Kirby,+Savannah

Final Blog Dec. 4, 2011  Imagine never being able to use the words "I," "me," "my," or "myself," and instead using "we." This is the case of the character Equality 7-2521 in //Anthem// by Ayn Rand, who lives in a society where such words are virtually unheard of. This book explores the journey of Equality 7-2521 as he daringly separates himself from a collective society and learns what it means to be an individual.  Ayn Rand's //Anthem// is the story of a young man named Equality 7-2521 who lives in a strict, communal futuristic society resembling a mix of the Dark Ages and a very extreme form of Communism. He does not fit in with his peers; there is something about him that stands out. He is assigned to be a street sweeper, but his real desire is to be a Scholar. Equality 7-2521 notices a young woman named Liberty 5-3000 and becomes attracted to her, although it is forbidden for men and women to take notice of each other. After discovering a secret underground hallway, he writes in a journal and conducts scientific experiments. He eventually invents an early version of the light bulb and is determined to present it to the Council of Scholars in hopes that he will become a Scholar with their approval. Of course, all of this goes against the laws of his community. The Council of Scholars find his invention pointless and scold him for blatantly breaking the law. Equality 7-2521 is enraged with their response and decides to run away from his society into the Uncharted Forest. It is said that men who walk into the Uncharted Forest never come back alive. He wanders alone through the Forest for about a day when he hears someone following him. It turns out to be Liberty 3-5000, explaining that she wanted to be with him wherever he went. The two trekked through the Forest together for days until they found an ancient house from the Unmentionable Times. Upon exploring it, they decide that it will be their new home. After reading many of the books that were left behind in his new home, Equality 7-2521 discovers the Unspeakable Word, "I," a word that had been completely eliminated from his old community. He makes many more self-realizations after that, but the most significant being that he is one person, one mind, one body, just one. Everything he does should be for his own will, not the will of others. Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 choose new names for themselves: Prometheus and Gaea. The two plan to tell other people from their old society who don't fit in, like them, about their new way of life and build a whole new community based on the idea of being one, rather than "we."  One theme that stood out to me is that sometimes breaking the rules can lead to good things. One example of this is that, although men and women were forbidden to speak to each other, Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 did anyway, and they fell in love, escaped their old community, and established a new life together. So in that sense, going against the law of their society was actually to their benefit.  Another theme that is present in //Anthem// is how collective societies can become dangerous. A collective society is a society that emphasizes the importance of "the whole" rather than "the individual." The society exhibited in the book was a collective one. It assigned people's names and occupations, dictated where people lived, who they spoke to, when and how babies were conceived, and completely deprived people of their individuality. However, I guess it really depends on which perspective you look at it from. One on hand, it's a completely messed up way to govern a region, but it also eliminates crime and rebellion (most of the time). In my opinion, this is a society that has taken collectivism way too far and needs to allow more liberty and independence.  The author wrote this book from the perspective of the main character, Equality 7-2521. I really liked that about it because it lets you get inside his mind and examine how he thinks and why he does the things he does. It shows you what kind of person he is and what his opinion is on certain things. I like first person perspective more than third person perspective because it is more personal and you can really get a feel for what they're like. I think if this book were written in third person, it wouldn't really make sense. There are some stories that just have to be written in first person, otherwise they're not very entertaining, and this is one of them.  The story line in the novel was very interesting and entertaining. I've read books about an individual breaking away from the pack, but the way this one is written makes it different. The author didn't give away too much in the beginning, which leaves the reader craving to find out what's going to happen. As stated before, the perspective makes it interesting. I liked how there was a love interest and that they ended up together. There was pretty much no foreshadowing in this book, which is a good thing because I didn't want to find out anything before it actually happened.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give this novel a 5. I was absolutely astounded after I finished reading it. The message at the end is so powerful and influential. The story line is also great, but I think the "anthem" at the end of the book adds so much to it.  <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Anthem// by Ayn Rand is a truly amazing book. The message, the style of writing, and the story line are all important factors that contribute to it's originality and profoundness. I really enjoyed this book and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a great story. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #9f0cd5; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**- Savannah K.** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #8 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Nov. 19, 2011

