Anthem Equality

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”. This made Equality find out who he is and gave him the chance to be an individual.

Could you imagine living in a world where you were not your own individual? In the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand, everyone is the same and no one can be “better” or more intelligent than each other. In this book, the characters can not even speak the word “I” without getting executed. Think about having rules that restrict individuals from having their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions. In the book Anthem, the readers will discover that these rules and restrictions become a reality.

In the novel “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, the main character Equality 7-2521 expresses his own individuality. Through the challenges that he was faced with, he learned many way to express himself differently. In the novel, Equality 7-2521 learned that to be your own person you must first stop trying to be like someone else.

Individuality allows every person to be themselves and be different from each other. However, In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Rand describes a society where the people were not allowed to openly be themselves, or else they would be punished for being different. The main character, Equality, notices he is different slowly throughout the novella, but kept continuing to be like everyone else for awhile. These rules exist in this society to strip human individuality in order to achieve total equality.

(21) As Equality ages his superior knowledge is frowned on. He fight his so called curse and pretend to not understand what the teacher are teaching him. Equality is told to listen to the Council of Vocation and respect their decisions even though they are not fair. As to be predicted, Equality wishes to be apart of the Council of Scholars. It would be expected with Equality’s experior knowledge, that he would be place with the Scholars, but that is not what happened. The Council of Vocations feared the Equality was much smarter than any other man and that he would disrupt the peace in the society. With the Vocations unfair accusations, they assigned Equality as a Street Sweeper. To surprise this will pay a major part in how Equality’s final assessment is

When Equality learns of these rights he is awed by the power they hold and the fact that they do not have these rights now. “At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right” (Rand 101-102). At this point in the book Equality knows the atrocities that his society committed by making all peoples one whole with no feelings of their own. He understands that he is no longer “we” but rather the sacred “I” that his society tried to make everyone forget. In Equality’s society it is forbidden to think of oneself as an individual and they were taught that they were “we” not “I” , in fact, those of Equality’s society didn’t even know that the word “I”

Have you ever been in such a bad situation that all you can do is laugh? After reading Ayn Rand Anthem Equality laughed when he remembered he is the damned. In the story when Equality finally became free in the forest he forgot about how he used to live and forgot about being damned. Equality felt that he did not need anyone and that he can be his own person and that’s what took his mind off being the damned.

The society’s institutions, practices, and officials reveal these differences. Equality, the gifted, brilliant-minded protagonist of the story, struggles to live in his society because of the contrasting views on morality he has compared to his society. Even his society realizes something unique about him, and are afraid of him. The Council assigns him the job of Street Sweeper, even though Equality longed to be a scientist and a Scholar. Equality finally gets to escape his miserable society and all the institutions, practices, and officials that are a part of it. He comes to the realization that there is more to life than serving other people, and that he owes nothing to his brothers or his society. Equality, after struggling and fighting for his freedom, finally knows why he lives and what has been missing in his life. “The moral purpose of a man’s life is the achievement of his own happiness.” (The Ethics of

¨We do not wonder at this new sin of ours. It is our second transgression of Preference, for we do not think of all our brothers, as we must, but only of one, and their name is Liberty 5-300. We do not know why we think of them” (Rand 41). In Ayn Randś dystopian novel, Anthem, the citizens are forced to think that they cannot have any preference, this includes liking someone more than others. Randś protagonist, Equality 7-2521, started the book falling in love with the Golden One, but as he moves toward individuality he begins to be in “love” less as he realizes there’s more than just being in a group. Rand uses the the relationship between Equality and the Golden One to represent Equality’s journey from being obsessed with the Golden One when he feels he has to be apart of the group, to being ignorant to the Golden One because he has become utterly independent and selfish.

Equality has learned his reading teaches him that persons are individuals, not splintered fragments of the group; they have no right to pursue their happiness, and should not be sacrifice themselves for others; that they require freedom to do this, and must not be enslaved by the group.

The Word ‘We’ is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it” (Rand, 1946, p. 97). Equality 7-2521 words generate the notion that a collective society destroys humankind 's potential, while avoiding others gifted personalities. Equality is a 21 year old who defies societal norms and grabs tightly on to his curse of individualism, while living in a collectivist society that demands obedience from the group. Throughout the story, Equality progresses, as he reaches for his independence and rebel against the dictatorship of the government. As a result, Equality is faced with conflicts, internally and externally. By doing so, he captures his freedom from the detrimental and contagious dictatorship.

“It is a sin to write this.” Is the quote used to begin the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, and the start of its symbolic story. Which now is also how this analysis will start, to explain how Equality changed his mindset about his first words in the novel, and how his eventual change is the correct one. Throughout the book Equality slowly morphs into an individual due to different things that left an impact on him along the process of his story. This is all because writing is a sin in Equality’s society because writing can lead to self exploration, the society’s desired effect is for there to be zero individuals and accomplishes this goal by physically and mentally changing everyone. But Equality's final assessment of his so called sin is correct, in the terms of moral assessment which by definition is “the principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual”. Therefore Equality discovers that he has done no sin at all, reaching individuality Equality finds out is not a sin, but is simply the path of truly finding what is actually

Equality is the protagonist in this dystopia and he handles his trials along the way with pride, dignity, and beauty. He is unique and more intelligent than the rest of his peers just based on the premise that he can understand conflict and somehow manage to solve his issues. Just like ever good hero, he faces internal and external conflict on his

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 no one knows about the freedom of men.

Equality, at the end of the novel, views morality as choosing what is right or wrong for yourself. The end of the book says, through Equality’s thoughts, that they will fight for the freedom of Man (Rand, Anthem 104). This shows how he wants to get away from what the society says by making life for how each man wants for himself. The novel mentions that Equality wants freedom from other men and give freedom to other men (Rand, Anthem 101-102). This shows how Equality wanted to be able to choose what he thinks of right and wrong for himself, by wanting to be free from the rules of society. The book shows Equality’s ethics of choosing what is right or wrong for yourself being very important.