This book, written by Ayn Rand is about Equality 7-2521, a young man who was quite brave. He was twenty-one years old and was six feet tall. He had broken and went against many laws. However, one law that he did not break was the law that disallowed him to refer to himself as “I” or “me”. Instead he had to use “us” or “we” to speak of himself, including everyone that lived in the city. Throughout this story, Equality 7-2521 met many friends and discovered many new things. At the start of the book, it explains how Equality 7-2521 was born with a curse which was why he was evil, and it was a sin to do or to think things no others thought. It was even a sin to write upon a piece of paper that no one else could see. Equality 7-2521 was …show more content…
He commited sin, and was also born with a curse. From the day he was born to the day he was five years old, he lived in the Home of the Infants, where they were raised until they were five years old, and they did not know their parents. From the age five to fifteen, he lived in the Home of the Students. So this means they had ten years of learning. When they reached their fifteenth year, they went to work. At this point, they would go to the home of the council, and the councilmen would tell them where they were to work. Equality 7-2521 ended up being a street sweeper. He enjoyed his job although he really desired to be with the Home of the Scholars. The book told us that Equality 7-2521 was a smart character. When he was in the Home of the Students, the teachers thought that he caught on too fast. So they would not think of him like that, he tried to be like Union 5-3992, because he had only half a brain which means he was not smart. So even though Equality 7-2521 was extremely smart, the councilmen thought that he belonged with the street …show more content…
It was a sin to talk to others outside of your group or job, and it was also a sin to like someone better than someone else. Although these were laws, Equality 7-2521 had a favorite anyway, International 4-8818. He was tall, strong, and he also liked to draw funny pictures. Equality 7-2521 and International 4-8818 both knew that they were very close friends even without telling each other. They knew it just by the way they looked into each other’s eyes. Equality 7-2521 did not always do the right thing, but it didn’t matter who did it with him because nothing was going to change his mind or goals. A little later on in the story, Equality 7-2521 wanted International 4-8818 to commit a sin with him, but he refused to. Equality 7-2521 did not fear to commit a sin because he was born with a curse. Because of this curse that fell on him, he was brave enough to do
At this early stage of life all Equality 7-2521 knows of is a life of collectivism. Ever since Equality’s childhood he has struggled to blend into the rest of his society. “We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike.... We are one in all and all in one.
Not fitting in for Equality 7-2521 meant that his differences ranged from his above-average height of six feet to his overly advanced intelligence level. Although, I don’t think that Equality 7-2521 being assigned the job of a Street Sweeper was meant to come off as a punishment, but rather as a way to make things equal. The Council of Vocations might have wanted Equality 7-2521 to realize that he wasn’t “better” than anyone else in the society. I think that the Council of Vocations just wanted to give Equality 7-2521 a job that people wouldn’t enjoy because they already knew Equality 7-2521 had the gift of being extra smart, and most people in the society didn’t have the qualities of Equality
School work was effortless for him, while it was strenuous or just the right pace for everyone else. Citizens of this society are all taught that ¨It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them.¨ Frowned upon for simply being smarter, Equality tried to forget his lessons to seem average. Brainwashed, Equality believed his gift of intelligence to be a curse of selfishness, and additionally tried to give up what makes him special to fit into what society believes is correct. Ayn Rand 's novel, The Fountainhead, states, ¨Man’s first duty is to himself.
This made Equality 7-2521 run away not only from his birthplace but what would have eventually become his death sentence, and he went into the uncharted forest where no man is said to come back from. Here his “darling”, Liberty 5-3000, met with him after she had heard of his discovery and followed him into the forest. This becomes the “falling to action” of the story because Equality 7-2521, alongside Liberty 5-3000, discovered a house with many books to which would become the start of something new. After reading every book, Equality 7-2521 found a word lost throughout time that held so much power and so much influence that he literally could not help himself and felt the need to use it. The author beautiful expresses Equality’s excitement by using two whole chapters dedicated to him finding self worth, and in the end uses a single word to close the story- “EGO.”
Ayn Rand says, “God…a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man’s power to conceive.” When one can’t think for their self, how can one be set free? The citizens of society conform to the belief that as a group they are the great WE. The word “I” is not in the vocabulary of men. Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem portrays examples of a dystopian text because the protagonist questions the social and political systems, citizens conform to uniform expectations, and the protagonist is struggling to escape.
Equality’s greatest strengths and personal qualities were intended to be restricted and abhorred. Indeed, Equality and his gifts were abhorred, but he found a way to circumvent each restriction, consciously or not. And, though he maintained use of his strengths and kept a strong spirit, Equality was never able to permanently influence the society because, as a Street Sweeper, he was no longer part of the great WE. The Council of Vocations mandated Equality to life as a Street Sweeper in order to limit his intellectual opportunities.
Equality being a miserable Street Sweeper wished to be part of something more important in his society. This was understood to be the Council of Scholars. He believed that, “No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many Scholars. ” (Rand, 54) Equality always had a burning thirst to join the Council of Scholars since he was a little boy, but was very shocked, in the beginning of the story, when he was placed in the position of a Street Sweeper.
I would argue that he was at that time a new born. A newborn abandoned by his father at the moment of birth and with no mother and no natural growth he survived and learned on his own grew
"Equality." Topic Pages. Boston: Credo Reference Contributors, 2016. N. pag.
Anthem is a book that makes oneself contemplate the future and what evils are bestowed upon it. In this novel, the reader is caught in the life of Equality. Equality’s life is placed in the future, where the feared reality of communism has conquered all but the souls of few weary men. Equality is one of those few men who have a light that is invulnerable to a ravaging wind. Equality’s time captive before his extraordinary escape has taken a toll on his body and mind and now at the end of his journey forces him to question whether the decisions he’s made are full of sin or teeming with righteousness.
honor is a thing to be earned.” Ayn Rand weaves her idea of objectivism and that people choose others relying on their own needs into her connection with Equality. In the beginning of Anthem Equality did not think of himself, but what the society wanted everyone to do as a whole, contrasting towards Ayn Rand’s beliefs (Rand, Anthem 96).When people come to the realization that no one is equal, it is easier to realize that neither are needs, making choices involving circumstances like relationships depend on a person’s thoughts and
The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is taking place in the future. Equality 7-2521 found a tunnel and is doing experiments in it and one day falls in love with Liberty 5-3000. Later in the novel he fails to return to the home of street sweepers and got questioned where he was, but he did not answer. So, they took him Palace of Corrective Detention where they whooped him, but he still did not say anything and so he got sent to jail. He later escaped and tried to show his experiment to Home of the Scholars.
“One must never fail to pass a moral judgment,” (Rand, 1). This statement is huge because this is a thing that happens all the time. People will pass a moral judgment and that is what they did in the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand. For the majority of the book, humans referred to themselves as “We”, not “I”. They were supposed to all act and think as one.
During the novella, Equality 7-2521 undergoes a journey to express individuality. Equality 7-2521 states he is a great sin to the community since he is capable of great deeds: “This is a great sin to be born with a head which is too quick” (Rand 21). Born into a community, where it is told to be different from your brothers, is a sin. Equality 7-2521 consistently believes he is a sin to the society
And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone” (Rand 17). In Equality 7-2521’s society the freedom to think or do anything for yourself is restricted. Everything an individual does or thinks must be done for his society as a whole. By writing in diary form, Equality is breaking the law because his doing for himself and not his