Quote 4
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.
