Theme Of Equality In Ayn Rand's Anthem

She does this by developing a protagonist, Equality-72521, who seeks to have the privilege of exploring and taking risks. Equality-72521 lives in a society that shames him for being curious and having an imagination different from the others around him by telling him that he should not be different from others. By placing him into this situation, Rand proves to her readers that the only way to success is through trust in oneself, even through failures and the doubt of others. Rand depicts the theme that self-reliance on one’s own thoughts, actions, and curiosity is the key to success in her novel, Anthem, by showing her readers that taking risks is necessary to learn new things.

Her battle against communism affected her as an author and inspired her writing in Anthem. In Anthem, citizens are constantly presented the idea that preaches collectivism and extreme loyalty to the state. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521, has grown up in this restrictive civilization and believed all he was told. Equality is exceptional in many aspects that are prohibited, and he has a tendency to disobey the society’s laws. Equality slowly embraces freedom as he discovers his own ego.

Happiness is a rite of passage to everyone no matter what cost. It can be extremely difficult to take someone’s happiness away, but it can be done. For example, in the book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, Prometheus’ happiness is stripped from him in a futuristic society focused around similarity and compliance. Similarly, this unfortunately can happen as we are currently witnessing in Communist countries. Rand describes taking away individuality by forcing everyone to use “we” instead of “I”.

Martyrdom is the act of suffering greatly for a religion, or cause. Equality suffers greatly from his cause. Equality’s cause is to be able to create an invention that will appease the council of scholars, and further the knowledge of the society. He also wants to use this as forgiveness for his sins. However despite Equality’s best intentions, he is persecuted for his individuality.

Like Oscar Wilde’s quote on disobedience, “It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” By this war book, many people probably were able to relate to it and help themselves in some way. Through what some may call Vonnegut’s “rebellion” he did what he felt was needed to be said. Although some may not consider what Lot’s wife did made progress in some way, she still disobeyed and it shows its readers, or some at least, that she was human and all humans make

The indirect characterization of the Pardoner, in consideration of his objective stance towards his own wrongdoings, reveals him to be a man with conscious partial to his intents and basic motivation. The Pardoner explicitly states his reason for sermonizing as his “exclusive purpose is to win and not at all to castigate their sin” (p. 243). With brutal honesty and in meticulous fashion, the Pardoner embraces his love for profit and monetary gains in spite of his pious occupation. Though the actions and impressions of the Pardoner are both distasteful and lacking in morals, it is the same hypocritical disposition that highlights the depth and good of the character. While not righteous or honorable in any traditional sense, the Pardoner argues that he is appropriate to preach against his personal vice of greed due to his understanding of the sin and that in the process he is able to truly assist others in the relinquishment of their faults.

The dramatic masterpiece ‘An Inspector Calls’ is arguably a mouthpiece to express the playwrights political views. Priestley uses many techniques to hyperbolise the older generations selfishness and the younger generations empathy as well as their acceptance of all views. Mr birling states “The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war” Priestly uses dramatic irony to portray Mr birling as delusional as we know there are 2 world wars after this play was set. Alternatively, this could mean that Mr birling is trying to reassure himself for the inevitable that is coming and hopefully thinking by saying this over and over will make the war not occur.

Elie Wiesel performed the speech “The Perils of Indifference” and explained his aversion for people who were not helping others in need. These authors showed how indifference in the world takes away humanity and takes away the basic rights of every human being. Both authors hope to use their literature to change how people see the victims of brutality around

Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise. In a society that functions by this proverb, wisdom is hard to come by. However, for a being longing for this wisdom, with a natural urge of curiosity, this “bliss” is hell. Equality, a being longing for the validation of his differences in a society of group mentality, is spare of individual morality. He accepts the ignorance of total equality that is forced on him, but is contrastingly different from the image of a part of a communal whole.

The famed author C.S. Lewis once said,”Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” This is a statement that many can agree or disagree on. To some, it means that a ruling power or government could enforce rules and regulations on its citizens that are thought of as helping them, but instead making everything worse and are hindering them from making the society better. A counter argument could be that the oppression is helping the society become better. Some examples of this type of dystopian society are Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery.

Ms. Tarbell series on Standard Oil published in, “1904” would cause the government to act. “Tarbell meticulously documented the aggressive techniques Standard Oil employed to outmaneuver and, where necessary, roll over whoever got in its way. A short while later, President Theodore Roosevelt used the phrase “muckraker” (from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress) in a speech in reference to Tarbell….” (Connecticut History.org). Ms. Tarbell earned praise of President Theodore Roosevelt for exposing Standard Oil’s corrupt practices. However, according to the Connecticut Historical Society Ms. Tarbell actually hated the term “mudracker” she considered the term crude and saw herself more as an historian.

Similar to him, I despise it when something is unfair to me, but if I am not the one being inconvenienced, I find it not worth it to resist power. The first time I read through this part of the book, I admired Bernard for rising above the dystopian world; he was the first character that was aware of the flaws in the conditioned society. Unfortunately, this realization didn’t last long. We see by the end that Bernard exploits John for the fame and attention, meaning that he has not learned to resist power, but played it to his advantage. I don’t believe that I outwardly resist very often, rather I play by the option that most benefits me in the present

In reading Meet the poster child for “white privilege” – then have your mind blown, and, To the Princeton Privileged Kid, I can say that I somewhat see and agree with both points of view. I think that both have in some way miss interpreted what the other is saying. It amazes me how people don’t want to take matters into their own hands, and always find the need to have someone to blame for their issues, and shortcomings. Instead they just keep spewing out hate. Hate breeds hate, and we can 't keep fighting it all with more hate.