individual wills it. An individual who realizes his or her own self-worth lives only for him- or herself and for the “I” Equality 7-2521 first expresses here.