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have read 55 pages this week. I was unaware when I got this book that it contained some adult themes, so I will have to leave a lot of parts out of my summary because of this.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Winston had lunch with one of his comrades, Syme, a Party member who is working on a revised dictionary for Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Syme explained to him that the goal of Newspeak is to eliminate words that enable people to express independent thoughts, so that committing thoughtcrime will be impossible. If no one is able to think rebellious thoughts, no one will act upon them. Later, another comrade, Mr. Parsons, showed up and the three conversed for a while. In the cafeteria, Winston noticed the dark-haired girl from the previous day's Two Minutes Hate staring at him. He worried that she may be an agent for the Party spying on him.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Once again, Winston writes another entry in his diary. In this particular one, he states, "If there is hope, it lies in the proles." The proles are the lower class citizens of Oceania, who make up about 85% of the population, but the Party often does not consider them to be human beings. By the statement he wrote in his diary, Winston meant that any hope for a revolution against the Party can only come from the proles. This is because Party members are so closely watched that organizing a rebellion would be too difficult if they did not want to get caught. However, the proles possess neither the energy nor the interest to start a revolution. I can tell that the desire to rebel is building up inside Winston more and more as time goes by.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Later, Winston looked through a children's history book, to get an idea of what has really happened in the world. The Party claims that the post-revolution world in which they live is all-around better than the pre-revolution world - there is a higher literacy rate, lower infant mortality rate, and there is less poverty. Or so they say. Winston knows that the Party constantly alters the past in order to make the present seem better. But because he does not have a reliable record of the pre-revolution world, Winston becomes curious about it. He wants to find out what it was really like, to see if it really was worse than it is now.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Winston went for a little walk around the prole neighborhood, which is not illegal but very unusual. Some proles gave him strange looks because he was easily identifiable as a Party member in his blue overalls, the uniform of the Party. He enters a pub where he sees an old prole man. He views him as an opportunity to get a factual account of the past. However, the old man's mind is too focused on small details and he is not able to answer Winston's question: was life really worse before the revolution? After a few minutes of talking to him, Winston gives up and leaves the pub. He goes to the secondhand shop where he bought his diary from. He and Mr. Charrington, the shopkeeper, have a little conversation and Winston ends up buying an antique paperweight. Mr. Charrington takes him to a private room upstairs above the shop. He notices there is no telescreen in the room. Mr. Charrington tells him about a few memories of the St. Clements Church in London, and Winston decides it is time to head home.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">On his way home, Winston spots the dark-haired girl again. She looks him directly in the face and continues walking. Winston knew that it was too unusual to have been a coincidence. Party members do not normally wander about prole neighborhoods, and if one did, it was unlikely that they would encounter another one. He is now convinced that she is following and spying on him. Terrified, he hurries home and decides that it would be best to commit suicide before the Thought Police could arrest him, as many people have done before. He is aware that the Thought Police will brutally torture him before they kill him. He attempts to calm himself by thinking of O'Brien, and the dream he had about him when he said that they shall meet in the place where there is no darkness. Winston assumes this can only be one place - the imagined future.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am getting pretty interested in this book. I can tell that there is something significant about the dark-haired girl who Winston suspects is spying on him. I think that Winston's curiosity with the pre-revolution world will lead him to find out that life was, in fact, better than it is after the revolution. I predict that he and O'Brien will organize an army of proles and rebel against the Party in an effort to make life like it once was. I really hope that the Thought Police don't catch Winston, but they probably won't because then the story would just kind of end and that would be a terrible ending. Anyway, I've started Part II of the book and I'm really excited to find out how Winston will handle this situation.

<span style="color: #ff00c9; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**- Savannah K.**

Blog #7 Nov. 12, 2011

I have read 27 pages this week.

Upon opening the door, Winston is relieved to see that it is just Mrs. Parsons, his neighbor. He was worried that it may have been the Thought Police arriving to arrest him for writing in his diary. Mrs. Parsons came over to ask if he could repair her kitchen sink. She would have asked her husband to do it, but he was not home. In Mrs. Parsons's apartment, Winston finds her children to be rather bothersome, accusing him of thoughtcrime and treachery. He notices that they are part of the Youth League of Spies. From what I gather, the Youth League of Spies is an organization of children who monitor adults and report them to the Thought Police for thoughtcrime or disloyalty to the Party.

