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Why Do We Need The Rules In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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In the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand explains that the way societies have their rules set up are only to make their society the way they want it. Anthem takes place in a society that is in the future where no one has their own rights. In this society there lives a very powerful man, Equality 7-2521 that wants to make a difference in the society. He starts out as a Street Sweeper chosen by on of the Council men but later on discovers something new. In Anthem they never speak of the unmentionable times. The unmentionable times had to deal with the Great Rebirth which was when the community made a new society with all of their new rules after what had happened. The rules in Anthem are made so that the people in Anthem can live equally and as an individual. …show more content…

In the society the people do not even get to chose their own job, they don’t get to choose where they live, or even know who their mother was. The society is set up so that no one can be outsmarted or outplayed. The Home of Students is where they start out and already learn to live as one. “‘We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen.”(21) The Council wants everyone living for themselves so that there is no feeling for others that can create people to figure out things the Council does not want the people in the community finding out. Breaking any of the rules the society has set up can lead to very harsh punishment or even death. Equality 7-2521 struggles with that fact that he is not aloud to love or find someone on his own. Equality 7-2521 knows what others don’t, that …show more content…

Equality 7-2521 is very pleased with his performance and is very confident that the Council would also be as pleased as he did. Equality 7-2521 then goes back to the society and gets caught by the Council because he has been missing. The Council then is more curious on where he’s been but he refuses to tell them because he knows what he did was against the rules. He is then beat so that he would tell the truth of where he was. Equality 7-2521 then escapes from the Palace of Corrective Detention by doing things by himself, as an individual. Equality 7-2521 then goes back to show the Council what he invented but the Council did not accept mainly because of the thought that he was thinking as “I” not “we”. “‘Our brothers!’ we said. ‘We matter not, nor our transgression. It is only out brother men who matter. Give no thought to us, for we are nothing, but listen to our words, for we bring you a gift such as has never been brought to men. Listen to us, for we hold the future of mankind in our

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Summary Of Ayn Rand's Anthem '

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Anthem is a good book about the future and their own versions of a Utopian society. This novel is all about independence and how options are limited. The question asked is if you think Equality’s eventual assessment of his sins is correct. My answer to this question is, he felt as if his sins taught him more.

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In Anthem by Ayn Rand, the city has numerous rules and controls. Some examples of these rules and controls are the people around the world were not allowed to talk about the “unmentionable times”, they are not allowed to refer to oneself as I, there are no mirrors so they are not allowed to see their own reflections. They are not allowed to complement each other on the way they look, they have to follow the bell, when the bell rings they have to wake up and start their daily routines and the bell rings when they should start or finish something. They are not allowed to pick their job or wish for a better one and they are not allowed to study or invent things unless they were chosen to be in the house of scholars.

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Equality 7-2521 Quotes

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In Ayn Rand's Dystopian/Philosophical novel “Anthem” we are given the chance to witness Equality 7-2521 flourish and bloom as a character in the first chapter alone. Despite living in a society where his rights as a human being are overly oppressed, Equality began to bring forth his uncoerced mind by the end of chapter 1 through his desire to know more about himself and the world around him. At the beginning of the story Ayn Rand portrays Equality 7-2521 as a defiant yet compliant person, Accordingly Equality states that “... there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone … The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!”(Rand 3).

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This attempt at total fairness ties the entire society to the lowest among them, hindering any innovation that might be made. When Equality 7-2125 says “To be free, a man must be free from his brothers,” he means a person who is a member of a collective before they are an individual can never be free. Equality 7-2521 considers himself to be more able than his brothers in a few ways. He is better at school work and has a natural curiosity for the ways of the world. Within his society, this is a crime.

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Equality’s greatest strengths and personal qualities were intended to be restricted and abhorred. Indeed, Equality and his gifts were abhorred, but he found a way to circumvent each restriction, consciously or not. And, though he maintained use of his strengths and kept a strong spirit, Equality was never able to permanently influence the society because, as a Street Sweeper, he was no longer part of the great WE. The Council of Vocations mandated Equality to life as a Street Sweeper in order to limit his intellectual opportunities.

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Though Equality starts Anthem with no knowledge of selfishness, raised in a society that forces all to work for the good of all, he ends Anthem by wishing to liberate those oppressed by the lies of the

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Equality 7-2521 thinks he is different, and he cannot help but commit the crime of choice. He tries to be like the other men, but he never will be. Equality 7-2521 is not very different from any other man, because every other man is struggling with the exact same thing as him. They all think they are different, and that they will be caught for this. Equality 7-2521 just cannot hide it like how these other men can.

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Within Anthem the characters are impacted by the society’s rules and their reputation changes throughout the story. Also, the characters give the society a reputation too. The society in Anthem has a very big part within the story. As stated in the Author’s Foreword, “Some of those who read the story when it was first written, told me that it was unfair to the ideals of collectivism; this was not, they said, what collectivism preaches or intends; collectivists do not mean or advocate such things; nobody advocates them” (Rand 14). So, as said by the author the society chose to be a collectivist society and it caused Equality to rebel and seek to be different.

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Throughout the novel Equality 7-2521 had been living a sort of double life. He would work his assigned job as a street sweeper, then he would go and work on his electricity box. He finally gathered the courage to present his great finding to the council. The council looked down upon Equality in disgust one member went as far to say, “And if the Councils had decreed that you should be a Street Sweeper, how dared you think that you could be of greater use to man than in sweeping the streets” (72). This is the council's way of humbling Equality in telling him that he is no use to any of his brothers other than sweeping the streets.

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As the story progresses the closing chapters of the writing reveal his pivotal judgments against the leaders of his society, attacking their weak morals. The main character condemns the word in which the society revolves around,” We”, as “the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, of falsehood and shame” (Anthem 97). The character is vindicated in doing so, for the society was an evil prison that had restricted his personal freedoms for his entire existence. It was Equality 7-2521’s duty to point out the society’s ultimate flaws. Practicing moral-tolerance in this case and not attempting to combat the evil he had been subjected to would only result in him being a victim to conforming society’s views once again.

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However, since the council fails to recognize this idea, Equality has two options: either face imminent execution or flee. By choosing the latter and fleeing into the Uncharted Forest, Equality finally is, in a physical sense, free from the rule of collectivist society. Now he is alone in the forest, alone with his thoughts. He decides where he goes, when he sleeps, what he eats. However, he is still not fully

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