Monday, June 3, 2019

What are two epiphanies that Equality has in chapter 11?

In chapter 11, Equality 7-2521 has a number of epiphanies while standing on the summit of the mountain. He set out on his journey to discover "the meaning of things," and here he has the epiphany that, "I am the meaning." In other words, he realizes that that whatever meaning the world has is bound up in his perception of it. As he says, "the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth."
Another epiphany which he has is the realization that the nature of the world he exists in can be, to an extent, a product of his own will. He can, in other words, shape the world around him with his own willpower. He says that only three words "are holy" and those words are "'I will it!'"
Equality 7-2521 also has the epiphany that his own happiness is all the purpose to life that he needs. He discovers that happiness is not merely a biproduct of life, or the means to a more significant end than his own happiness "is the end . . . it's own goal . . . it's own purpose."
Another epiphany that Equality 7-2521 has is that, of all the treasures he has—namely his thought, his will, and his freedom—"the greatest of these is freedom." He then defines freedom as not living for others and not borrowing from others, but as living for himself, by his own means, and in his own way. He says that individuality is the "temple of the spirit," and that the collective responsibility encapsulated in the word "We" is the excuse used by "the depraved [to] steal the virtue of the good," and by "the weak [to] steal the might of the strong."

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