If, on the other hand, he chooses to inform the Councils, he not only violates the trust of his good friend but also likely condemns his friend to a death sentence. If he decides not to report it, he is going against everything he has been taught, every law decreed by the Councils and, consequently, is risking his life. He is faced with a difficult decision when Equality 7-2521 states that they will not report the existence of the tunnel. International 4-8818 makes an understated but important choice in the story. Unfortunately, they choose based on their lust for power.Įquality 7-2521's friends also have free will. The Scholars have the power to make important choices. They choose the same path of conformity they have followed all their lives rather than an uncharted course of independent thinking. They choose squalor and misery over prosperity. They choose primitive stagnation over progress. They select more than candles over electric light they choose suppression and dictatorship over independence and political freedom. The alternatives before them are starkly clear: electricity, technological progress, and independent thought or candles, technological backwardness, and thought control. The question is whether they want to take advantage of its value. It is not that the Scholars do not see the light's value. They know the invention will put out of business the newly developed candle industry and will upset the plans of the World Councils, who will now have to incorporate the new invention into society. After recovering from their fear, they recognize the value the light possesses. The most obvious example is the one made by the World Council of Scholars when Equality 7-2521 presents the electric light. The negative characters make choices as well. In his undaunted willingness to take control of his life, he is the most compelling example of this capacity to choose. He chooses to flee into the wilderness rather than turn his light and his life over to the Councils. He selects International 4-8818 and the Golden One for his intimates from all members of society. He chooses not to tell his captors where he has been though they torture him. He chooses to conceal both the existence of the tunnel and his experiments, refusing to bow to the Councils' will. He chooses to wonder about the Unspeakable Word when he could (and, according to this society, should) decide not to. Equality 7-2521 is the most obvious example, but not the only character in the book to make such choices. Ayn Rand depicts characters that make important choices her characters select from alternatives available to them - significant and sometimes life-and-death issues.
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