Rules In The Book Anthem

During his childhood, he was blessed with an individual spirit and the intelligence to understand the knowledge of the world. In spite of this, he reckoned his abilities as transgressions. He acknowledged that the way of life was that “Everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from the one is evil” (Rand 85). Equality strives to accept the totalitarian society and consequently, he desperately struggles to disregard his abilities and subdue his desires. The grisly effects of society are portrayed immensely through the profound sense of guilt he suffers while committing the Sin of Preference. He continually recites that, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by, and for our brothers who are the State. Amen” (Rand 21). Gradually, his aspirations contradict with the dogma of society. He discovers that he finds more joy committing the Sin of Preference rather than restraining himself from happiness, which ultimately, allows him to elude his conscious premises. Equality’s belief that “[he] [has] torn [himself] from the truth which is [his] brother men… [he] knows [this], but [he] [does] not care” (Rand 76) marks his complete triumph over collectivism. Prior to his transformation, he belonged to a society in which the Sin of Preference revoked all rights for any desire, which ultimately disallowed citizens to think for freely. If permitted to do so, no

The practices of a collective society such as the one in this book disregard all belief in the individual. By doing this, the society and its leaders brainwash the people into having no personal priority or authority. Everything is done with the betterment of the entire group in mind, no sense of self involvement. Their life is fated in almost every

Equality stands out from everyone around him, making him an individual. This also makes him the archetype of the loner or outcast. In the beginning of the novel Equality states that, “We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden.” (page 18.) He also says “We are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall.” (page 18.) These quotes show exactly how Equality is an individual compared to those around him who fit in the idea of collectivism, or sameness.

Equality contemplates, “I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word “I”, could give it up and not know what they lost” (103). This quote narrates the discovery of one of the most essential words used to identify as a single, original person, I. Equality realizes the tragedy of the loss that his previous society created before his lifetime and really ponders why and how this could happen in a very separate world. Equality readies himself to be an individual person as a result of feeling strongly against the beliefs of his previous society. Equality excitedly states, “We made a fire, we cooked the bird, and we ate it, and no meal had ever tasted better to us. And we thought suddenly that there was a great satisfaction to be found in the food which we need and obtain by our own hand” (79). In the past, Equality had never done anything to express his originality because of the law stating otherwise, so when given the opportunity to finally understand his own strengths and weaknesses, he takes it. He disregards the law and excitedly grasps the concept that he isn’t supposed to be a follower like his peers were, he was meant to be a leader. Disagreeing with the law was a main point of Rand’s novella, promoting personal

When Equality 7-2521 begins the novel by saying, “It is a sin to write this.” he has a different moral assessment of writing than at the end of the novel. Throughout Anthem, Equality’s actions affect how he views his society and the people around him. By the end of the story, Equality begins to realize that the government and society that he lives in might not be so perfect, and it might not be a sin to write. Equality’s eventual moral assessments of his sins are correct and are supported by; his growth throughout the story, the themes of independence developed in the novel and Ayn Rand’s concepts concerning communism. These are the three ideas that will be developed and explained in this paper.

He was thought that it was bad to be different but he did not care, he just wanted to show other citizens that there was more than what meets the eyes. Not only is equality an individualized thinker but he is also smart and brave. Equality makes a statement in his society by creating light and sharing the new invention with others. “We MADE IT. WE CREATED IT. We brought it forth from the night of the ages. We alone. Our hands. Our minds. Ours alone and only. We knew not what we are saying. Our head is reeling. We look upon the light which we have made” ( Rand 59). This shows that Equality made a new invention and is eventually going to show it to the council of scholars. This affects society because the council of scholars thinks that Equality is being superior to his brother. “We have much to say to a wretch who have broken all the laws and who boast of their infamy! How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers? And if the council had decreed that you should be a street sweeper, how dared you think that you could be of greater use to men than in sweeping the streets?” (Rand 71). This proves that no one, besides Equality wants to change society. This ties to the theme by trying to break out of the controlling society and leading into Equality standing up for individualism and for himself. In addition this concludes how the two short stories “Anthem” and “Harrison Bergeron” have different themes.

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

Imagine living in a society where everything someone does is conforming to someone else. In the novella Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, the author talks about conformity by referring to how all men need to be alike and fit in with each other. Equality 7-2521 the street sweeper, believes in the feeling of individualism and rejects the collectivist society around him. Social conformity becomes dangerous in Anthem because while Equality 7-2521 follows all the rules at the beginning of the novella, throughout the book he begins to break them.

Equality 7-2521 is unable to express creativity, which minimized the number of freedoms and individuality throughout the society. Rand indicates how the pronoun affects Equality 7-2521’s society. “The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it” (Rand 97). The pronoun “we,” deteriorates the society from being able to be an individual and from basic freedoms. Equality 7-2521 wasn’t assigned a name, but assigned a label that society forced to abide with. Being assigned a name acts as principal as well as “we.” In addition, individuals have no identity of their own“...we repeat to ourselves whenever we are tempted: “we are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (Rand 19). Freedoms such as freedom of speech and the right to equal justice, are nonexistent

The society has a world council that makes the decisions of what will happen and what new creation are brought into the world. A theme in the book is that the idea of collectivism is weak and there must be change for the world to become more advanced. The main character Equality had found a light bulb and had presented it to the council but it was immediately rejected because of the fear of losing power.(Rand 52) Bringing this finding forward the council fears losing power they reject the opportunity for change for power and oppression of the people.

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 “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the danger of too much equality is pointed out numerous times throughout the book. Being equal as far as people having to follow the same laws and restrictions is all right, but you can push equality too far. If you make everyone think, look, sound, and act alike, as they did in “Harrison Bergeron”, then it can cause some complications. All people are different and in order to have a well managed community, then people’s diversity need to be expressed.

Every single day for more than 2 years equality would escape society for 3 hours a day and he would get to think, study, learn, and write what he has held in for so long. Equality’s brothers didn’t have a strong self-connection. All of Equality’s “brothers” had no energy, happiness, nor creativity (Rand). Unlike Equality they didn’t know who they were as a person, they

Equality has to work for his brothers because he is told that he only lives for his brothers and when he joins the street sweeping team and he soon notices Liberty 5-3000 which he falls in love with. Later on in the story he soon runs away and ends up in the forest with Liberty 5-3000 and they soon start to figure out they are one instead of we. Then they finally realize what the word freedom

One of the most riveting moments in this novel, was discovery made by Equality. This society takes place in an unknown date far in the future, where an individual was raised to call themselves “we” in honor of their brothers in society. Any first person pronoun was unknown to this society because it was seen as selfish to have an ego. Equality however, was different from the rest of his brothers. He was the pariah in a crowd, both literally and mentally. As a six feet tall individual that was much stronger than the rest, Equality loved