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Equality's Birth
Equality's mother gives birth to him, and he is sent to live in the Home of Infants for five years. He never learns his mother's identity. -
Equality Moves to the Home of Students
Equality is sent to live at the Home of Students, where he endures ten years of learning. -
Equality Watches a Man Burn to Death
At age ten, Equality and all the other people gather together to watch the execution of a man who had used the Unspeakable Word. The man is tied to a stake and set on fire. Before he dies, he makes eye contact with Equality and fills the boy with a vague sense of wonder and curiosity. Equality begins to wonder which word is the Unspeakable Word. -
Equality Becomes a Street Sweeper
The Council of Vocations assigns Equality to be a street sweeper. He starts living in the Home of the Street Sweepers shortly after this. -
Equality Discovers an Underground Tunnel
Equality and his friend, International 4-8818, find a bar sticking out of the ground in a field and uncover it, exposing a deep black hole. Equality uses a set of steps leading into the hole and finds a tunnel, which is from the Unmentionable Times. He decides to make it his own secret place. This is illegal since he is obligated to report such a finding to the government, so he thinks of it as a huge crime. -
Equality Has Officially Been Conducting Experiments in the Underground Tunnel for Two Years
Every night, Equality and his fellow street sweepers are supposed to watch a play in the Theatre, but Equality has been sneaking out of the Theatre every night for the past two years. He spends this time by conducting experiments in his secret underground tunnel. -
Equality Develops a Relationship with Liberty 5-3000
Equality and two of his fellow street sweepers clean a certain road everyday that is near a field in which a number of women work. Equality notices a pretty girl named Liberty 5-3000 working in the field and finds himself staring at her day after day. She begins to take notice of him as well. Eventually the two begin to speak briefly with one another every day. -
Equality Inventes an Electric Light
After numerous experiments and discoveries in his underground tunnel, Equality finds a way to make an electric light. Since his society has never developed anything like this, Equality plans to present this light to the World Council of Scholars when they meet in his city next month. However, Equality spends too much time in his tunnel on this night and fails to return to the Theatre in time. He is captured and taken to the Palace of Corrective Detention. -
Equality Escapes from the Palace of Corrective Detention
Equality escapes from the Palace of Corrective Detention after spending 30 days there. He was lashed and refused to tell anyone anything about his crime. After he escapes, Equality hides in his tunnel and plans to take his light to the Home of the Scholars the next day. -
Equality Flees to the Uncharted Forest after the World Council of Scholars Rejects Him
Equality presents his invention to the World Council of Scholars. The Scholars are infuriated with Equality's invention because he broke the laws to make it. They want to destroy it, so Equality flees to the Uncharted Forest with his light. -
Equality Enjoys the Forest
Enquality spends his day frolicking through the Uncharted Forest and enjoying his freedom. He discovers a stream and is able to see his own reflection for the first time. -
Liberty Meets up with Equality
Equality's second day in the Uncharted Forest surprises him. Liberty, the girl he loves, meets up with him, and the two embark on an unknown journey. They survive for several days in the forest and continue to put more distance between the city and themselves. -
Equality and Liberty Start a New Life Together
Equality and Liberty find a house on a mountain and decide to live there. The house is from the Unmentionable Times and has several strange items and books. Through these books Equality eventually learns about past events and discovers the awesome joys of living as an individual. He and Liberty plan to start a new kind of lifestyle for their descendants and even plan to return to their old city to save some of their friends. The two are happy and learn that the Unspeakable Word is "ego."
