chapter 5
We made it. We created it. We brought it forth from the night of
the ages. We alone. Our hands. Our mind. Ours alone and only.

We know not what we are saying. Our head is reeling. We look upon
the light which we [-have-] {+had+} made. We shall be forgiven for anything we
say [-tonight.-] {+tonight .+} . . .

Tonight, after more days and trials than we can count, we
finished building a strange thing, from the remains of the
Unmentionable Times, a box of glass, devised to give forth the
power of the sky of greater strength than we had ever achieved
before. And when we put our wires to this box, when we closed the
current--the wire glowed! It came to life, it turned red, and a
circle of light lay on the stone before us.

We stood, and we held our head in our hands. We could not
conceive of that which we had created. We had touched no flint,
made no fire. Yet here was light, light that [-come-] {+came+} from nowhere,
light from the heart of metal.

We blew out the candle. Darkness swallowed us. There was nothing
left around us, nothing save night and a thin thread of flame in
it, as a crack in the wall of a prison. We stretched our hands to
the wire, and we saw our fingers in the red glow. We could not
see our body nor feel it, and in that moment nothing existed save
our two hands over a wire glowing in a black abyss.

Then we thought of the meaning of that which lay before us. We
can light our tunnel, and the City, and all the Cities of the
world with nothing save metal and wires. We can give our brothers
a new light, cleaner and brighter than any they have ever known.
The power of the sky can be made to do men's bidding. There are
no limits to its secrets and its might, and it can be made to
grant us anything if we but choose to ask.

Then we knew what we must do. Our discovery is too great for us
to waste our time in sweeping [-the-] streets. We must not keep our
secret to ourselves, nor buried under the ground. We must bring
it into the sight of all men. We need all our time, we need the
work rooms of the Home of the Scholars, we want the help of our
brother Scholars and their wisdom joined to ours. There is so
much work ahead for all of us, for all the Scholars of the world.

In a month, the World Council of Scholars is to meet in our City.
It is a great Council, to which the wisest of all lands are
elected, and it meets once a year in the different Cities of the
earth. We shall go to this Council and we shall lay before them,
as our gift, [-this-] {+the+} glass box with the power of the sky. We shall
confess everything to them. They will see, understand and
forgive. For our gift is greater than our transgression. They
will explain it to the Council of Vocations, and we shall be
assigned to the Home of the Scholars. This has never been done
before, but neither has a gift such as ours ever been offered to
men.

We must wait. We must guard our tunnel as we had never guarded it
before. For should any men save the Scholars learn of our secret,
they would not understand it, nor would they believe us. They would
see nothing, save our crime of working alone, and they would destroy
us and our light. We care not about our body, but our light [-is . . .-] {+is...+}

Yes, we do care. For the first time [-do-] we {+do+} care about our body.
For this wire is [-as-] a part of our body, as a vein torn from us,
glowing with our blood. Are we {+are+} proud of this thread of metal,
or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these [-two?-]
{+two.+}

We stretch out our arms. For the first time do we know how strong
our arms are. And a strange thought comes to us: we wonder, for
the first time in our life, what we look like. Men never see
their own faces and never ask their brothers about it, for it is
evil to have concern for their own faces or bodies. But tonight,
for a reason we cannot fathom, we wish it were possible to us to
know the likeness of our own person.






