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Ayn Rand Anthem Analysis

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4 Anthem After moving from soviet Russia to the United States in 1926, Ayn Rand became a well known playwright, author, and philosopher. Rand is well-known for her philosophical system, objectivism. Objectivism stresses that happiness is the most important goal one should have. All of these ideas and philosophies are present in the novel Rand composed, Anthem. In this collectivist society the people act as robots as they carry out their lives with little emotion, limited technology, and the constant threat of punishment. The atmosphere of this novel depicts a society with very rare opposition to the leadership because the people whom it is made up of have no reason to oppose it and since they are constantly threatened with punishments. …show more content…

Collectivism is all that they have ever been exposed to. After being sent to the Home of the Students where every day the students were forced to raise their right arms and say “We are nothing. Mankind is all” (pg 21). Throughout their entire lives, they have collectivism drilled into their minds to the point that they know of no other way to live other than as a group. Another reason why they have no reason to oppose their leadership is due to the fact that they have very little knowledge about their history. Nearly all the buildings and technology from the “Unmentionable times” were destroyed during the “Great Rebirth”(pg 19) so the people know very little about the times before the Great Rebirth. Also, these people have no hopes or aspirations. Equality explains how at around the age of forty, the workers are sent to the “Home of the Useless”(pg19). They have no dreams for a better life, so they have nothing to look forward to, nothing to live

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