Back at his apartment, Winston recalled a dream he had years ago. He dreamed that he was walking through a pitch-black room, and someone was sitting to the side of him. As he passed by, they said, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." A while after he had the dream, he identified the voice to be O'Brien's. It was O'Brien who had spoken to him out of the dark. Later that night, he began to write in his diary again. He was addressing a letter to the people of the past/future. In the letter, he stated that "Thoughtcrime does not // entail // death: thought crime IS death" (29). He acknowledged that, because he had committed thoughtcrime, he was as good as dead.

That night, Winston had a dream that he was still a child and his mother an baby sister were on a sinking ship and he was watching them from above. In real life, he was about ten or eleven years old when his mother disappeared. He felt strangely responsible for his mother's disappearance almost thirty years ago. He had another dream that he was standing in an open pasture he calls the "Golden Country." The dark-haired girl that he had seen at the previous day's Two Minutes Hate was coming towards him across the field. And then something happened that is a little inappropriate for this blog... After the dream, he woke up with the word "Shakespeare" on his lips but he did not know why.

An ear-splitting whistle came from the telescreen, alerting all office workers it was 7:15, time to wake up. After three minutes, the Physical Jerks (morning exercises) began. A youngish woman was leading the Physical Jerks on the telescreen that day. While exercising, Winston thought about his childhood, which he could hardly remember. He considered Oceania's relationship with the other countries of the world, Eurasia and Eastasia. According to official history, which is often unreliable because the records are often changed, Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. However, Winston knew the records had been changed, because he could definitely remember a time when his country was not at war. As Winston was deep in thought, the woman on the telescreen yelled directly at him to try harder. His face remained inscrutable and he tried harder to touch his toes.

Later that morning, Winston arrived at his job at the Ministry of Truth. He thought a lot about vaporizations, an act in which the government vaporizes someone (deprives them of existence) because they have committed a crime. This is most often the case for thoughtcriminals. People who have been vaporized are called "unpersons." The only evidence of their past existence are their records, which are soon discarded after one's vaporization. Then, he had an idea. He created an unperson from his own imagination. His name was Comrade Ogilvy. He was an ideal Party man. Winston had thought up an entire life for this unperson, and it could never be determined whether or not he had really existed, since no records were kept. He concluded that "Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar" (48).

As I read, I am finding that there are a lot of really interesting concepts in this book, such as thoughtcrime, vaporization, unpersons, etc. I like the idea that Winston feels detached from his society, like he is the odd one out; I think everyone has felt that way before. I can tell that the pressure of committing thoughtcrime is overwhelming him. He knows that the Thought Police will soon arrest him and vaporize him. It almost seems like he is beginning to become paranoid about it. I am curious to find out how Winston will keep his secret and avoid the Thought Police, if that's even possible.

<span style="color: #ff8300; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">**- Savannah K.**

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Blog #6 Nov. 5, 2011

I have started a new book. It is called // 1984 // by George Orwell. I chose this novel because I have heard that is similar to the last book I read, // Anthem // by Ayn Rand. Another reason I chose it is because it is a classic dystopian fiction novel, and classic and dystopian fiction are two of my favorite genres. I got this book at the BHS library.

I have started reading a little bit of my book. So far I've only read the first chapter. In the beginning, the main character, Winston Smith, is returning home to his apartment. He lives in London, the chief city of Airstrip One, which is the third most populous of the provinces of Oceania. Since this book is set in the future (at the time it was written), the continents and countries of the earth have different names and borders than they do now. I think Airstrip One is what used to be England, because the "chief city" is London. Winston is described as thin, frail, and thirty-nine years old. As he is walking up the stairs to his flat, he sees on each landing a huge poster with a man's face on it reading "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." But this is not out of the ordinary. These posters are seen everywhere.

