'Individualism In Ayn Rand's Anthem'

Do you stand alone as a unique and special individual? Since the beginning of American history there have been struggles for individualism. The American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the separation from family life are all examples of individualism in American history. Individualism is an American paradigm designed by the modern societal structure that is an altered idea of the foundation by immigrants. In today’s society the struggle for individualism is more personal and represents how American values have shifted since the beginning of American history.

Throughout the novel, Anthem, and a speech from Fountainhead, written by Ayn Rand, it expresses the argument between individualism vs collectivism. An individual is a person who has control of his or herself, while a collectivist is someone whose hard work benefits their society. Although, another ideology that Ayn Rand mentions in her literature is egoism, throughout her books the significant meaning of being an egoist is considered a good thing, but in our modern society today we consider it a trait reflected by a selfish person.

Don't smile! Don't grow taller than your brothers! Don't look at the female gender! All of these rules were forced upon Equality 7-2521. This society that Ayn Rand created in the book “Anthem”, focuses on equality for everyone. The society goes to extreme measures to obtain and equal society. In the book Equality, the main character, was born with a curse of being different than his brothers, he was fascinated with knowledge, and enjoyed to discover new elements and inventions. All of these things are unacceptable in his society. Throughout, the book equality learns what individuality means, with the discovery of the word I. With this knowledge he destroys the word we, this allows him to become free from his old society. Therefore, because of Equality's new belief of individuality he will create his own society that will revolve around the idea of everyone being individual.

It is how you express yourself, share your thoughts and opinions on things, and embrace your uniqueness. In the world of The Anthem, all the people are restricted from picking jobs they want to pursue, saying the word “I” aloud, and obligated to live life identical to everyone around you. The outcome of life without individuality is absolutely pointless. There is no meaning to life if you're not allowed to express yourself. Individuality is the reason that so many amazing things in the world exist. Incredibly written books, beautifully sculpted artwork, bizarre and practical man made inventions, and so much more is because people were able to think creatively and use their original ideas to turn into into something beneficially spectacular for the masses. Without individuality, there would always be a bias of what is supposedly taught to the society as acceptable or unacceptable. No one would be able to make their own decisions, thus the world would be one large and plain society where people are only existing under government control instead of living life to the

The definition of individuality states a total character peculiar to and distinguishing an individual from others. In a society a person can chose to take the easy way out by following the crowd or, do the hard thing and be an individual and embrace the characteristics that make you different from others. Being an individual and standing out from the crowd might be hard at first but, it can lead to a better society for everyone. In Anthem, by Ayn Rand, the theme of the book is individuality outweighs the expectations of society. This theme is clearly shown throughout the book through the protagonist's internal conflict, the introduction to conflict and the climax. In the beginning of the story Equality 7-2521 introduces himself and he says, “Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written

In the book, Anthem, the people of the City live in a dystopian society, where they study and live off of the ideas of collectivism. Collectivism has, unfortunately, significantly altered the people’s knowledge of the real world. This knowledge should not be disregarded, but it should be held tightly, as tight as they hold their collective customs. Knowledge is a precious thing that everyone has somewhere within themselves. In a dystopian society, attaining knowledge is something only one group of people may do. Equality 7-2521 are said to find the power of electricity. In order for them to know what electricity was they would need knowledge.

The ideology that liberty and freedom are accepted and necessary to obtain opportunity and human prosperity is individualism. While collectivism is the idea that an individual has no rights and belongs to a group or society. The author of this book is Ayn Rand. She was a Russian-born American novelist who successfully promoted individualism and produced works that fused fiction and philosophy. The title of this book is Anthem. In using this title,the author is asserting for man and his ego. Therefore, “Anthem to the ego” claims that deep respect belongs not to God and Heaven but to man and life on earth. The main characters are Equality 7-2521, later named Prometheus and Liberty 5-3000, later named Gaea, also referred to as the golden one.

The definition of Anthem is a piece of sacred religious music. It can be related to the book because of Equality's new found independence and individualism. According the book, Ayn Rand's original title for this novel was Ego. Ayn Rand considers human individualism as a sacred and religious idea, and the title "Anthem" directs the audience of the novel to see the the emphasis of the human self by showing the sacred melody of individualism. At the opening of chapter 11, Equality delivers a "song of praise" directing to ego, saying "I am. I think. I will. My hands. My spirit. My sky..." (Rand 94). I believe the over meaning is kind of like the overall meaning in the novel "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. Similar to Equality, Jonah had to search for

Henry Thoreau illustrates the belief of individualism in his memoir Walden using paradox. Individualism is the social theory that allows the rights or independent action of the

In the book Anthem carefully composed by the great mind of Ayn Rand. There is a great conflict between Individualism and Collectivism. In a world where individualism is said forth to be a sin and henceforth against the law. All men are then required by law to live, breath, and work, for the community otherwise, the are a burden to the earth. With this enactment of extreme collectivism, Ayn Rand conveyed the meaning of collectivism. In addition, this helps define Individualism toward the end of the novel. Therefore showing her beliefs of how she views individualism as an important role in a successful society. Therefore making her extreme sense of collectivism in this book, very important.

Individualism is not selfishness. However, individualism helps people stand on different position and try to make changes in the society. These changes bring the America new ideas, push the nation make progress. There is not too much emphasis on individualism at the expense of social unity in American culture. Instead, individualism needs to weigh a higher status in this nation.

According to Robert Bellah’s viewpoint in the value of individualism very detailed and eloquently,” We find ourselves not independently of other people and institutions but through them. We never get to the bottom of ourselves on our own. We discover who we are face to face and side by side with others in work, love, and learning. And the positive side of our individualism, our sense of the dignity, worth, and moral autonomy of the individual, is dependent in a thousand ways on a social, cultural, and nation context that keeps us afloat” (Martin, 2007,

The first trait of individualism in my belief is nonconformity, to be different from what society does in a “normal” fashion, and being a man of yourself or holding your own ground. An example of nonconformity in American literature is from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” which he writes “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” (PG. 208) This is a perfect example of how Ralph believes in nonconformity. This let’s me know that Ralph believes that a man must be loyal to himself and they should be

Individualism is a particular ideology or social understanding that human beings are the most pivotal in nature and that each individual is presumed to pursue his or her own needs and requirements in order to progress accordingly. Freedom, respect, equality; these are the values of self-determination and self-reliance which is what individualism is all about. The father of Classical Liberalism, John Locke as cited by Salvadori (1959) once said:

Individualism on the one side contrary to Collectivism, as a communal, not an individual characteristic, is the level to which people in a society are being combined into groups.