Summary
Several days later, Equality 7-2521 begins
writing in his journal for the first time since he entered the Uncharted
Forest. As he is walking through the forest, Equality 7-2521 hears
footsteps behind him and discovers that the Golden One has followed
him into the forest. He asks her how she came to be in the forest,
and she answers, swaying with her fists at her side, only that she
has found him. He asks her again, and she tells him that she has
followed him because she heard talk all over the city of his encounter
with the World Council of Scholars and his fleeing into the Uncharted
Forest.
The Golden One is tattered from the journey through the
forest, but she is not weary or afraid. She tells Equality 7-2521 she
wants to share in his damnation and to follow him wherever he goes.
Her voice is bitter and triumphant as she tells him that he is harder, prouder,
and more beautiful than her brothers. She begs him to do what he
will with her but not to send her away, and she bows in front of
him. He raises her to her feet and kisses her, amazed by the very
idea of kissing. They stand together for a long time.
Equality 7-2521 tells the Golden
One that there is nothing to fear in the forest or in their solitude,
and he suggests that they forget their brothers and remember only
that they are together and have joy between them. He declares the
world their own, and they walk through the forest hand in hand.
That night they have sex, and Equality 7-2521 realizes
that sex is the only ecstasy in a man’s life.
Equality 7-2521 and the Golden
One walk for several days together and make bows and arrows to kill
birds. At night, they sleep in a ring of campfires, to keep out
the beasts. They plan to stop and build a house some day, and they
see their days together as endless. When Equality 7-2521 begins
to be puzzled by his new life, he hurries ahead and forgets his
troubles as he watches the Golden One following him. She is completely
obedient to him and does not question him about anything.
For the first time in his life, Equality 7-2521 begins
to doubt the laws he was taught by the society in which he lived.
He questions how it can be that everything that is solitude is evil
when he and the Golden One are pursuing solitude in such happiness.
He observes that the only things that have ever given him joy in
his life are the lightbulb and the Golden One, neither of which
has anything to do with his brothers. He concludes that both these
joys come from himself alone. He also begins to suspect that there
is some error in the way he has been thinking up to this point,
that there is some word that is missing from his vocabulary, but
he does not know what it is.
The Golden One tries to tell Equality 7-2521 that
she loves him, but she does not know how to say the word “I.” She
tells him that “[w]e love you,” but she is not satisfied with this
articulation of her feelings, and she gropes for something more
personal but does not know how to express it. The moment leaves
both of them feeling confused.
