I think that the uncharted forest represents many things that the society is trying to keep from the community. I believe this because the uncharted forest is supposed to be a place where people don't go because they fear what will happen and it would express individuality and free will. There are said to be many more forests than the main one discussed and they are all said to have grown over ruins of the Unmentionable Times. I think that the uncharted forest represents education and intellect. The community fears the forest like they fear education because they know the details of the Great Burning and no one wishes to have the same fate. They fear education because it requires change and the changes might not be that easy. The people fear intellect because they do not wish to have their own thoughts or make their own discoveries. Equality is the perfect example of someone that does not fit in with the rest of his crowd because he develops his own thoughts and he makes his own discoveries. Equality escapes to the uncharted forest after his attempt to bring his community to individuality and curiosity fails. He says earlier in the book that he feared the forest, but he also said that he did not remember running to the forest; that his feet had just taken him there. His mind knew that he was different and that he needed to be separated from the community that feared everything. The uncharted forest represents determination, free will, curiosity, individuality and intelligence.
Describe the house from Chapter X and its contents in your own words, and explain why Liberty and Equality find it so strange and unique.
The house which Equality and the Golden One find was left over from the unmentionable times. The walls are made of glass and there are electric appliances everywhere inside the house. There are mirrors and light bulbs on the walls and ceiling, and there is a whole room dedicated to books. Equality and the Golden One didn't understand much of what they saw, and they were confused for the majority of the exploration of the house. There are basically appliances that we use in modern times to be found in the house that was left over. They find the house so strange because they've never experienced anything like it, and they don't know how to operate many of the objects that they discovered. Equality and the Golden One find everything in the house unique because they don't realize that at one time it was the norm to have everything that they found in the house. They don't understand that everything could be considered regular when everything is so new to them.Re-read the incident with the Saint of the pyre. What was he trying to communicate to Equality?
I think that the Saint of the pyre was trying to communicate that Equality should discover what he had discovered. Equality said that the Saint looked straight at him and smiled, as if he wanted to speak the unspeakable word to him. I think that the Saint was trying to communicate the word with him, but in a different method than what Equality thought. The fact that the Saint made Equality curious might have been what caused him to start thinking individual thoughts and making his own choices. If that curiosity hadn't arisen in him, he might have kept his fear of education and individuality. The Saint was trying to communicate that there was something hidden, and that anyone with the right intentions could find it.
