The meanings of the names that were given to these people do not comply with the societal teachings.

This totalitarian regime brainwashes its citizens at an early age that being different is evil, being alone is a sin and being idiosyncratic is wrong. Equality and liberty mean the complete polar opposite of what this civilization is based on. In this society, they do not give people normal names. They have a word such as International, Fraternity or Solidarity pursued by a longwinded number. They do not use first person pronouns like I, me and you but instead we and they. There are many other people that the authorities have subjugated to drab life sentences like a mere street sweeper. The reader can most definitely differentiate the potential that the two main characters have. Equality and Liberty will not allow the rules to rob them of their individuality and they are willing to do whatever it takes, despite the consequences. Equality simply means the condition of correspondence. In Anthem, the narrators name is Equality 7-2521 which is quite paradoxical due to the fact that not only is he more individualistic than the others but he acts on it. Since his days in the Home of Students, his teachers could sense that his intellectual ability was higher than that of the other children. They even told him that he had evil in his bones because he was taller than most. They were aware that he could possibly be a threat to their teachings so they oppress his natural born capability of learning quickly and wandering about things by assigning him to be a street sweeper for the rest of his life. Out on the job he laid his eyes upon the most beautiful sight he has ever seen, Liberty 5-3000. Male and female interaction is forbidden, yet he talks to her anyways. She finds that he is not like the

others, he broke the law just to speak to her which is where the name The Unconquered came from. He does not conform to the rules nor will he throughout this novella. Later on, he changes his name to Prometheus because of the mutual desire to better the human race. Liberty means the power to act as one pleases without repressive restrictions provided by society. She was working in a field while he was street sweeping when he noticed her. The main things that made her stand out to Equality were her slender physique, her dark eyes, her golden hair, and most importantly the way she carried herself. He could not take his eyes off of her and he then named her The Golden One. He just had to speak to her, even though it was a sin and instead of her disregarding him when he tried, she spoke back. Liberty 5-3000 is a fellow rulebreaker, she evidently does not mind the chastisement that could follow their actions if caught. When he is fleeing from the House of Scholars, he runs into the Uncharted Forest. He longs for The Golden One and fortunately for him, his love followed him. The two find a house from the Unmentionable Times and start a new life. He renames her Gaea who was the mother of Earth. In a sense, Liberty is like the mother of a new kind, a kind that the couple has been waiting to be a part of. Equality is naturally curious and fascinated by the world around him, he preferred the Science of Things and wanted to belong to the Home of Scholars when little did he know, the scholars were not all that scholastic. This novella shows multiple examples of irony. Names that the author uses in the story provide relevant background information and meaning to the characters involved.