Utopian societies aren’t always as they seem. The author of the book Anthem grew up in a collectivist society and is voicing her opinion through the character Equality about individualism. The book Anthem can be classified as a dystopia, because the government is trying to force everyone to be equal, people are miserable, but don’t want to say or do anything about it, and not everyone knows the truth about the unmentionable times. In the book Anthem the government, known as the World Council, has an excessive amount of control over the people in their city. This is evident when Equality is explaining how they receive their jobs, how they go about their routines during the day and night, and how they are supposed to live and work for their brothers (Rand 25-8). This portrays the reality that whatever the government says goes and they all have been brainwashed because that’s how it's been since the beginning. Furthermore, in this society, control lowers people's happiness levels.
Not everyone agrees with the situation
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This is particularly evident when Equality escaped to the uncharted forest and was shocked and stunned when he found the two story house from the times before (Rand 89-93). Obviously the government tried to start fresh and hide all the things from the old times, but Equality found clues that led him to think and believe that the people before had better lives. All in all the government can't hide everything from the citizens who are determined to be different like the character Equality.
Anthem and "utopian" societies like that don’t always show their true colors. Elements of that type of society are sometimes more dystopian. Placing the book Anthem in the category of a dystopia is pretty accurate because the government is forcing collectivism into the society even though many are not in agreeance, people aren’t happy and are afraid to speak up, and the people don’t know the history about the