What are some of the social relationships in chapter 1?
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One must look at what is missing more than what exists inAnthem. One difference is the fact that men live among men and women live among women. The separation of the sexes is vital to controlling individual temptations, it would seem. Reproduction is a once a year business deal assigned by the department of eugenics; it is certainly not about love. And by the way Equality discusses the Palace of Mating, it's not a fun experience at all. Also in chapter 1, the reader gets the first insight to the social and political hierarchy of power.
The primary point of this chapter is to establish the fact that there are actually very few relationships among the people of this world. We see how teachers (scholars) treat students, how leaders (Council) treat those they are supposed to lead, and how this society treats its oldest members (depositing them in the House of the Useless). The only real social relationship is between Equality 7-2531 and his two fellow Street Sweepers. One of them is known as a "half brain" but the other is actually sympathetic to Equality 7-2521's quest for knowledge. He is a Street Sweeper because he, too, thinks and feels more than is allowed in this world, and he tacitly agrees not to reveal the secret of the tunnel.
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