gradesaver
Equality 7-2521 is stunned because he has created something new by himself. After countless days and failed attempts, he has managed to use the artifacts from the Unmentionable Times to construct a glass box which can harness his previously discovered power of the sky. Whenever he connects wires to the box and closes the current, the wire glows in a circle of light. He is amazed because it shines light without the help of a fire. He blows out the candle and can see his fingers against the wire's red light, and he becomes unaware of anything except for his hands above the light. He realizes that he can now light his tunnel as well the Cities and thus give everyone a new, cleaner, and brighter light. Man can harness the power to his will, and he knows that he must not keep his secret to himself and continue working only at night. He wants to join the other Scholars in finding new aspects of his discovery. In a month, the World Council of Scholars is coming to their annual meeting, and this particular meeting will be in his city. He decides to gift the Council with his invention and confess everything, believing that they will forgive him for his transgressions. Then, he imagines, the Council of Scholars will have the Council of Vocations reassign him to the Home of the Scholars, even though reassignment never occurs. Equality 7-2521 decides to wait until the World Council and guard his tunnel, knowing that if anyone other than a Scholar were to find the secret, that person will not understand the significance of the glass box. Instead, Equality 7-2521 and his light will be destroyed because of his crime. For the first time, he cares not only about the light but about his own survival, because his body and his invention are connected. He stretches his arms, feeling their power, and he suddenly wishes to know the details of his own appearance, although it is evil to look at his own body or ask others about it.
In Rand's original drafts of Anthem, she opened the paragraph describing Equality 7-2521's invention of a primitive light bulb in a different manner: "The Light! . . . Here, under our hands, at our bidding, the light of the sky, the light to set the earth aglow, the Light smokeless and flameless and unquenchable!" . The revised version states more succinctly, "We made it. We created it. We brought it forth from the night of the ages. We alone. Our hands. Our mind. Ours alone and only," thus shifting the emphasis away from the invention of the light itself and more closely to the achievement of Equality 7-2521. Similarly, she decapitalizes "the Light," and, in its stead, she equates light with the more basic idea of self. The chapter marks the height of the first crescendo of optimism and exuberance in Anthem's narrative arc. If Chapter Three recounted Equality 7-2521's rediscovery of Enlightenment principles, then Equality 7-2521's achievements in this section clearly echo the work of Thomas Edison, the prolific American inventor of the first practical light bulb. He consequently moves from the Enlightenment era to the period of the Industrial Revolution, further pulling out of the mental Dark Age of his rearing. He observes the light within the context of darkness, and he experiments with the glass box in order to provide a glimpse of knowledge in a world that has lost much of its technology and understanding of nature. In a feat of human ingenuity, he does so in an extremely oppressive environment. Although Equality 7-2521's invention of the glass box is in part remarkable because he arrives at it without any support from society, Rand depicts him as succeeding because of as well as in spite of his lonely surroundings. The creation of the light causes him to be aware of and take pride in the strength of his own body, and the glass box becomes the emblem of his self-love. He concludes the chapter by wishing to know about his own appearance because he suspects correctly that his body reflects his inner strength and superiority, much as the Golden One's exterior exhibits her heroic qualities. Despite the reinforcement to Equality 7-2521's sense of ego through the construction of the glass box, he has not entirely freed himself of the paradigms of his civilization. He no longer feels guilty about sneaking away and personally working toward his own achievement, but he still believes to some extent in his culture's doctrine that all work should be for the purpose of serving others. He rationalizes the discrepancy between his discovery and his society's morality by explaining that his invention is important because it will serve all of humanity. He is correct, but events later in the novel will cause him to understand that he values the light first for its own sake as the result of his production and only second as a herald of technology. While still exulting in the value his self, Equality 7-2521 nevertheless does not continue to think of his experimentation as a solitary affair. Instead, he dreams of being welcomed into the Home of the Scholars and joining with them in a cooperative effort to develop more uses of electricity. This remaining vestige of Equality 7-2521's belief in collectivism could serve as a hooking point which will contain the danger he poses to his dystopian communist society. However, the fear and shortsightedness inherent in collectivism will prevent them from accepting him and thus ending his radicalization.
shmoop
Amazingly, Equality 7-2521 has made an electric light. More specifically, he's made a "box of glass" that bears a suspicious resemblance to a light bulb. Equality 7-2521 is thrilled: he can light all of the Cities in the world with his new invention. He can do it with nothing but metal and wires. He wants to share his secret with the others, and he wants the Scholars to help him develop and spread his invention. Equality 7-2521 decides that he will go to the World Council of Scholars, which is supposed to happen in a month in his very own City. There, he'll present his invention. He'll also confess everything. He thinks that he's sure to be forgiven, since he came up with something so great. But Equality 7-2521 also decides he has to guard his tunnel until then. If anybody sees it besides a Scholar, his invention might be in danger. Equality 7-2521 cares a great deal about his light. He also recognizes for the first time that he cares about his body, which made it. The light is almost like an extension of his body. He wonders for the first time what he actually looks like, because he's never seen himself before. Mirrors are apparently evil too.
