Everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from one is evil. Thus we have been taught with our first breath.
We have broken the law, but we have never doubted it.
Yet now, as we walk the forest, we are learning to doubt.
In
keeping with today’s theme of ‘forests and the
pastoral in literature,’ I was quite reminded of the wonderful role that
pastorals and forests play in literatures from across the world! Right from
Kalidasa’s and Shakespeare’s works, forests have always been represented as
places of solitude, freedom and peace, and as transformative and therapeutic
locales!
Ayn Rand’s gripping novella titled Anthem is one such delightful case in
point.
The novella is a dystopian story, taking place
in some remote time in the future, in a place where freedom and individual
rights have been stifled and completely dispensed with. Collectivism has
replaced individualism! [Collectivism, again, is the political philosophy that
prioritizes the society and state over the individual, and that the individual
exists only to serve the state, and not the other way round!]
Hence, the 21-year old protagonist who goes by
the peculiar name, Equality 7-2521,
uses only plural pronouns ("we", "our", "they")
to refer to himself and to others.
Like all the other children in this collectivist
society, Equality 7-2521 was also
brought up, away from his parents, in collective homes.
Equality
feels that he has a ‘curse’ on him, that makes him very receptive to any
subject that’s being taught, and as a result so many questions pop up in his
‘scholarly’ bent of mind! Since he is also proficient in the Science of Things,
he dreams that one day he would become a Scholar of high merit! But sadly, the Council
of Vocations assigns him the job of being a Street Sweeper all through his
life.
Equality,
in a resigned tone, sadly accepts his street sweeping assignment, but at the
same time, never ceases to work secretly all the time, on his hide-out tunnel,
which he uses as a lab for all his scientific experiments. He also has his
first tryst with love as a sweeper, while cleaning the roads. He meets Liberty 5-3000, a 17-year-old girl,
with dark eyes and golden hair. He names her "The Golden One".
Soon, Equality
gets his ‘eureka’ moment, when he finds to his delight that, a glass box with
wires gives off light when he passes electricity through it! At long last now,
he is so happy that he has rediscovered electricity.
Overjoyed, he resolves to take his rare
discovery to the World Council of
Scholars, expecting them to crown him a Scholar, by acknowledging his
invaluable discovery. But sadly, as ill luck would have it, his absence from
the Home of the Street Sweepers is suddenly noticed, and he is mercilessly
flogged and detained in the Palace of Corrective Detention.
And just into the previous night when the World
Council of Scholars is all set to convene, Equality manages to escape from his
detention centre, and at last manages to present his discovery to the World
Council of Scholars.
Ironically, again, the World Council of
‘Scholars’ are shocked beyond measure to know that he has done ‘unauthorized
research,’ and they condemn him promptly as a "gutter cleaner" and
recommend strong punishment for him! [Well, if any inventor/s of today comes to
your mind, it’s gotta be purely a coincidence, I swear!!!]
The World Council of Scholars plot together to
destroy his rare discovery of sorts so that, it will not harm the plans of the
Department of Candles. Equality, then, in a fit of rage, curses the World Council
of Scholars, and makes good his escape, fleeing into the forest that lies
outside of the City.
In the forest, Equality for the first time,
enjoys and celebrates his new-found freedom. He is rest assured that he will
not be tracked by anyone into this forest, as it was considered a lonely and
hence a forbidden place. His only sob and sigh was that, he missed out badly on
his heartthrob, whom he calls the Golden One. Much to his delightful surprise,
just into his second day in the forest, the Golden One appears; she had
followed him into the forest. And well, is it all’s well that ends well? That
part, you’ve gotta read it for yourself, ladies and gentlemen of the readies’
garden!
Equality
now develops a new sense of identity, on entering the forest. He realizes, much
to his happiness, that he need not wake up every morning along with others to
sweep through the streets. His forest life gives him a new sense of identity, a
liberated identity, that connects him with the world in a better way, in the
beautiful thickets and woods of the sylvan forestscape!
Some of the most blessed lines from the book for
y’all –
Wait Please!
Before you read some lovely lines from the text
given below, please take time to notice the fact that Equality still does not know how to use the personal pronoun! He
continues to use only plural pronouns ("we", "our",
"they") to refer to himself and to others.
Now let’s hear Equality speak – (this, after his
heartthrob, the Golden One joins him in the forest)!
We stood together for a long time. And we were
frightened that we had lived for twenty-one years and had never known what joy
is possible to men.
Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest.
There is no danger in solitude.
And that night we knew that to hold the body of
a woman in our arms is neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted
to the race of men.
We have walked for many days. The forest has no
end, and we seek no end.
We go on and we bless the earth under our feet.
But questions come to us again, as we walk in silence. If that which we have
found is the corruption of solitude, then what can men wish for save
corruption? If this is the great evil of being alone, then what is good and
what is evil?
Everything which comes from the many is good.
Everything which comes from one is evil. Thus we have been taught with our
first breath.
We have broken the law, but we have never
doubted it. Yet now, as we walk the forest, we are learning to doubt.
What better way to end this delightful Anthem?
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