Anthem Quotes

The council would kill the men who knew the unspeakable word.As humans, it is just our nature to want to be curious. This yearning for the knowledge may have fed Equality’s motivation. When Equality first came to present the gift of light that he discovered the council had said “ We have much to say to

Anthem is a story about how mankind enters a dark age where individuality is now eliminated by ‘The Council’ in an unspecified future date and unspecified location. The narrator of the novel, Equality 7-2521 is a rebellious young protagonist that conducts illegal secretive scientific research alone and writes in a journal in an underground abandoned railroad tunnel. This dystopian novella deals with authoritarianism as the government has taken control and assigns jobs and duties for every being based on the Council's decision. In the novels Anthem by Ayn Rand and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, the totalitarian government takes advantage of their higher power to enforce strict obedience on citizens, without concerning for their opinions or wishes and removing their personal freedom, which causes a rebellious protagonist to take charge and struggle to find their freedom.

“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose” (Rand, 95). Anthem is written by American author Ayn Rand about Equality 7-2521 on his quest for happiness. The novel is set in an unspecified time and place in the future. Years after human civilization has gone through a deconstruction in which all knowledge was lost and a new society established with no concept of the individual. “The novel describes the efforts of the main character, Equality 7-2521, to reestablish a sense of personal identity and restore the knowledge of the past by objective scientific inquiry. In doing so, he must face many dangers and privations” (Anthem). Anthem is a dairy of the Equality

“Change is certain. Progress is not.”, in the so-called perfect society, there is no progress and they are yet to develop, although, there are some people who defy these odds and develop into different people (Carr). The main character, Equality, has many obstacles to overcome but has yet to discover who he truly is. Although, as the story goes on, he starts to discover new things about himself, his purpose, and starts to realize he is not a part of this “perfect society”. The word “I” makes one an individual, however in Anthem, the word “I” is lost and there is no individual, just the collective people working for a common goal. Equality is set on a journey to find out who he truly is while

Societies are different in many ways. The society that Anthem is based around is a collectivist society, in this society everyone is treated equal. Equality 7-2521 didn’t care for this type of society organization. He discovered a tunnel that had been left from the unmentionable times, and they were instructed to have no affiliation with the unmentionable times. While in this tunnel he made some gave discoveries, one of these discoveries was electricity. He later presented this finding to the scholars, they didn’t not appreciate his assertiveness with his new finding, so he had to leave fearing his life. He ran into the uncharted forest and eventually found a house from the unmentionable times.

Anthem by Ayn Rand is a collectivist society. In Anthem the highest leaders are the World Council. The World Council forces them to say “we” instead of “I,” so that everyone will think they are one with society, but if anyone thinks or speaks as an individual they will be sent to the Corrective Detention or burned to death; but Equality has no fear and discovers that individualism is just.

In the book Anthem, there are many sins, as well as transgressions. There is a transgression of preference, of being alone, of thinking alone, of writing, and even of disobedience. In this essay, I will talk about why I feel this society is corrupt as well as how I believe Equality 7-2521 has come to the same conclusion and why he doesn't care about his transgressions. I will also talk about how I think Equality 7-2521 realizes the importance of the written word. And lastly, I will talk about how I feel that Equality 7-2521 has come to his current state of enlightenment. An epiphany, if you will.

Anthem Literary Analysis Image having to live in a society that you were against. Having to live a life not meant for you; however, you deal with it majority of your life until you decide enoughs enough. This is what Equality 7-2521 had to deal with within the novella Anthem. The life he was forced to live was enough for him. He had a passion which made him an outcast in his society.

He believed in the society until the Council of Scholars rejected his invention of the light bulb. The rejection led him to run away into the Uncharted Forests where he began to build his own view of morality along with the Golden One. As time progressed, Equality began to see how much the collectivist society was wrong about a variety of things. Shortly after Equality runs away he realizes that he did not build the light bulb for his brothers but indeed for himself, which demonstrates his change in belief from the brotherhood to the individual. Through Equality’s discoveries he realizes that his purpose is not to fulfill the accomplishments, needs, and sacrifices of his brothers but to fulfill his own accomplishments, needs, and sacrifices.

He is an individual, and as an individual he is not responsible for the well and care being of anyone else. As he states, ¨ I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man’s soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet,” (96). Equality is free from all other people.

Equality’s Mask A mask is something that covers all or part of the face, worn to hide one's identity. A mask can also be defined as anything that disguises or conceals a person or an object. People often use masks because they do not want others to think poorly of them.

Equality’s view of morality at the end of the novel was that people would be able to decide if something is a good thing to do or not to do. In the ending pages of the book anthem equality’s view of morality is that it doesn’t half to benefit the community it can benefit only him. Equality’s morality is different than his community because he believes in individuality more than a community-based system.

In fact, the way that he was treated may have been the start of his mistrust in the leaders of society. Equality was treated bad but he was still under the influence that the leaders knew what was best for him so he did not do anything about it just took it as his punishment for all of his so-called sin being tall and smart. He followed the rules of the leaders and did what he was told to do for his brothers. In the story, it talks about the engraving set in stone at the World Council building " There are no men but only the great WE, One, Indivisible and forever." (chapter 1, page 1) As a kid Equality had a problem with fighting with his brothers as well as being taller and smarter than them. The teachers told him that he was cured and that there was evil in his bones. " It is we alone Equality 7-2521, we alone are born with a curse" (chapter 1 page 1) The teachers always tell Equality that he is nothing like his brothers " For we are not like our brothers." (chapter 1, page 1) Equality was smarter than his brothers which made the teachers despise Equality which made him think different of his leaders " The teachers told us so and frowned when they looked upon us." (chapter 1, page

To begin, Equality 7-2521’s actions develop the theme that individualism is not a sin. He does this in multiple ways. However, most of the characters in Anthem believe that individualism is a sin. That is why Equality 7-2521’s actions are significant to the development of the theme. In the beginning

Anthem draws heavily on the historical record of twentieth century. The collectivist society described in the book is called Equality 7-2521. This collectivist society is the place where is similar to the Nazi. This society makes lots of restrictions that forbid people to have their individually thoughts. Moreover, people are forbidden to think freely. All of them have to act in unquestioning obedience to the orders of the society.