cliffnotes
After countless nights of experimenting, Equality 7-2521 succeeds in harnessing the power of electricity to re-invent the electric light. It is light in a rudimentary form: A box of glass that glows when its wires are connected. This power can be harnessed to benefit society. But how is he to convince others of this great new boon? He knows many will fear his discovery; worse, the authorities will be enraged at his transgression, at his daring to think and work alone. He believes the Scholars are the only ones who will understand and recognize the merit of his invention. When the World Council of Scholars convenes in his city, he will present to them, as his gift, the "glass box with the power of the sky." The Scholars will explain the value of the invention to the Council of Vocations, and it will reassign Equality 7-2521 to the Home of the Scholars. A new thought strikes him: He cares, for the first time, what becomes of his body. He wonders, for the first time in his life, what he looks like. Men never see their own faces in this society, and are forbidden to ask their brothers. They have been taught that it is evil to have concern for their own faces and bodies. But now, for some reason he does not understand, he desires to see his face.
Equality 7-2521 can be thought of as the Thomas Edison of his age, the man who discovers how to employ the power of electricity to generate light. But the conditions under which Equality 7-2521 conducts his research are vastly more difficult. He must sneak around, concealing his precious work as though it was a guilty secret. He has only three hours at night for his studies, after working all day as a Street Sweeper. He crouches alone in a dimly lit, ill-equipped tunnel. He forages and steals what supplies he can. He has nobody with whom to brainstorm and discuss his ideas. He receives no moral support from his society -- only its opposite, the threat of punishment and death if caught. In short, the harsh conditions under which Equality 7-2521 carries out his work underscore an important truth regarding innovators: They are motivated solely by their love of the work. Equality 7-2521 loves science. He burns with passion to study it and understand nature's secrets. Researchers and inventors follow their own vision, their own truth. Equality 7-2521 is pleased that his electric light will benefit society, but society's gain is not the primary motivating factor of his work. Rather, his own personal values impel him, the importance that he -- alone among the members of this society -- places on this creative work. Ayn Rand shows that creative work is personal, not social. When personal values are extirpated from an individual's life, he or she cannot engage in creative work. As a consequence of holding and reaching values of his own, Equality 7-2521 experiences the previously unknown sensation of pride. When he gazes upon the wires glowing in the dark, he is filled with a sense of his accomplishment. He thinks of the wires as veins torn from his body. The invention is merely an extension of his self, something brought into existence by his mind and his hands. A powerful experience of self-love fills him -- a creator's recognition of achievement and of the value possessed by the one who accomplishes it. This sense of self worth is why, for the first time, he desires to see his face and know what he looks like. The recognition of his inner beauty leads him to expect that his external demeanor will match it. He recognizes that he and he alone created this invention -- that it was his brain and his hands that brought the light into existence. He knows that his brothers contributed nothing but the obstacles. Equality 7-2521 moves one step closer to recognizing the reality of individuality, that human beings are not mere appendages of a faceless, social mass. Clearly to him, only one man invented the light -- "we" did not accomplish it -- and it enables him to further question his lifelong indoctrination by society. He is almost ready to throw off the tyranny of "we," and to discover the lost and sacred Unspeakable Word. Glossary The Box of Glass rudimentary form of an electric light that Equality 7-2521 has re-invented. Though he knows little about electricity, he recognizes that lightning is caused by the same force that generates the light.
sparknotes
Equality 7-2521 discovers how to make a lightbulb work. He believes he alone has made light. He has found the materials for making the lightbulb in the tunnel where he is hiding, and he has used wires to make electricity flow through the lightbulb and produce light. He is amazed that the light has come from the heart of the metal, without flint or fire. He compares the glowing flint to the crack in the walls of a prison. Equality 7-2521 realizes the meaning of the lightbulb--that he can provide clean and bright light for all the cities in the world--and he determines that his discovery is too important not to be shared with the world. He concludes that electricity is the key to harnessing nature's power and that he must bring it to the world. Equality 7-2521 also concludes that he must be allowed into the Home of the Scholars, where there are rooms to experiment and where he can ask the help of the other scholars, in whom he has great faith. He concludes that there is enough work ahead that all the scholars of the world should work together to make progress with his new invention. A month later, the World Council of Scholars, a group of the wisest scholars from all over the world, is to convene for its annual meeting, and this year, the meeting is in Equality 7-2521's city. He resolves to go to the World Council and show them his invention. He will tell the council members the whole story of its discovery, and he believes they will be so impressed that they will forgive him for all his sins and transgressions. He decides that the World Council will speak to the Council of Vocations and have him reassigned from street sweeper to scholar so that he may continue his research. Equality 7-2521 resolves to guard his tunnel with his life because no one but the World Council of Scholars will understand the significance of the light, and the light is the most important thing. In mid-thought, he suddenly realizes that he cares about his body. He believes the lightbulb is a part of his physical being and he wants to see the body that helped bring the bulb into existence. Until this point, he has never seen his body, but now he stretches out his arms and legs and realizes his own strength. Despite knowing that it is wrong to want it, he wants to see his own reflection
