Comparison Of Anthem And Station Eleven

In Anthem, Ayn Rand is constantly using characters and emotion to set the mood and tone in the book. In the book, everyone is equal and do not have their own self rights. But of course one character in Anthem does not agree with the rules and goes awol. Throughout the book, characters like Equality 7-2521 become dynamic and learn more about two people in their group of one hundred kids. Every year 100 babies are born because men and women are sent to the City Palace of Mating. Among these two people were International 4-8818 and Liberty 5-3000. Both of these characters causes some of the choices Equality made in the book. Ayn broke down the book with mood and tone into three categories; characters and their feelings, challenges dealing with the setting, and society such as the Council.

“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil… We have broken the laws” (17). Thus begins Anthem by Ayn Rand, a novella about a future collectivist society and a man named Equality 7-2521. Though the story takes place in the future, all technology that came after candles and glass has been taken away. The word “I” has ceased to exist in anyone’s vocabulary. Every person must agree on everything and feel like everyone else. To accomplish ‘cleansing’ the evils of mankind, society lead its people to believe that nothing can be done independently. The story is told through the eyes of Equality as he purposely defies the laws

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

In the novel “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, the character Equality 7-2521 comes to his individual and personal conclusion of what freedom is. “But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.” (Rand, 101). In the world of “Anthem”, independent thoughts and freedom are forbidden and are looked upon as the greatest evil. Humans became a mindless horde in this depiction of the future and no longer have a choice of what they say or do-- and what’s worse is that everyone just goes along with this way of doing things. Despite this, Equality 7-2521 stood out among the others, even

Imagine a world where everyone is equal; living a life that feels almost programmed. Humans may not realize the impact freedom, technology, and independence has on our daily lives; however, Anthem by Ayn Rand demonstrates the importance of these rights. The story portrays the life of a young man, Equality 7-2521, living in a society that is built on severe rules and laws. These laws are designed to eliminate individuality, resulting in an extremely controlled environment. Due to the laws, Equality 7-2521 rebels against the society. For example, Equality 7-2521 was given the job as a Street Sweeper but realized life was unchallenging for him, and was punished for going beyond his limitations. Equality 7-2521 understands that solitude is

“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil” (17). Equality 7-2521 was born into a society that portrays a totalitarian rule. The people living in the controlled environment have been taught and brainwashed to know only one thing: the priority of the group over the individual person. Equality 7-2521 is one of the few people raised in the world of collectivism that is born different – filled with curiosity, gifted with intelligence; the difference leads him to believe he is cursed and evil. He was ashamed of his unique qualities and believed that he was a flaw. It is this divergence that makes him believe there is an initial

After that first step is taken, people will begin to realize the merits of their situations and therefore, begin to fight as well. This theme is evident throughout the book as the motif of individuality is so prevalent but it only really becomes clear once the main character begins to act on his beliefs. Character development also takes many large strides in this section. Equality’s actions during his meeting with the Council of Scholars were rash and perhaps even radical. Now however, we begin to see his logic in his actions. This all shows the fact that he is beginning to think for himself more than ever and is therefore becoming an individual rather than a monotonous member of the collective. This all comes back to the major conflict of the book: Equalities search for a life in which he can exhibit nonconformity and live in any way he chooses. The conflict is fully resolved after Equality and Liberty find a small house hidden from the rest of society which is from the “Unmentionable times”, a time period similar to our own which the World Council attempts to hide as best they can because it can be implied that they fear to lose power over this society. In the final few chapters of the book, Equality learns, through reading classical texts of the word ‘I’. Thus, his journey for individualism and nonconformity is completed and his conflict is resolved. Rand writes:

Basic summary: The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is a dystopian science fiction novel that is set in the future where there are no rights or freedom there is no such thing as “I”. Everyone is equal to each other; they work and live in collective groups everyone is thought as one. The narrator, Equality 7-2521 has always stood out from everyone else, he was much smarter, later on, he vows to use his new knowledge to build a society based on individual freedom.

