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Children Living Apart from Families in Totalitarian Societies

Decent Essays

In many real life and fictionalized totalitarian societies, children live apart from their families. Why would dictatorial leaders enforce this living arrangement? In the book Anthem, the children are living in a totalitarian society. This society is usually run by a dictator and there is very little or no freedom. In totalitarianism, the government or in this case the councils control almost every aspect of life. There is no free speech or freedom of the press; certain religions or ideas may be banned. “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever.” This plays a great part in the book because” we” is what the people refer to as themselves. Everyone is equal to each other and there is no “I”. The councils in Anthem believe that no brother should ever rise above one another. No brother should outsmart the other.
Knowledge is a powerful thing. In totalitarian societies children are taken away from their parents at very young ages, so they learn all the same things. All of the student’s knowledge is kept at the same level. All the children know is only what the government teaches them. “It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but is evil to be superior to them.” This evidence from the book Anthem shows us that it is not a good thing to be smarter than the other student’s. It is a sin. Dictators who want to restrain

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