The Song of Freedom A dictatorship is the everyday life of Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. In Anthem, by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 lives in a society in which equality is enforced by the laws of the dictating society. No one can be different from anyone else, nor can one person spend more time with one person than another. Equality 7-2521 is dictated by the leaders of his society, though he increasingly does not believe in his leaders morals. His morals and ethics follow the advice Ayn Rand offers in her essay “How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Life?” Equality 7-2521 learns through his journey in Anthem, to be able to be free, everyone needs to advocate the protection of rights and to be themselves, not conforming …show more content…
“We seized our box, we shoved them aside, and we ran to the window. We turned and we looked at them for the last time, and a rage, such as it is not fit for humans to know, choked our voice in our throat” (Rand, Anthem 74-75). The expert from the text demonstrates Equality is deposed to do anything that would save his box from destruction. In addition, he is protecting his right to own property as a citizen. Equality is willing to oppose his leaders to enunciate everything that he believes in; being oneself and staying true to all one’s rights and morals. He unequivocally denounces his leaders by going against everything that his society believes in, namely creating inventions as a whole and not by oneself. Rand’s statement, “But in no case and in no situation may one permit one’s own values to be attacked or denounced, and keep silent,” substantiates Equality’s actions in trying to defend all of his rights (Rand, “How” 84). Therefore, Rand and Equality are elucidating that people have to fortify everything that they believe in or it can all be appropriated. Equality and Rand adage that if people do not protect their rights then someone will come along that will confiscate people of all virtues and standards. Citizens will wholeheartedly follow anyone that will give them a sense of purpose though, once a leader shows …show more content…
Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 find their freedom in the Uncharted Forest. They came onto a house in the middle of the forest from the Unmentionable Times where they are able to live their lives the way that they want to without anyone criticizing them. Equality is denouncing the leaders of his society when he says, “But I am done with this creed of corruption. I am done with the monster of ‘We,’ the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: ‘I.’” (Rand, Anthem 97). Equality is proclaiming that he no longer believes in having an entire society equal. Correspondingly, everyone in a society needs to be different by being themselves and protecting their rights and morals. By doing this everyone can find freedom from a society. Rand’s statement, “Nothing can corrupt and disintegrate a culture or a man’s character as thoroughly as does the precept of moral agnosticism, the idea that one must never pass moral judgement on others, that one must be morally tolerant of anything, that the good consists of never distinguishing good from evil” shows that if citizens want to find freedom it is competent to judge because then one is emphasizing the differences between citizens (Rand, “How” 82). Equality
By juxtaposing her works together, her novella and her opinionated essay, correlation unfolds and similarity shows between the “evil” force of complete assimilation in Anthem and the complete disregard of wrongdoings being denoted as evil in How Does One Live a Rational Life in an Irrational Society. It does not come as a revelation that Equality would find strong personal relation and belief in the opinions of Rand. His resolution that the Council promotes practices of with which he disagrees and finds morally repulsive presents itself in a manner that is agreeable with any morally sound individual. Rand is extremely skillful in effectuating Ethos into her work, weaving together sentences with both beauty and
Rules and Subjectivity Society is fundamentally built upon rigid structure and control using rules to attempt to maintain order amongst a society comprised of many individuals. Inherently rules put at expense the freedom of individuals to achieve personal happiness in order to build a society comprised of more equally achieving individuals. Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem builds a society in which rules restrict all individual freedoms and force a more collective ideal. The rules put in place by the society are meant to make everybody collectively more happy and prevent inherent human subjectivity; however, inherent to human nature, rules can be subjectively interpreted. In contrast to the pre-existing society presented by Rand, Equality 7-2521 seeks
Someone needs to arouse Equality’s primal instinct that has been buried by his camaraderie, and her name is Liberty. “Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt. […] They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under their feet” (49). For the first time Equality feels desire and knows pain.
