Ayn Rand’s Anthem starts by Equality 7-2521 saying “It is a sin to write this.” 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. Equality’s views and mindset changes through out the book. He was born in a society where people are named by numbers. A world where people are used as machines. In this world the word “I” is out of existence. The word “We” is all they know, a world where individuality does not exist. In Equality’s world …show more content…
She then moved to liberal America. In Anthem this is shown as Equality was born in a more of communist society where everyone works as a whole for the government. He then moves to the forest and makes his “new world” that would represent the U.S. Equality was able to get out of the machine like world where everyone is treated as a prisoner. In Anthem the workers are condemned to follow a tight schedule “when the bell rings we rise from our beds…half-hour while we dress and eat breakfast…then we go to work…in five hours we return to eat our midday meal…five more hours we return for our dinner…then we walk in a straight line for the social meeting”. This schedule is one that would be used in prison or for programmed robots that have no power over themselves. Equality runs away from this world and for the first time experiences waking up when his body got enough rest not because of a bell. Equality independently starts to develop character and then an egoistic way of thinking., he came up with an idea that a human beings goal in life is to achieve happiness. Expressing himself Equality said “For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreBased on a man named Equality 7-2521, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, tells his story as a captive. He was not ordinary like everyone else but was very different in many aspects. He was said to be cursed due to his great height, his intelligence, and his forever wandering mind. Equality 7-2521 was smarter than the other students he learned with. According to the Councils over the captives, everyone should be one or in unity.
In Anthem by Ayn Rand we follow Equality 7-2521 as he goes against social customs to rediscover electricity. He knows that this is a sin because he is merely a street sweeper and isn’t worthy of being a scholar. Equality 7-2521 commits other sins as well, he shows favor towards International 4-8818 and Liberty 5-3000 even naming her the Golden One. After showing his rediscover to the World Council, Equality 7-2521 is disregarded for only the scholars are worthy of innovation. Before he can be fatally punished Equality 7-2521 flees into the Uncharted Forest, and is saddened because he knows that he will never see the Golden One again but also thankful for she deserves better than the Damned.
As the novella progresses Equality transforms into an individual who isn’t afraid to flaunt his individuality. “When I shall have read all the books and learned my new way, when my home will be ready and my earth tilled, I shall steal one day, for the last time into the cursed City of my birth.” (Rand 101). Thus doing so Equality wants to educate himself and bring the others to his new home in order to create his own society where people are free to be themselves. There he and the others will embrace the word “I” and be free to become
A Correct Transgressor “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.
Equality got the street sweeper job assigned to him because he stood out, and he got a job that was very low because the Council of Elders didn’t like that he was smarter (25-26). In the Anthem society citizens do not know who their parents are and they cannot see them because they'll be placed in the Home of Infants where they will be raised, and taught the rules of the society. Lastly, citizens in the Anthem society who were to sin, and say the word “I” are to be executed for breaking the rules of the society. This shows how much the society has changed since the Great
In both Anthem by Ayn Rand, and 1984 by George Orwell, the individual sacrifices personal freedoms. Both novels talk about how the protagonists and people around them react and live in their societies. The difference between the two is that 1984 is about the willingness of people to forfeit complete control of all aspects of the individual, while Anthem is about not having one. In Anthem, the population accepts that there is no choice.
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.
Anthems are used to express pride, allegiance, and belief in a cause or concept. In Anthem, this concept is individual identity. Equality’s refusal to resign himself to monotony or obscurity serves as the catalyst for the entire story. In a world where names are reduced to serial numbers, altruism is expected, and all are masters to all, Equality refuses to become complacent. It is his identity, as a scholar and innovator, that allows him to finally progress beyond the primitive ways of his society.
Equality 7-2521 can free himself from collectivism because he was independent. In the novel Anthem Ayn Rand makes us comprehend that Equality had and inner struggle and
Ayn Rand creates statements throughout the story that show unified causes. The protagonist Equality learns more information from his own experiments than when he learns with the rest of a class. Equality embraced his own unique features that led to greater purpose in his life. Around the world, individuals create new technology when they find their own purpose.
equality recognizes the flaws in this society and he knew in his heart that it was not right how they were treated and forced to live. Equality began to understand to be totally healthy you have to focus on yourself a little. this is a great lesson because it teaches you courage and it shows you how you cannot control God 's plan for individuals lives. The society quality was living in try to play God they control the height of people that job they would have their thought their schedule and told them that everyone was the same as yourself after reading it and would you Embrace other 's individuality more and be more courageous or just fall into what Society is telling
There's so much emphasis on putting others before oneself that people often forget to look out for their own needs, as shown in this book. Ayn Rand successfully captures the negatives of an overrated ideology and presents an unorthodox perspective on the matter. In conclusion, Equality's true motives behind his work are much more selfish than they first appear to be. Equality strives to fulfil his own personal desire rather than contribute everything to society, and this isn't necessarily a negative thing.
In the final chapters of the book, after Equality and The Golden One have discovered their new house and proposed to build a new life, they read books in its intact library and so discover the forbidden word, “I” (94). This discovery prompts Equality to radically overhaul his entire way of going through life, aligning it to Rand’s Objectivist philosophy. His focus on himself, illustrated through his obsession with the word I is show in the last two chapters of the book, where he latches on to the idea that devoting one’s life to only oneself is the only appropriate way to live life. Rand shows this with statements from Equality such as, “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them”(96). Equality is proclaiming that his life will be best lived in a purely selfish manner, where he will not take care of anyone else, but will not ask anyone to take care of him either.
Equality is something people want till people actually have it. Equality often limits a person’s abilities and disables to do something for themselves or inspire themselves. Equality's, the main character in the book Anthem, the primary motivation is proving that he is smart enough to become a scholar. Equality has a right to be motivated in this way since he believes that he can help the society so he is giving into the collectivism. I think that if everyone was motivated in this way, there would be a more progressive society where people sought to improve themselves and society at the same time.
Equality has an internal conflict within the novella, which is, the mind must be free to act and think about its own findings. In Anthem, Ayn Rand shows her character, Equality 7-2521, of being critical of the totalitarian society