Once inside his home, he saw that the telescreen was on. The telescreen is "an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall" (3). It is similar to a television, except it can see every move he makes and hear every sound made above a low whisper. The telescreen is always on. It is the instrument through which the Thought Police monitor the actions of citizens. Outside his window, Winston saw The Ministry of Truth, his place of work. It was an enormous, glittering white pyramidal structure. From where he was standing it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face, the three slogans of the Party:

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Later, Winston took a small diary out of the drawer. He began to write, but he realized that this was an act of rebellion against the Party. If he were to be caught by the Thought Police, he could be punished by death. Still, he wrote. He described the films he saw the night before. He suddenly stopped and recalled what had happened that day at the Two Minutes Hate- an assembly during which the city's population gathers, watches recordings of "enemies" of the Party, and screams hateful things directed at them. At the end of the Hate, a picture of Big Brother flashed on the screen. This made all the people happy and they were no longer hateful. But inside, Winston knew that he loathed Big Brother and the Party. He briefly made eye contact with a man next to him named O'Brien, and for that split-second, he felt as though O'Brien had communicated that he, too, hated Big Brother.

Winston refocused on the page in his diary, realizing that he had written "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" several times on the page. He panicked for a moment because he knew that eventually the Thought Police would seize him and he would be punished for thoughtcrime, the most unpardonable of all crimes. Just then, there is a knock at the door. He is worried that it may be the Thought Police, already here to seize him.

I think Winston's diary entry illustrates his desire to separate from the Party. It kind of seems like he has been trying to hold back his hatred for a long time and just submit to their power, but he is slowly starting to let it out now. I think the eye on the cover is important to the novel because it symbolizes how the citizens are constantly being watched, as stated on the Big Brother posters.

I find this book really intriguing because I love reading about futuristic societies. I am a little confused about Big Brother and the Party and all the Ministries, but I think once I read some more I'll understand it better. My prediction is that Winston and O'Brien will lead a rebellion against Big Brother. I think the incident at the Two Minutes Hate foreshadows that. I am very interested to find out more about Winston's society and how it operates. I can tell this is going to be a very interesting and thought-provoking book.


 * - **** Savannah **** K. **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #5 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Oct. 29, 2011

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This week I finished my book.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">While reading some of the books he found in his new home, Equality 7-2521 discovered the word "I." When he understood the meaning of this word, the book he was reading fell from his hands and he wept. He wept in pity for all mankind, for they had never known nor spoken this word. Upon his discovery, he told the Golden One what he had read and what he had learned. She looked at him and the first words out of her mouth were "I love you."

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Because Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One now had their own identities, they chose new names for themselves. Names which would distinguish them from all others: Prometheus and Gaea. Prometheus chose this name because he had read about a man named Prometheus who lived thousands of years ago. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. I think this name is very appropriate for him because he also "took the light of the gods (electricity) and brought it to men" and he plans on "teaching men to be gods" as well. Gaea chose her name because Prometheus told her about a goddess that he had read about named Gaea, who was the mother of the earth and all of the gods. Prometheus told her that she is to be the mother of a new kind of gods.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">As I finished this novel, I quickly realized why it is titled "Anthem." This entire book is just one big anthem. An anthem of self-empowerment, breaking away from the pack, and the essential ego of every human being. However, this mostly applies to the last two chapters. In these chapters, Prometheus understands what it means to be "I" instead of "we."

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have never read a more profound and inspiring book before. Rarely can you find a book that will change the way you look at life, but this one does exactly that. It really makes you feel grateful for the simple fact that you are allowed to be your own person without the authorization of anyone else. It is now one of my favorite novels. I may even go as far as to say that it is my all time favorite novel. One of my favorite quotes from this book was said by Prometheus: " <span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction." <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Here, he declares that he no longer needs to be permitted to exist, rather, it is his own will to exist.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially teenagers, because it is very influential and enlivening. It is only about 100 pages long, so it doesn't take too long to read. There is a powerful message conveyed in this novel that I think everyone should be exposed to at some point in their lifetime.


