Anthem

Equality 7-2521 is writing, which is against the law, as he has not been assigned to work as a writer by the Council of Vocations—the branch of government that assigns careers. Equality 7-2521 has committed other crimes, including spending time alone, and faces uncertain punishments if he is caught. He is writing from an underground tunnel using a stolen candle for light. If discovered with the stolen candle, he would face 10 years in the Palace of Corrective Detention. Equality 7-2521 is 21 and is six feet tall, which is considered socially unacceptable because he is taller than most of his peers. He is also cursed with curiosity, a quality that is anathema to the society in which he lives. Equality 7-2521 repeats the slogan on the Palace of the World Council, which reads “We are all one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great we, One, indivisible forever” (5), but it has not helped. The World Council is the governing body that took over after the Great Rebirth, but Equality 7-2521 knows little about the times before the Great Rebirth, as it is illegal to talk of the Unmentionable Times.