Anthem Rules and Controls Are you currently bombarded with rules set by your parents or boss’? Imagine all the rules you currently have and then times them by ten! It might seem like it’s hard to imagine, but the book Anthem by Ayn Rand takes place in a very controlling city. In the city of Anthem, they have a numerous amount of rules and controls placed on the city and the people. Anthem has put multiple rules into action so that everyone is “equal” and there are “less” problems. What the society doesn’t know is that there are problems in Anthem. Equality sees these problems and will not implement them in the world that he envisions. Rules, regulations, and controls all have a purpose and a reason as to why they exist. No matter how outrageous …show more content…
He didn’t fit in the society as well as his brothers, which made him strongly disliked. He stood out in the crowd which showed that he was extremely different and Anthem didn’t like different. One thing that made him stand out was that he was built differently than his brothers. “Ever have the teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and frowned and said ‘There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers.” (Rand 18). Equality was also highly intelligent, smarter than his brothers, and he had potential to be an amazing member of the city, but he was never given the chance to be great. He was downgraded and placed as a street sweeper because he preferred to be a Scholar. Equality tried very hard to fit in a be like his brothers. It states, “We looked upon Union 5-3992, who were a pale boy with only half a brain, and we tried to say and do as they did, that we might be like them, like Union 5-3992, but somehow the Teachers knew that we were not.” (Rand 21). All the rules and controls that were placed over the city seemed great to everyone else but they restricted Equality. He wasn’t allowed to be himself, be who he wanted, and more. Not being able to be who he wanted was one thing that pushed him to envision his own
According to Ayn Rand, she is one of the few that thinks being independent in a society is better than being subservient. Anthem is not just a forceful indictment of collectivism. It is, first and foremost, a festivity of individualism — a “hymn to man’s individuality.” This is a quote by Ayn Rand. In this quote, you can understand that by this quote, she feels that being independent is much better than being dependent.
Unlike during the Unmentionable Times, when men created “towers [that] rose to the sky,” it is an affliction to be born with powerful intellectual capacity and ambition in Ayn Rand’s apocalyptic, nameless society in Anthem. Collectivism is ostensibly the moral guidepost for humanity, and any perceived threat to the inflexible, authoritarian regime is met with severe punishment. The attack on mankind’s free will and reason is most evident in the cold marble engraving in the Palace of the World Council: “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (6). Societal norms force homogeneity and sacrifice among all people.
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.
He writes, “Our discovery is too great for us to waste our time in sweeping the streets” (Rand 60). Equality knows he is worth more than he is perceived. As he writes more he starts to realize his real motivation for telling the Scholars about his discovery: possibly getting himself out of the Home of the Street Sweepers and into the Home of the Scholars. He doesn't confirm it with himself until after he goes through with showing the Scholars and being rejected. “We have not built this box for the good of our brothers.
Have you ever felt like a total outsider? In Anthem Ayn Rand shows a perspective from a young boy in a dystopian society. In the far future what lies ahead, no one knows. In this story you get an idea of one scary scary possibility.
Equality lives in a collectivist society, which is a society that believes, “that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.” Therefore, Equality being the person he is, struggles with being an individual. He knows it is against the law but he enjoys knowledge so much, it confuses him. He states, “And in our heart-strange are the ways of evil! - and in our heart there is the first peace we have known in 20 years.”
Anthem shows by the end of the book that individualism is something that can help set you free and enlighten you. The important part is that while the text uses the plural form of words the book is very introspective and provides a single man's account on the society he lived in. At the end of the book Equality has seen how the society was made to restrict and destroy his inner self, "I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame" (Rand 164). The important part is that this emphasizes the underlining reasoning behind the book that collectivism and the very overuse of the word leads to failure and shame among people. We can compare the abuse of the word "We" in Anthem to the changed meaning and abuse of the word "equal" in Animal Farm.
In our society, people are motivated in lots of different ways. This can create both positives, such as putting a man on the moon, and negatives, such as war and starving people. Anthem is a story about a man who is going against his collectivist society in his search for individuality. Equality’s main motivation is to discover new things and new ideas in the world around him, as well as to try to figure out who he is as an individual. His motivation is correct because he enables the thought of free will, and the world could become a better place if everyone was motivated like Equality.
In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand takes place in the future at an unspecified date and place. The humans in Anthem live in a dystopian society where the word I is erased entirely. The current government they live under has a number of rules and regulations that if broken can get you killed in many ways. However why do these rules exist, What is their purpose and does the society that Equality envisions created at the end of the story would include any of these rules and controls?
In response to the choice of Street Sweeper, Equality thinks, “We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it” (26). With his intelligence and curiosity, Equality would do much better as a Scholar. The government punishes him for being different, and as a result, they can’t see him become advantageous. They are blinded by their beliefs on
Equality was first physically punished than he was rather than being assigned to the house of scholars he was put into the house of street sweepers. This set set him on his track to find out who he really is and what the society he was born into is really about. Equality is not old to today
"We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever’”(Rand 19). In Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel, Anthem, the citizens are trained from birth to think only in the plural, to the point where they cannot even conceive of individuals, but only see each other as part of the whole group. Rand’s protagonist, Equality 72521, begins the novel as a street-sweeper who is devoted to the group, but begins to move towards individuality as he progresses towards pure selfishness, as Rand believes we all should. Rand uses the words “we” and “I” to represent Equality’s journey from being dependent on the group, to being utterly independent of everyone.
Anthem Essay “The secrets of this earth is not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them,”(52). Equality 7-2521 leaves for his own sake. He was told many things about the unmentionable times, not to go into the uncharted forest, and not to speak the unspeakable word,”I”. He grew up with his brothers as one and referred each other as “we”.
“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (Rand 19). How can an individual be a hero in a collectivist society? In The Anthem, a novella by Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521 is portrayed as an archetypal epic hero. Equality 7-2521 exhibits the characteristics of an epic hero because he is capable of great deeds, he has a nemesis, and he experiences an event that leads to a quest.
Equality has changed from a collective to an individual having the knowledge of realizing what he can do to change himself in the environment. Anthem has shown how the society works. The main character Equality has proven the allegory when he realizes there's more than just a collectivism society. From start of the novel Equality has been able to grow from a part of a collectivism to learning about individualism to becoming an individual. Equality conquers the battle of collectivism and individualism for