 * <span style="color: #ff8300; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- <span style="color: #f21212; font-family: Georgia,serif;">S a<span style="color: #f9ef25; font-family: Georgia,serif;">v <span style="color: #01e001; font-family: Georgia,serif;">a <span style="color: #0070ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">n <span style="color: #9f0cd5; font-family: Georgia,serif;">n <span style="color: #ff00c9; font-family: Georgia,serif;">a <span style="color: #f21212; font-family: Georgia,serif;">h K<span style="color: #f9ef25; font-family: Georgia,serif;">. **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #4 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Oct. 22, 2011

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Equality 7-2521 has still been wandering around the Uncharted Forest all by himself. Before now, he had thought that the Forest was a scary and dangerous place where wild man-eating beasts roam, but he quickly found out this is not true at all. He felt a sense of freedom as he swung on the tree branches and laughed and shouted as he pleased. He enjoyed the thought of doing what he wanted, when he wanted, for no other purpose but his own pleasure.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">During Equality 7-2521's second day in the Forest, he heard someone following him. He hid behind some bushes until he discovered it was Liberty 5-3000. She told him that she had heard about how he wandered into the Uncharted Forest alone; the whole City was talking about it. She followed him because she wanted to be with him wherever he went. She finally found him after a day or two of following his footsteps in the ground. The two then began their own journey through the Forest together. This journey helped them build a more intimate relationship, get to know each other better, and ultimately, fall in love.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">While continuing to wander through the Forest, Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 discovered an ancient house from the Unmentionable Times that had not been destroyed from the fires of the Great Rebirth. After entering the house, they explored it and found many interesting things from the past like books and garments of clothing. Judging by the number of beds in the entire house, they assumed that only two people lived there. They found that very strange because in their old community, about twenty men would live in a single house together. They both knew at the same moment that this was the end of their journey, for they had found their new home.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am almost at the end of my book. I think there are like 2 chapters left. I am so excited to find out what will happen to Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 as they lead new lives in a new home. I predict that they will discover the Unspeakable Word: a word which, if spoken, is punishable by death (in their old community). The book does not say which word this is, but I think it is "I" or any other first-person pronoun.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">So far, I have two favorite lines from the book. The first<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> is when Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 are walking through the Uncharted Forest together, and he says to her,

<span class="quotation" style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"[My] dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude. We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their good and our evil, let us forget all things save that we are together and that there is joy as a bond between us. Give [me] your hand. Look ahead. It is our own world, Golden One, a strange unknown world, but our own" (83-84).

<span class="quotation" style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I love this line because it perfectly states the reason they left their old community. It is a very inspiring quote.

<span class="quotation" style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">My other favorite line is just a little bit later in the chapter, when Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 are still walking through the Forest, and she stops and says to him, "We love you...no...that is not what we wished to say...we are one...alone...and only...and we love you who are one...alone...and only" (86-87).

<span class="quotation" style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I like this line because here, Liberty 5-3000 is desperately trying to express some independence and emotion. She has been raised in a world where no one expresses love towards another or uses first person pronouns, and it is amusing to see her try. Also, I think the message she is trying to get across is very sweet.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #3 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Oct. 16, 2011

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This week I have read 25 pages.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Equality 7-2521 met with Liberty 5-3000 once again. He revealed to her that he calls her "The Golden One" in his thoughts, and found out that she, too, has a name for him in her thoughts: "The Unconquered."

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">As stated in my past entry, Equality 7-2521 has discovered underground ruins of a hallway from the Unmentionable Times. Each night, he sneaks away to the ruins and privately conducts scientific research or writes in his journal. He does this in privacy because it is a sin to think thoughts that no one else thinks, and he could be punished for doing so. While conducting research over a long period of time, Equality 7-2521 discovered electricity. He eventually learned how to harness this power and turn it into an early version of a light bulb.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Instead of being a street sweeper, Equality 7-2521 would rather be a Scholar because of his passion for knowledge. He plans on taking his newly-invented light bulb to the World Council of Scholars meeting, even though only scholars are allowed to attend. He presumes that the World Council of Scholars will be amazed by his discovery and immediately invite him to be a Scholar.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">He could not have been more wrong. The reaction of the Scholars to his invention was disastrous. At first they were scared of it, but after Equality 7-2521 explained to them that it could not harm them, they were furious. The oldest and wisest Scholar, Collective 0-0009, exclaimed,

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"We have much to say to a wretch who have broken all the laws and who boast of their infamy! How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom that the minds of your brothers? And if the Councils had decreed that you should be a street sweeper, how dared you think that you could be of greater use to men than in sweeping the streets?" (71-72).

