The story of Anthem takes place in some unspecified future time and place in which freedom and individual rights have been obliterated. Collectivism—the political philosophy holding that an individual exists solely to serve the state—is dominant and has led to the establishment of a global dictatorship of the Fascist or Communist variety.
Equality 7-2521 is a Street Sweeper of the city, having been chosen for this profession by the Council of Vocations. However, he has always been fascinated by the phenomena of nature and can’t help but wonder what power of the sky causes lightning and how it can be harnessed to human benefit. Because of his fascination with the Science of Things, he secretly desires to be sent to the Home of the Scholars. He has been taught that it is a sin to harbor secret ambitions, and so believes he is guilty, though strangely, he feels no pangs of wrongdoing.
One day while sweeping the streets, Equality 7-2521 comes upon a metal grill leading down into a dark tunnel. The tunnel is clearly is a remnant of the Unmentionable Times, the ancient period prior to the establishment of the present society. Equality 7-2521 sneaks to the tunnel alone every night, where safe from others beneath the ground he secretly performs scientific experiments. As the story opens, this private research has been occurring for two years.
In that time, he also meets Liberty 5-3000. She is a young woman who works in the fields and lives in the Home of the Peasants beyond the city. Men and women are forbidden to take notice of each other except at the Time of Mating, the period each spring when the Council of Eugenics pairs off men and women into couples for one night for the purpose of procreating. But in his own mind, Equality 7-2521 takes such notice of Liberty 5-3000 that he gives her a different name. He thinks of her as the Golden One. He commits yet another transgression by speaking to her, and it is clear that she takes notice of him.
He has forbidden thoughts. In the night, he wonders about the Uncharted Forests that exist across the land, covering the cities of the Unmentionable Times. He thinks of the Script Fire in which the books of the Evil Ones were burned, and he wonders about the secrets of the Evil Ones that have been lost to the world. Mostly, he wonders about the Unspeakable Word, the one idea held by the Evil Ones that has been lost. He remembers the fate of one who had discovered that word and had spoken it. His tongue had been ripped out, and he was burned at the stake. As a 10-year-old child, Equality 7-2521 had witnessed the execution. The transgressor seemed noble, and the child had thought that this was the face of one of the Saints about whom children had been taught. To the young Equality 7-2521, this Saint of the Pyre seemed to have gazed at him, picking him out from the crowd of onlookers. What, he wonders late at night, is the Unspeakable Word?
