Ayn Rand’s ideas of how the world should work is a form of modern government called objectivism. Objectivism is the belief that moral truths exist independently of human knowledge. People that believe in objectivism believe that the greatest moral goal is to gain happiness. People that believe this are very hard workers and strive to be the best they can be. This is a very exciting way to live your life because you believe that you can always be more successful and happier. Ayn Rand’s idea of objectivism is her philosophy for life. Objectivism says that you have to be completely free to be life-promoting and they must be able to act on thoughts. Ayn Rand wrote a book by the name Anthem that explains her views in a way that you can understand objectivism without even knowing what it is yet. The book explains how a man longs to be free even though he’s government controls his life and forces him to be a street sweeper. His name is Equality 7-2521 just like many of his fellow men. The people in this world do not have a specific identity and do not say “I” but instead “We”. He starts to question the authority the government has over him when he meets a girl that he calls the “Golden One.” It was love at first sight for both of them and soon …show more content…
Having common sense is the only knowledge man needs, which means that it is a form of survival for us. Equality uses his knowledge to be a free individual man, to gain a specific identity. Later on in the book Equality gave himself the name Prometheus and saw himself as a god like figure because he brought knowledge to people. If somebody becomes a terrible person it is no one’s fault but his own because he did not use his knowledge to be a good person, therefore he isn’t one. It is no one’s fault but his own if he does not succeed in life; he will not flourish if he does not pursue his
“Anthem” – one of writing authors Ayn Rand, shows her at her most vicious, hungry, and ambitious reading personality not only as a writer, but as a storyteller as well. The classic hit novel “Anthem” is the predecessor to Ayn Rands later books and storytelling works such as “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”, often tackles controversial themes that are still prevalent within modern America today, such as Family & Love. The grandeur novel “Anthem” is a reflection of such topics, all whilst being told with almost an aura of mystery within the novels plotline / storyline. “Anthem’s” take on things such as individuality and self discovery along with universal, self serving terms such as “I” & the word “We” are the key factors in helping differinciate this author Ayn Rand from other authors that write and compse the same genre of literature as Ayn Rand. Anyways, please allow for me to introduce you to the under the surface, deeper themes expressed in the classic debut novel, Ayn Rands “Anthem”
Ayn Rand chose to rename her main characters to give an understanding of her philosophies, which are shown from the comparisons. She strongly exemplifies her disbelief of collectivism by forcing her main characters to disobey their society, making them realize that they have a right to be different and that they want more knowledge about the times before the Great Rebirth. She demonstrates her belief of individualism and the right of having your own freedom by the Character Equality and how his thought process is contradictive to his
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.
I believe that Ayn Rand’s life influenced her book Anthem to a great extent. Ayn Rand, who was born in St. Petersburg in 1905, lived through the Communist Revolution in Russia. She lived through the shift from an Imperialistic government system to a Communist Society. Through the switch she saw how words like “I” and “Me” faded out of their social discussions and were eventually replaced with words like “We” and “Us”. This switch caused their society to heavily swing towards the idea of collectivism, and Ayn Rand lived through this. She thought that this switch and the idea of collectivism would be a great platform and prompt for her book Anthem. Collectivism was very real and present during her lifetime
Have you ever thought of living in a place where everyone is the same and no one is different? Boring, right. In the book Anthem, Ayn Rand fully expresses her thoughts about the role of individualism and society. Anthem is a dystopian novella, written in 1937 and published in England in 1938. The book is about a society, in which there is no “I” and only “we” is allowed. The dictatorship of Anthem tries to keep the members of society brainwashed by focusing on the importance of obedience and equality which justifies restricting people from pursuing individual freedom and limiting their knowledge and vocabulary. Anthem is a critique of the political movements of Fascism and Communism in Europe during the 1930’s
Equality starts to become self-reliant. He searches for knowledge and relies on himself and his discovery for joy. Page 52 says, “We Equality 7-2521 have discovered a new power of nature, and we have discovered it alone and only we know it.” (Rand 52). Although searching for knowledge is valued in Christianity, Equality’s beliefs still differ from the Bible. Equality directly defies authority and only relies on himself as the ultimate authority. However, Romans 13: 1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” In comparison with Equality’s beliefs, Equality is making himself the ultimate authority instead of God. Romans 12:2 also states, “That you should not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Similarly, Equality is respected but not conforming to
Anthem by Ayn Rand is a dystopian novel written in the 1930’s. The novel displays a society that confines the human mind and body. The rights humans are restricted to what the government believes is fit. The characters are ruled by collectivism and communist. Communism is the belief that the government should own everything. Collectivism is the belief of a superior group that controls society. Rand reveals the nature of the main character’s society and the values of the main character, Equality 7-2521 by writing this excerpt of the novel in the character’s perspective in an assertive tone and beginning with the rights and wrongs of their society.