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Unanimity 2-9913 said, "This [the light bulb] would wreck the Plans of the World Council, and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise. It took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the Candle, and to decide upon the number needed, and to re-fit the Plans so as to make candles instead of torches. This touched upon thousands and thousands of men working in scores of States. We cannot alter the plans again so soon" (74).

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">These responses enraged Equality 7-2521. He cried, "You fools! You thrice-damned fools!" (74), while punching his fist through a window and escaping.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">He eventually found himself lying down on the ground in the Uncharted Forest next to his light bulb that he had taken with him. He lied there for a while, but eventually got up and wandered further into the forest, thinking he would never be seen or heard of by any of this brothers again.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am eager to find out what happens next concerning Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. I predict that they will fall in love regardless of all the strict rules of their dreadful community.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #2 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Oct. 6, 2011

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The main character/narrator's name is Equality 7-2521. He is 21 years old, six feet tall, and a street sweeper. He lives in a society where being different and standing out is looked down upon. Equality 7-2521 feels isolated and detached from his peers (his "brothers" as he calls them) because he is different. He is taller and more intelligent than all his brothers. He has a passion for learning and gaining knowledge, unlike his brothers. In Equality 7-2521’s community, it is a sin to be different or better than your brothers and to think thoughts that your brothers do not think.

Equality 7-2521 is secretly in love with a woman named Liberty 5-3000. While working as a street sweeper, he has seen her tending to the fields. However, in their society, men are forbidden to take notice of women, and women are forbidden to take notice of men. People do not marry. Equality 7-2521 refers to Liberty 5-3000 as “The Golden One” in his thoughts, because of her golden hair. The two have only spoken once, discreetly, because they could be punished for being caught speaking to each other.

Equality 7-2521 discovered ruins from the past. He found a ladder that led to a mysterious underground hallway, exposing secrets from the “Unmentionable Times.” The book does not clarify when these times occurred, but my guess is that it refers to our current times. He describes,

“And as we look upon the Uncharted Forest far in the night, we think of the secrets of the Unmentionable Times. And we wonder how it came to pass that these secrets were lost to the world. We have heard the legends of the great fighting, in which many men fought on one side and only a few on the other. These few were the Evil Ones and they were conquered. Then great fires raged over the land. And in these fires the Evil Ones and all things made by the Evil Ones were burned. And the fire which is called the Dawn of the Great Rebirth, was the Script Fire where all the scripts of the Evil Ones were burned, and with them all the words of the Evil Ones. Great mountains of flame stood in squares of the Cities for three months. Then came the Great Rebirth” (49).

I think the “Great Rebirth” he is talking about is some fictional future war that completely changes the world as we know it. Modern technology is eliminated, the use of the word “I” is a thing of the past, and individuality ceases to exist.

This week I have read 33 pages. So far I am enjoying this book. It's really interesting and it's hard to put down once you start reading.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #1 Sept. 26, 2011 I am reading // Anthem // by Ayn Rand. I chose this book because one of my friends recommended it to me. I found this book at the school library. My friend told me a little about this book and gave away a few important aspects, but there is still a lot I don't know about it. The narrator of this book refers to himself as "we" instead of "me" and uses "our" instead of "my." Ex. "Our name is Equality 7-2521. We are 21 years old." In the beginning of the book, he is telling about his community, which seems to be a strange futuristic society. However, it is not the super-advanced, technological futuristic society most people think of. The way he describes it kind of sounds like the Dark Ages mixed with a very exaggerated form of Communism. From what I've read, this book reminds me of // The Giver // by Lois Lowry; people are assigned their names and jobs, they wear togas, and the idea of standing out from the crowd is highly discouraged. Judging by the title and what I've been told by my friend, I can predict that this book has something to do with an individual breaking away from a collective society.