Objectivism In Ayn Rand's Anthem

In the world created by Ayn Rand, where collectivism is favored by the leaders of society, self-government is denied. In her novel Anthem, the characters are forced to live in an imperceptible prison surrounded by wilderness. Being an individual, having self-confidence, and the freedom to choose are key pieces to a successful society, but some of these concepts are foreign to many. In numerous societies like this one, the citizens are under strict social rule and do not enjoy natural rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While being independent is important, it is also crucial to be united and act as a group. If there were no common thought, there would be chaos. At the same time, common thought should not be forced upon

Conformity- behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. When does conformity go too far? In Anthem by Ayn Rand people conformed out of fear. Everyone in there society has to be the same skill level, same intelligent and same physical attributes. People are given numbers at birth. People are also assigned jobs that they can not reject. Equality who is the main character does not follow the rules and is rubellus. He meets a girl that is just like him who he calls the Golden One. He make electricity and shows it to the highest people in there world, and they think it is evil. He gets sent to prison ,but he escapes because there were no locks on the doors. He goes to the forbidden forest. The Golden One finds him ,and they find a house in the mountains. They find all new things that they don't know what it is. But Equality plans to get his friends from the town and start his own society with his rules. Social conformity goes too far when the people do not have a choice for anything.

“ … He will be taught reverence for his own spirit.” (Rand 100). Equality felt like he was sinning in his old society, and then the Council gave him a way to pay for it. “We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it.” (Rand 26). Equality wanted those who were suffering in the old society to join him, so they would not feel as he had felt under the oppression of the Council. “I shall call to me all the men and women whose spirit has not been willed within them and who suffer under the yoke of their brothers.” (Rand 101).

How would you describe the word ego? What about egoist, or egoism? These words are all related, but do they mean what you think? In Anthem, Prometheus believes the term “ego” is holy, but today many people think differently. Ego is a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. An egoist is a self-centered, selfish, and arrogantly conceited person. The term egoism is defined to be the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own actions.

There has always been a slight anxiety, a slight fear, of being alone or standing alone. Students rarely want to admit to having an answer different from the rest of their classmates; some people do not want to go somewhere and do something by themselves. Notably, with more shy or anxious people, they will often stick around someone they know, so they will not be alone in the crowd. Although that company might help them make it through those nerve-wracking moments, when is the right time for them to walk alone? Should a person ever walk alone? In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, Equality’s internal conflict of conformity versus individuality plays a role that Equality needs to overcome in order to complete their quest for freedom which helps create

He gives extensive reasoning to why he thinks this by saying things such as, “I am a man. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before” (Rand 95). Equality is placing value on the individual and what they want rather than having to conform to the group. While some might say that Equality is incorrect, and he should care about the needs of a group if he wants to change the world and make it greater, this is incorrect. To change the world and make it greater you must care for the needs of individuals as well as the group. Morals such as these are what the government of America was built

After a couple of weeks, he has successfully built a light bulb by using the materials he had found in the tunnel. He decides that he wants to share his invention with the World Council of Scholars when they meet in his city. During that time, Equality 7-2521 meets Liberty 5-3000 or as he likes to say the “Golden One.” He speaks with her even though its completely wrong and they end up falling in love. What he’s doing is so dangerous, but he can’t stop himself from falling in love with her. One night Equality 7-2521 comes home late to the Home of the Street Sweepers, where he lives. When he refuses to cooperate and tell his Home Council, where he has been, he is thrown into the Palace of Corrective Detention. Even though he gets tortured, he still refuses to cooperate, because he wants to keep the light bulb a secret until he gets to show it. He remains in detention until he decided to break out and go to the World Council of Scholars. Equality 7-2521 arrives and tells them about his invention, but they reject his invention out of fear. Their whole lives they’ve been using candle lights and now he comes to show them his idea and they're scared. They want to destroy the light bulb and Equality 7-2521. He escapes with his invention into the Uncharted Forest. The major conflict in the story is Equality 7-2521 against the rest of his society. He struggles to identify himself and be free in a society which rejects the complete thought of individualism. The

How could Ayn Rand’s Anthem have been altered if Equality and his society had been founded on Christianity? Throughout the story, beliefs and convictions were a significant factor in plot progressions. In addition, different doctrine also provided a huge contribution to character development. However, these various viewpoints established throughout the story, directly contrast with Biblical values. Looking closely at the development of society’s and Equality’s beliefs, a reader can easily distinguish his ideas from Christianity.

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.

There is a power to individual thinking that forges new pathways that were not there before. Equality’s individual motivations lead him continuously in new paths and allowed him, to discover things that were about himself and in the

Equality acknowledges that his great re-discovery of electricity will benefit humankind; however, that isn’t his primary motivation for experimenting. In Chapter V, he says, “We can give our brothers a new light, cleaner and brighter, than any they have ever known.” (60). He recognizes that this discovery will completely alter the way his society is set up, presumably for the better. Nevertheless, as he later states in Chapter VII: “We have lied to ourselves. We have not built this box for the good of our brothers. We built it for its own sake.” (76). Thus, Equality’s primary motivation for conducting his

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.

brought them for a civilization where the word ?I? did not exist to a world

In Ayn Rand’s book Anthem, The character Equality 7-2521 also known as Prometheus ran into the uncharted forest after being told that his box of light was a sin to create because he now knew more than his brother’s in the uncharted forest he found out that the golden one had followed him. Then the two uncovered homes from the unmentionable times. In the uncharted forest he discovered the unspeakable word “Ego”. Throughout the book he expressed traits of an Egoist. But in the book because prometheus had been in a dystopian society where they had to think of themselves and their brothers as a whole they were not allowed to think of themselves. So was Prometheus really a egoist? Or was it just his little bit of selfish coming out after not ever being allowed to think about himself?

Vision a lifestyle where one perceives it as a sin to comprehend data more efficiently than of one’s peers; a felony to long for things that others do not wish upon. Where floods of white tunics and austere minds obliterate the Earth. A colony built upon leaders who asphyxiate anyone from infatuation of any object or significant being; moreover, a world suffocating in collectivism. Through exasperated transcription, Anthem brings about such a community; nevertheless, a world of black and white. Ayn Rand does not overemphasize the effects of totalitarianism, but amplifies it so that it is more effortless for one to enlighten he or she’s notion on the particular proposal. First, by analyzation of “Equality 7-2521”, and