Equality And Dee In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Who Am “I”

Dee from the short story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker and Equality from the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand share similar motivations throughout their stories. Both Equality and Dee are motivated by their desire to discover themselves in different ways.

The short story Everyday Use begins with the narrator, Ms. Johnson, and her daughter, Maggie, on the yard they have just cleaned. Ms. Johnson then introduces a new character who will be arriving at the home shortly, Dee. She is Ms. Johnson’s other daughter who is described as having a less than ideal relationship with her family. Dee is described by her mother as independent and fearless, differing from her sister, Maggie, who is portrayed as awkward and less attractive than her sister. When Dee arrives, she is wearing a flamboyant dress and looks put together. Ms. Johnson displays shock when she sees her daughter, and is even more shocked to hear that Dee has changed

Throughout all of his life, everything Equality did was ruled over by a controlling government, until he managed to escape. Once Equality enters the forbidden forest, his motivations are clearly revealed to the reader. Once Equality enters the forest, he truly begins to discover parts of himself he never knew existed, “We could also rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again. We were thinking that these were thoughts without sense, but before we knew it our body had risen in one leap”(78). There are many moments similar to this once Equality enters the forest, and once he is reunited with Liberty, he is the happiest he had ever been before. After discovering the word “I”(94), he begins using it incessantly, and declares that the word “we” is a monster that “must never be spoken”(96-7). Equality even goes as far as to change his name to Prometheus (99), as to create a new, independent life for