Anthem By Lois Lowry: Equality's True Motive

The Power Of Motivation We do things for many reasons but the most common reason is motivation. Motivation is what prompts a person to act in a certain way, or at least develop an inclination for specific behavior. Motivation is not the part that is important it’s what the motivation is, such as love or fear.

The Disparity Idiosyncratic happiness is eradicated and individualism has been eliminated. The society exhibited in Ayn Rand’s Anthem is of a dystopian essence, a domain where one must be interchangeable to his brothers. There is a substantial pressure on the locals in which they are expected to conform to the standards of that sector. The objective is complete egalitarianism, this is the “rightful” sense of morality. The protagonist of the novella, Equality 7-2521, is of this collective.

The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is set in a dystopian society where the idea of collectivism is prevalent. Collectivism is the idea of a group having more priority than any of the individuals in it. Throughout the novel, the characters refer to themselves as “we” instead of “I” and refer to each other as their brother men. Equality 7-2521 tells the reader that whenever they feel tempted, they are to repeat the phrase “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great, WE, One, indivisible and forever.”

In the novella Anthem, individual rights and freedom do not exist. The word “I” is prohibited to be spoken by men. Equality 7-2521 is a street sweeper of the city and he is different from the others in the society. Equality is more intelligent, taller, learns quicker, and he enjoys learning about science; especially how things move and work. Since the word “I” is the unspeakable word, Equality uses the word “We” to resemble that he is doing these actions .

The Road to Individualism Every great heroin will face a plethora of conflict in their journey. For Equality, it is not any less. Equality faces internal and external conflict in his path to heroism, faces conflict with others, but also himself. As his desire for a new life grows, more problems arise.

In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, mankind is a philanthropic machine. The brotherhood nobly works together to achieve a common goal. In doing so, each man is asked to disregard his own personal means and goals. For every decision must be a collective thought and every advancement, a joint action. However, one man in this machine malfunctions.

The Great Corrupter “The great corrupter of public man is the ego. Looking at the mirror distracts ones attention from the problem” (Dean Acheson). Anthem by (Ayn Rand) illustrates that people, in general, are egoistic, she demonstrates this through the book Anthem. Near the End of the book Equality uses a new set of rules for him and the Golden One, they just got away from a controlling gov’t, but Equality is now controlling the Golden One. What the Council doesn’t understand is that everyone has a personality, and they often have very different personalities, a few characters stand out, their ego is very large, the world council and Equality.

Unlike during the Unmentionable Times, when men created “towers [that] rose to the sky,” it is an affliction to be born with powerful intellectual capacity and ambition in Ayn Rand’s apocalyptic, nameless society in Anthem. Collectivism is ostensibly the moral guidepost for humanity, and any perceived threat to the inflexible, authoritarian regime is met with severe punishment. The attack on mankind’s free will and reason is most evident in the cold marble engraving in the Palace of the World Council: “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (6). Societal norms force homogeneity and sacrifice among all people.

Anthem is a novel about a man, Equality 7-2521, who has been different from everyone else ever since he was a child. Equality has more ambition than the other people and he also breaks some of the laws. such as using the word "I" and keeping secrets from the council. But, his collectivist society taught him that being different is a sin so, he tries hard to suppress his curiosity and his desire of wanting another job than what the council assigned him. One day, as equality is working , he sees the beautiful Liberty 5-3000 among the peasants.

“If there is a way to do it better…Find it” (Thomas A. Edison). Certain humans in the world are born with the trait of resilience, a trait seen in Anthem’s main Equality 7-2521 and Thomas Edison, the talent to leap back after an obstacle falls in the way. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times trying to create the modern day light bulb. During his creation people scrutinized him, and when he failed told him that he was uneducated. “This was the only thing which moved, for the lips of the oldest did not move as they said: “Street Sweeper.”(1.29).