The Significance Of Equality In Anthem By Ayn Rand

“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” -Ayn Rand. To use the term ‘freedom’ of what Equality 7-2521 is trying to get out of the society that he lives in is an understatement because of the things that happens inside of it. Equality is correct to become critical to the society’s leaders, denouncing them in moral terms because the leaders of the society are bad, ignorant, and have no sense of individuality.

One way that the society shows that Equality is correct is because they show no sense of individuality. “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, one, indivisible, and forever” (Ayn Rand, Anthem, p. 19). They don’t even say “I”. They say “we” because they have never been taught

“They brought the Transgressor out into the square and they led him to the pyre. They had torn out the tongue of the Transgressor, so that they could not speak no longer. The Transgressor were young and tall” (p. 50). Ripping out someone’s tongue just because they did wrong? A young male got his tongue ripped out because he did wrong. That to me is awful, it also truly shows how strong the society follows their rules. “Still, without reason, as we stood there by the hedge, we felt our lips drawn tight without hatred, a sudden hatred for all our brother men. And the Golden One saw it and smiled slowly, and there was in their smile the first sadness we had seen in them. We think that in the wisdom of women the Golden One had understood more than we can understand” (p. 44-45). As if Equality and others were forced to smile, the Golden One had also smiled in hatred, they have no respect. “As the chains were wound over their body at the stake, and a flame set to the pyre, the Transgressor looked upon the city. There was a thin thread of blood running from the corner of their mouth, but the lips were smiling” (p. 50). The society’s leaders made the Transgressor smile even though he was going through all that pain. That is bad to me because while all those people are watching him go through the pain of him getting his tongue ripped out, they are still making him smile. Faking

“...and the council of scholars knows all things. And we learned much from our teachers. We learned that the earth is flat and that the sun revolves around it, which causes the day and the night” (p. 23). The definition of ignorance is the lack of knowledge or information. The society has teachers that are ignorant, that are teaching the young things that are in correct and and making them lack the correct knowledge that they really need to know. “It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see…” (p. 1). There is no way for them to elaborate off of each other’s ideas and thoughts if they can not express themselves through thought or writing. In that form to me that is lacking information which follows through with the definition of ignorance. “This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us” (p. 21). Equality was born with a higher-level head than others, I think it is benighted by the society’s leaders that he can not express the way he feels and knows because it is a sin. I feel that if one could express what they know and others could elaborate off of it, I think the society would outgrow the ignorance and have more