The Paragon Of Freedom In Ayn Rand's Anthem

The Paragon of Freedom
Equality is something strived for by society, to liberate ourselves of oppression and be ourselves unconditionally. But, equality cannot be achieved by the oppression of others, it will only cause others to retaliate or resist. This can be seen in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, where she depicts this exactly, the protagonist, Equality, is a young man who has been assigned the job of a street sweeper by his society. Equality has grown up being wrongly taught that the individual is subordinate to the whole society, therefore being oppressed by a collectivist society; due to his inquisitive nature, sense of self, and desire for self-improvement, he is able to break free and practice individualism rather than the oppression he faced during his time in collectivist society.
Equality’s inquisitivity shines through in

When he goes to the World Council, he presents his box of light to them. The council unfortunately rejects it and orders his and the box’s destruction, they describe it “was evil” saying that “what is not down collectively cannot be good” (72). The box actually represents himself, not only that but it is an extension of Equality and so we can see that the Council, and the society, have rejected him, called him evil and that he cannot be good. His sense of self is so high that he won’t allow them to oppress him any longer and breaks out through the window. Later he decides to free the world of collectivism by conquering it and destroying collectivism (104). He believes collectivism is the greatest evil of all, coming to this conclusion after finally himself, his “true” self and not the self society wants him to believe is himself. He values himself so much over the rest of society he sees himself as the rightful ruler of the world, free of rules and untouched by laws. His sense of self is inflated so high that he eventually chooses to free himself, and others of collectivist