The Importance of Freedom Exposed in AnthemIn the novel Anthem, Ayn Rand writes about the future dark ages. Anthem takes place in the city of a technologically backward totalitarian society, where humanity is born in the house of infants and dies in the house of the useless. Just imagine, being born into a life of slavery with no freedom, no means of expression, no ego. The city represented slavery. While in town, Equality had been guilty of many transgressions. He wasn't like his brothers, he was different, he was smarter, healthier and stronger. At the age of five, he walked over to the student's house, where he was reprimanded for learning faster than his brothers. Equality teachers told him that he had evil in his bones because he was taller than his brothers. Then, at the age of fifteen, when the vocation house opened, Egalité was guilty of the great transgression of preference because he wanted to be a scholar, but his chosen vocation was to be street sweeper. Every day as he walked the fields he would look and smile at Liberty and she would smile back. Liberty was a woman who worked in the peasants' house. Making contact with a woman was prohibited except in the mating palace. The mating palace was where people were forced to reproduce. Equality believed that touching a woman was shameful and ugly. Th! ne day, while he was sweeping the streets, he found a grate that led to an underground tunnel filled with things from unspeakable times. For two years he went into the tunnel and discovered a new glowing light. Then one day, while in the tunnel, he decided he had to share his secret with his brothers. He decided he would bring his secret before the world council meeting. When Equality entered the world council meeting, the scholars were frightened and angry. They asked him to tell them why he was there. He connected the wires and they glowed, the scholars leaning against the wall as they watched in horror. They told him they were going to punish him for breaking so many laws. Equality trembled in fear, he quickly grabbed the light and ran towards the unexplored forest. No man followed them because they feared the unknown.