How Does Ayn Rand Create A Dystopian In Atlas Shrugged

In this paper, I will be talking about the book called Anthem by Ayn Rand. I will be talking about characters such as protagonists and antagonists and how some characters impacted the story. I will talk about the setting, conflicts, and the plot of the story. I will also talk about literary devices such as point of view, symbolism, mood, tone, and theme.

Imagine living in a society where everything someone does is conforming to someone else. In the novella Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, the author talks about conformity by referring to how all men need to be alike and fit in with each other. Equality 7-2521 the street sweeper, believes in the feeling of individualism and rejects the collectivist society around him. Social conformity becomes dangerous in Anthem because while Equality 7-2521 follows all the rules at the beginning of the novella, throughout the book he begins to break them.

Would you like it if the government had complete control of you? For example, the government might tell you who you aloud to interact with, or they could tell you what job that you have to go to every single day, and where you are allowed to live. The government should not have the right to control an individual because a person knows what's best for them, such as who they from relationships with, what they do for a living and what their lifestyle looks like.

On the surface, dystopian fiction is a bleak, depressing genre that offers ‘a detailed and destructive presentation of the very worst of social alternative’ , but in actuality it is a means of speculation that reveals to the audience the real threats in society. It extrapolates contemporary socio-political trends taken into extremes , which compels its audience to re-examine the values of their society, resulting in an optimistic tale that gives the audience hope to escape their pessimistic future. Anthem by Ayn Rand (1937) is a detailed portrait of a collectivist society overstated for the purpose of satire and storytelling. As a politically conscious writer, Rand writes to communicate to her audience her political perception into the destructive psychology of collectivism. This exposes the audience to the risks of conformity, along with providing means to avoid this dystopian imagination crystallising into reality.

“It is a sin to write this” this is how Ayn Rand starts her book Anthem. In the book Equality is a

In the 1937 novella “Anthem’ by Ayn Rand, their society has many rules in place to be able to control their citizens and to be the same as their brothers. Some of the main laws are citizens cannot write anything, citizens cannot have personal preferences, and citizens cannot keep secrets from their brothers. The city in the novella “Anthem” has many rules and regulations in order to ensure that their society does not fall apart like the society in the Unmentionable Times. Protagonist Equality 7-2521 has broken many of the city's laws and is much different all of his fellow brothers.

The narrator of Anthem,7-2521 are the only ones from this community to see or know more than there brothers,which causes them to create something that nobody else can create.The council tries to stop them from overthinking or triying to be more than the rest.They told themselves that they rather die than let the council know what they have created(33-34).The way Equality 7-2521 thought they felt proud but they felt scared they never wanted to get caught by the council.Additionally,when Equality 7-2521 does decide to speak up and show the scholars what they have created.(69-70)

1) In dystopian societies, an identifying characteristic often found is uniformity, or the idea that all citizens are equal. This can be seen in Ayn Rand's Anthem. In her novel, she describes a quote inscribed "[o]ver the portals of the Palace of the World Council ... cut in the marble... 'We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever'" (19). The ideals of the society in Anthem are based upon the conformity of its people. Even little things - such as names - are too personalized, and the citizens are given serial numbers instead.

Imagine living life normally inside of your moderately-sized home and your wealth continuing to soar higher and higher. All of a sudden, that wealth, your home, and your life all come crashing down in one big event-- this event being the Russian Revolution. In the story Anthem by Ayn Rand, the narrator is depicted in first person major.

At the end of the novel, Equality sees nothing wrong with individuality and encourages it. He now even hates the word “we” since he believes that it was “the worship of the word ‘we’” (Rand 102) that brought his old society into submission. Equality also wishes to be called by an individual name, so he chooses the fitting name of Prometheus and gives the future mother of his children the name Gaea (Rand 99). The practices of his society, on the contrary, believe that everyone must be seen equally in each others eyes. There is no worse transgression than to “do or think alone” (Rand 17). While citizens under this government do have names by which they are addressed, they seem more like serial numbers than actual names (for example: Equality

Vision a lifestyle where one perceives it as a sin to comprehend data more efficiently than of one’s peers; a felony to long for things that others do not wish upon. Where floods of white tunics and austere minds obliterate the Earth. A colony built upon leaders who asphyxiate anyone from infatuation of any object or significant being; moreover, a world suffocating in collectivism. Through exasperated transcription, Anthem brings about such a community; nevertheless, a world of black and white. Ayn Rand does not overemphasize the effects of totalitarianism, but amplifies it so that it is more effortless for one to enlighten he or she’s notion on the particular proposal. First, by analyzation of “Equality 7-2521”, and

The famous adage, “ignorance is bliss” may be true for some however, Equality is not one of them. Equality is happier knowing the truth than being kept in the shadows. In Ayn Rand’s oppressive, totalitarian society where individualism is the highest crime, Equality struggles to free himself from collectivism. Thus, emphasizing the idea that his curiosity and intellectual strength are the reason he overcomes his internal conflict.

The book Anthem by Ayn Rand takes place in a dystopian society, quite different from the world we know it today. Equality 7-2521, the main character, lives in a civilization where “There are no men but only the great WE. One, indivisible and forever.” (Rand, Ayn) For the majority of the book, the pronoun “we” would be used. All idea of ego is forbidden, and is punishable by death. Acts such as being smarter, or even in Equality 7-2521’s instance, also being taller, is frowned upon. Going by these standards, the view of morality is different for this dystopian society. At the end of the book, Equality 7-2521 re-evaluates what morality is according to him.

The juxtaposition of the society in Anthem with today’s society is surprisingly terrifying. The dystopian society in Anthem promotes the ideology of collectivism and the oppression of individualism with resemblance to how aspects of those ideas are portrayed in our society. Anthem primarily focuses on a controlled society, yet our society focuses on the competition of prosperity amongst the population. Using Ayn Rand’s satiristic writing elements, the events in Anthem depict a correlation to today’s society, confirming Rand’s warnings to the ignorant public.

“When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer.”