The classroom was full of children, and they were all the same except for their age and gender. They didn’t have a choice for anything that they did, it was the government that was forcing them to be what they were. They weren’t allowed to know anything more than what they were taught. There was one little girl who was a touch different. She was starting to realize that life could be different than what she had always known. She had decided to make a change for herself and not be the same anymore. Just like this little girl, Equality 7-2521 was longing for a change. He realized that there was another way of living, and that was what he wanted. Equality went about doing everything differently from what he had learned from the beginning. He took a stand and ended up being a different person overall, he wasn’t going to let anyone else control him anymore. The characterization and setting techniques employed in Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel Anthem and Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” illustrate the theme of how those who are under authority do not change who they are on the inside just because they are controlled, resulting in rebellion and dishonesty toward those who are in charge.

“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

He realizes he had everything to fear from the twisted society that he lived in. Equality had trusted himself enough to completely let go of his old society, to leave everything behind and adopt a new culture. He must have trusted himself immensely to have done this. He also realizes humans are much too smart to govern that society and wonders if they were just too afraid to contradict their government or just did not trust themselves to try and overthrow it. Equality realizes he should be confident in himself. He is a very headstrong person and is not persuaded so easily. That is why he had left his society in the first place. Equality would like to live as an individual where he would not work together for the common good, as a group, but where he alone will work as an individual in his new society that he will soon create.

In life, you are born into societies where various ideas or things are thought to be normal and the customs are already established. The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand has many themes, but what I believe the theme of the novel is, to think for yourself. To think for yourself means to make your own decisions and opinions, without depending on other people. I also think that if you are going to think for yourself you can’t worry about what other people will think of what you believe in. Whether you believe that you should only have school a few days a week or you believe in a certain god, no person should feel ashamed for what they believe in. In today’s society and in the society of Anthem, people don’t think for themselves and they just follow people blindly. In the media, today we see what celebrities are saying, who they like, who they dislike, what they use, what they endorse, and we follow them because we want to be like them. Sometimes you don’t realize that you’re not thinking for yourself, but not being able to think for yourself can make you miserable and that is what Equality 7-2521 realized in Anthem.

In Anthem, their society is a closed boxed that is forced to be single minded, but together as one mind . Anthem’s society is protecting the people by being equal in every way and picking people for certain jobs. Then keeping them as a group and not an individual person helps the council control people into a higher class or lower class group. Equality would not use these rules and controls since he found “I” within himself to have freedom of his own life. Their jobs are controlled by the Government and are separated by different groups of workers and lifestyles. For one person to be outstandingly high or low in the society is foreign to the society. Equality finds the urge of freedom for himself and wants to be independent for his life. Anthem keeps the society limted to what jobs they can have, what social class they are in. I soon to see Equality buying into the ways of their rules just to get

“To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.” – Equality 7-2521 Freedom is an idea that is valued by Equality. Freedom shouldn’t have any restrains. Captivity vs freedom is the main theme of Anthem, as made clear by the hardship Equality faces.

You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you." (Rand 22). In the book, Rand describes how the Council keeps its subjects manipulated, maintaining obedience through their strict teaching. The main character Equality 7-2521 demonstrates how people are not allowed to follow their own path and are victims of a repressive system, which rewards complacency and discourages free thinking. In this society everyone must be just like everyone else. According to Equality 7-2521, individuals have no identity of their own. In this society no one is allowed to choose what they do with their lives, or even to think about what they want to do in the future. The Council of Vocations punishes Equality 7-2521 for being "different," which means being intelligent and loving science. Instead of being made a scholar, which is what he really wants, Equality 7-2521 is made a street sweeper. The irony is that Equality 7-2521 would better serve society as a scholar because of his great intellectual gifts, but that would make individuals capable of distinguishing and separating themselves from the Council. In another instance Rand emphasizes the idea of control over knowledge and vocabulary since “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever" (Rand 19). All of their