What does Equality discover in Chapter 3 of Anthem?

In Chapter 3, Equality is in the tunnel underneath the city and he discovers all kinds of wonderful things left by the Unmentionable Times. Equality finds wires made of copper and zinc, and when he puts the wires together in a jar of brine, he discovers electricity. Equality also notices that the needle on his compass will move when hooked up to the wires. He also finds “globes”, or lightbulbs, from the Unmentionable Times. Luckily, Equality is very smart, smarter than all of his “brothers” in the collective society in which he lives. He is patient enough to continue “tinkering” with the marvels he finds until he is ready to show his discovery to the Home of the Scholars. Unfortunately, the Home of the Scholars rejects Equality’s invention of electricity and arrests him. Equality breaks out of prison and flees to the Uncharted Forest to escape the oppressive society where he lived.

What natural discovery does Equality make in Anthem?

Equality has been told all of his life that the Uncharted Forest is a dangerous place where men who escape the city go and never come back.  It is considered dark and foreign from the city in which Equality lives.  When Equality escapes the city, he is ready to meet his fate in the forest.  He expects terrible monsters to destroy him.  However, he discovers that all he has been told is not true.  He makes a bow and arrow and shoots a bird, and he drinks fresh water from a creek.  Equality feels at peace in nature, and eventually discovers who he really is.  In the forest, he also finds Liberty, the girl he first admires sowing seeds in a field.  Together, they find the abandoned house in the forest where they learn more about themselves and each other.  Equality finds books with the word, “I”; Liberty finds a mirror and sees herself for the first time.  The forest is a symbol of self-discovery, and it is only fitting that they find their “egos” or conscious selves in nature and away from the so-called “civilization” of the city.  Nature has always played an important role in literature as a place to be an individual, live for oneself, and leave your former life behind.   Famous writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Transcendentalist from the 1800’s, describes how we find our true selves in nature, and it is there that our souls will find peace.

Ayn Rand’s use of nature as the final place for Equality and Liberty to find their self-awareness indicates her beliefs in the power of nature to heal and transform.