Chap 3 Anthem

In Chapter Three, with his discovery of electricity, Equality 7-2521 reaches a turning point in his understanding of his society. Whereas his previous ambition was to join the Home of Scholars, he sees that he can accomplish more alone than can the combined intelligence of all the Scholars. For the first time, he begins to comprehend that he might be superior not just to many of his peers but also to those whom he previously idolized as the holders of all knowledge. With this new discovery, his guilt and need for forgiveness from the Councils slowly fade away, although he has not yet become entirely radicalized in his thinking.

When describing his observation of the effects of electricity, Equality 7-2521 says that he "followed in preference to all our studies." He uses the word "preference" without further comment, indicating that he ceases to see the crime of preference as a real moral issue. In Anthem, vocabulary is an important motif that can encompass entire cultures and bodies of philosophical thought, and Equality 7-2521's blasé use of a nominally sinful word that formerly worried him is echoed in his increasingly harsh rhetoric about his society. He refers to the Council of Scholars as "blind", whereas before he wrote that they "know all things." As later chapters show, however, he does not yet condemn the Council of Scholars, although he recognizes that he has surpassed them.