Equality 7-2521's belief that the lightbulb is too significant not to be shared, a belief that comes to have disastrous consequences for him, represents exactly the kind of thinking against which Rand is writing. He thinks that the lightbulb, a technological innovation, can be the crack in the wall of his prison, a way to reach all the members of his society and share with them what he has discovered in his tunnel. Rand shows, through Equality 7-2521, how such thinking leads to painful results. She believes that invention and progress are worthy not because they help the masses but rather in and of themselves, because they are the result of the individual mind working and expressing itself. This section is the most hopeful part of the novella, and it is in this section that we most identify with Equality 7-2521. Here, he still wants to make the world a better place for himself and for his brothers, and he believes he has a way to do so. Moreover, the harsh punishment visited on Equality 7-2521 when he returns late from the tunnel and will not tell the Council where he has been foreshadows the violence that we fear will be brought to bear against him at the World Council. Though Rand claims not to have imbued Anthem with a traditional structure, this section, in which we sympathize with Equality 7-2521, builds the story's tension and gives us the expectation of a climax in the coming confrontation with the World Council of Scholars. Equality 7-2521's sense of self-worth is entirely caught up in the significance of the lightbulb, as is the proper result, in Rand's view, of allowing for individual benefit from individual discovery. Equality 7-2521's increasing vanity and his desire to know his own strength are related to his belief that he has discovered something important and that his body is worth knowing. Thus, even after he has been beaten, he revels in his own strength at not succumbing to the beating and revealing his tunnel and the lightbulb. He harnesses his own strength at the same time he harnesses the strength of electricity, and he takes equal pride in both. His willingness to suffer for the lightbulb stems from his belief that the invention is an extension of his own physical being and is more important than his own body, which he has only recently begun to value. The scene in the Palace of Corrective Detention in which Equality 7-2521 is flogged while bound naked to a post directly correlates to the Christian story about the scourging of Christ at the pillar. In the Christian story, Christ is dragged before the Roman authorities, stripped of his clothes, and beaten mercilessly at a pillar while being mocked by Roman soldiers shortly before being crucified. Rand uses the scene here to heighten our sense that Equality 7-2521 is a new prophet who must suffer great abuses, at the hands of tormenters, in the interest of his beliefs. By comparing Equality 7-2521 to Christ, Rand may offend some readers who believe that Christ is the son of God and that such comparisons are irreverent, and she may well have intended to give offense. She often said she was trying to reclaim religious language from religion, in order to prove that it was possible to worship an ideal without believing in the supernatural. The blatant comparison that this scene at the post invites is an attempt to reclaim religious imagery as well, just as is the heavy-handed image of Equality 7-2521 as the bringer of light to the world. This section, like others in the novella, contains countless contrasting pairs, which emphasize, often blatantly, the battle between shapeless, nameless evil and vain, proud good. Specifically, Equality 7-2521's high emotion and proud intentions contrast directly with the Council's boredom while sentencing him to the Palace of Corrective Detention. The violence of the Council also contrasts with Equality 7-2521's passive resistance. Similarly, the light of the bulb, weak though it is, significantly outshines the darkness of a society lit only by candles. Furthermore, Equality 7-2521's care in protecting his tunnel stands in opposition to the carelessness of those in charge of guarding the Palace of Corrective Detention. These pairings further highlight Rand's belief that everything about Equality 7-2521 makes different from those around him. Society wallows in apathetic, dim insecurity, while Equality 7-2521 covetously guards his precious light. In these pairings, society always comprises the weaker half, with much less invested, while Equality 7-2521, fighting bitterly and to the death for his ideals, always comprises the stronger half.
novelguide
Here, Equality 7-2521 finishes his creation of the box, which uses an electric current to give off light. In humanistic, enlightenment terms, he describes the power of electricity : "There are no limits to its secrets and its might, and it can be made to grant us anything if we but chose to ask." If anywhere in the book, this statement sums up Rand's view of man and human potential. Soon Equality 7-2521 decides to reveal this box to the Council of Scholars, and though he knows he has committed a sin in developing such a device apart from others, he believes that his gift of electricity will outweigh his transgression.