Equality, a very curious main character, wants the experience of feeling valued not only within himself but also from others. The feeling of accomplishment and knowledge is what he is deprived of in his collectivist world and what many seek to feel. Individuality distinguishes one from others which is why each and every one is unique and why Equality feels he is different. This difference is due
Ayn Rand grew up in communist Russia. Her upbringing in the communist society is evident throughout the book which is based on her childhood. One could infer that she is a lot like Equality, we could also deduce that Rand enjoyed a sense of self and took pride in breaking the rules in her society to individualize herself. In Anthem rules exist to make everyone equal, and their purpose is to ensure no one “goes out of the box”, but Equality would not include any of these rules because of his personal beliefs, and his adventures breaking these rules. Guidelines exist to make everyone uniform, and their purpose is to not have any people who break the mold. Although Equality grew up in a extremely strict and dour society, he would not enforce
Rand Paul favors Ayn Rand and her views. Especially when it comes to her economic and political views. “Ayn Rand wrote a novel, Anthem, back in the 50's. And it's a dystopian novel. In that novel, individual choice is banned, and the collective basically runs society.” Rand Paul uses her book to inform what could happen to the society if we let all government control what we do or
Ayn Rand's Anthem shows us her view of our world united under what seems to be communist rule. For example their view of right and wrong; which Anthem portrays is a system of very strict rules which mainly make sure that everyone is involved in a collective role within the society in this system no one is considered an individual or that they can even think as an individual.
A crucial question people often find themselves asking is whether to live for themselves or to live for others and to what extent. Ayn Rand's novella, Anthem, explores a dystopian society that takes the theme of living for others to a whole new level. The sternness of this culture creates an emotionless and a bland society set on fulfilling collectivist principles. Anthem's society manipulates language to enforce collectivist doctrine by excluding words which cultivate a personal identity and merging religious and government views.
At first glance, the book Anthem by ayn rand is pretty good. The book flows nicely and makes you want to stay up reading it instead of sleeping(at least that’s what I did). But there is a lot more hidden in the writing than you might think. In this essay, I will be discuss the topics of the unspeakable word, Objectivism, Rand putting her life into her work, and the possibilities of a connection between Anthem and the book “Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld. Ayn rand is a really smart author, and she has hidden many secrets in her book.
Ayn Rand’s novel puts Equality in a great position to start his new life with his new family. Ayn Rand’s story gives hope to all who want not to be conquered by their government and to have a say in what they believe in. If your government or society doesn’t like what you have to say, then it shows you can also walk right out the door if you don’t like what is happening. When you become a collectivist, you lose your individuality and almost become a slave and or a robot to the government and society. You lose your creativity and
Believing in yourself and the things you can do is what sets you apart from the others surrounding you. In a world of dystopian collectivism, rules and regulations have turned life negative for generations upon generations of people. The perfect world that they have created has begun to crack. Ayn Rand believed that collectivism was not beneficial to this dystopian life and showed her reasonings through the character Equality 7-2521, the exclusion of the word “I”, and fear.