What makes one person different from another? Is it height, weight, and color of skin, or is it personality, family, and attitude? These differences can define a person and separate them from those around them. These differences make a person an individual; however, in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Equality 7-521 is anything but an individual. He spends his days sweeping the streets and his nights sleeping in a white room with ninety-nine of his brothers.
Equality lives in a collectivist society, which is a society that believes, “that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.” Therefore, Equality being the person he is, struggles with being an individual. He knows it is against the law but he enjoys knowledge so much, it confuses him. He states, “And in our heart-strange are the ways of evil! - and in our heart there is the first peace we have known in 20 years.”
Through recounting his life, Equality 7-2521 is able to recognize how he always had an inner voice that was suppressed by his society because it was telling him to be an individual and put his personal wants above the wants of his fellow brothers. In a world where no one is able to think privately, Equality 7-2521 breaks away from the only moral belief system he has ever been taught and
With all of his experience that nobody has known in at least a century he is extremely capable of deciding whether of his choices are right. His personality keeps him from giving up hope and giving up on his society and his companion but keeps him curious enough to keep searching for something better in life. Equality has aged to the point where he thinks he needs to change the world and will try to do so. Most would believe that Equality’s actions were righteous and could not contemplate that his actions were
In the final chapters of the book, after Equality and The Golden One have discovered their new house and proposed to build a new life, they read books in its intact library and so discover the forbidden word, “I” (94). This discovery prompts Equality to radically overhaul his entire way of going through life, aligning it to Rand’s Objectivist philosophy. His focus on himself, illustrated through his obsession with the word I is show in the last two chapters of the book, where he latches on to the idea that devoting one’s life to only oneself is the only appropriate way to live life. Rand shows this with statements from Equality such as, “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them”(96). Equality is proclaiming that his life will be best lived in a purely selfish manner, where he will not take care of anyone else, but will not ask anyone to take care of him either.
Ayn Rand’s Anthem starts by Equality 7-2521 saying “It is a sin to write this.” Throughout the story, Equality’s views and mindset changes, he realizes that he is different from his brothers and its ok to be different. He discovers that if something is legal it is not certainly right. His eager for knowledge taught him the word “I” abandoning the word “We”.
Equality is right to be motivated by curiosity. Yearning for the answers to his constant questions are what motivates his creativity and discovery. The constant curiosity is what leads him to dissect animals, melt metals, mix acids, and rediscover electricity. His individuality motivates him to do what he wants even though it is not allowed by society. He knows that he is quicker minded than the rest of his brothers, “It was not that the learning was too hard….
Explain the following quote: “To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.” How does this quote exemplify a theme of anthem? In the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality is learning that men had freedom and individual names. Equality 7-2521 had his brothers and the council holding him back from his freedom and self-ego, equality 7-2521 is learning the people from the unmentionable times had names and not numbers, in the novella Anthem
There's so much emphasis on putting others before oneself that people often forget to look out for their own needs, as shown in this book. Ayn Rand successfully captures the negatives of an overrated ideology and presents an unorthodox perspective on the matter. In conclusion, Equality's true motives behind his work are much more selfish than they first appear to be. Equality strives to fulfil his own personal desire rather than contribute everything to society, and this isn't necessarily a negative thing.
Equality does this by when he first falls in love with Liberty, he is obsessed. However, when his invention is rejected by the council, he starts to realize he doesn’t need to be in a group and in result, starts to love Liberty less. When he understand individuality fully, he becomes very selfish and doesn’t care for Liberty at all and thinks of her as an object. Equality felt he needed to be with a group and with Liberty. Through his journey he discovered that he doesn’t need to be with a group and can be independent.
However, since the council fails to recognize this idea, Equality has two options: either face imminent execution or flee. By choosing the latter and fleeing into the Uncharted Forest, Equality finally is, in a physical sense, free from the rule of collectivist society. Now he is alone in the forest, alone with his thoughts. He decides where he goes, when he sleeps, what he eats. However, he is still not fully
Equality discovers what individualism is and what it means, but when Equality finds out what it means it changes his view throughout the