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Anthem Identity Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #1 We are one in all and all in one. |
According to Equality 7-2521's society, whose motto this is, individuals have no identity of their own. They're not allowed to act as individuals, or to think of their lives as unique and self-guided. Instead, the only real identity they have is the group identity, the "great WE." Everybody thinks of himself or herself only as a member of one big, indivisible Collective 0-0009. That's why they all speak only in the first-person plural…
| Quote #2 We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. (1.15) |
As Equality 7-2521 tells us here, in his society, no one has any purpose for living besides the Collective 0-0009, the State. They live to serve the Collective 0-0009, and it's only because of their service to the Collective 0-0009 that they're allowed to live. They have no projects of their own.
| Quote #3 We looked upon Union 5-3992, who were a pale boy with only half a brain, and we tried to say and do as they did, that we might be like them, like Union 5-3992, but somehow the Teachers knew that we were not. (1.18) |
Equality 7-2521 finds himself at odds with the Collective 0-0009 because he's smarter than everyone else and begins to stand apart from the Collective 0-0009 as an individual. He's punished for this, and feels so guilty about it that he tries to imitate another person who doesn't stand out from the Collective 0-0009 in any way. He's trying to get away from his own identity as an individual. But Equality 7-2521 is not able to escape who he is – his imitation of Union 5-3992 doesn't fool the teachers. Individual identity can't just be willed away.
