Is a man better off conforming with evil or escaping from chains that hold him from being an individual? In the novel, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, the narrator lives in a dystopian population where people must refer to themselves in first person as the great “WE”, because individuality is the prominent sin. The story is written as journal entries that ultimately showed the narrator’s change of emotion, changing his ordinary course of being collective. The narrator starts out the story by saying, “It is a sin to write this” (17). Throughout the story, Anthem, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, changes his thoughts about his society, and the distinction of his morals. Equality 7-2521 discovers things from the “Unmentionable Times”, (times of the past before everything was forcefully collective in the story’s setting) that allow him to realize why his thoughts about happiness were indeed true. Equality 7-2521’s eventual assessment of his sin is correct because he achieves the realization that individuality is essential to the continuation of mankind, and cannot simply be removed from a person’s life.
In the beginning, Equality 7-2521 describes his actions, how they differed tremendously from the people in his society, and how they encouraged him to believe that he was cursed. He explains that he had always been a sinner, and had always defied the rules of the Council of Vocations, the party who distinguished laws. Equality, having such a strong desire to learn more than what
Anthem, by Ayn Rand, is a very unique novel. It encircles individualism and makes the reader think of how people can conform to society and do as they are told without knowing the consequences and results of their decisions. Also, it teaches the importance of self expression and the freedom that comes along with being your own person and having the power to choose what path to take in life. Figurative language is used often in this book and in a variety of quotes that have great importance to the theme, plot, and conflict of the novel.
It is the future, and society has been ruined. The word “I” has been erased from society; the only replacement being the word “we”. Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem explores the effects of a horrific, totalitarian society. Children are separated from their parents at birth, careers are assigned, not chosen, and free will is the ultimate crime. Living within this structure, Equality 7-2521 finds himself lost in contradiction; collectivity should lead to happiness, but for him, individuality seems to be the key. Through vivid setting, a provoking major character, and symbolic details, Ayn Rand’s writing is focused on one thing: to show “the meaning of man’s ego.”
Set in a dystopian society in the future, the novella Anthem written by Ayn Rand is all about being a collective society which doesn’t believe in individualism. Ayn Rand constructs a society in which individualism is a transgression. The government enforces the idea of collectivism to the society. They believe that in the human race each person is not single. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521 wants to be an independent person. He wants to be free. As stated in the novel, “To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.” This statement means that in order to be successful, he has to be his own person. As the novel goes on Equality 7-2521 learns to be an independent man and frees himself from the society which forces collectivism.
The book Anthem by Ayn Rand is about a futuristic community that has many unusual rules compared to today’s society that evolve throughout the book. These rules exist because they are to protect anything bad from happening in their society. They are strict because the Councils who have created the rules want to make sure everything is under their control. Their purpose is to enforce and maintain the people of the community. In Equality’s world that he describes at the end of the story there is most likely not going to be rules and controls that were in his birth home, because Equality doesn’t agree with the Council's’ decisions, he wishes that people should have their own opinion, and Equality has broken the laws.
The novel discusses themes such as freedom and science to show that Equality 7-2521 does not fit into the society created by the council. In Chapter 1, the quote, “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. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone.”This quote shows that he lives in a very tightly controlled society, where no is allowed to do what one wants. From this quotation in the novel we could also speculate that freedom is nonexistent since they aren’t allowed to be alone. In addition, this thought process goes against the idealism of freedom since you can’t truly be free if you can never be alone. The loss of freedom from in the novel relates to Equality 7-2521 being seen as an outcast because in the novel all he does is look for a place to be free, later on, he finds a well, which he plans to bring his findings, going against the being alone and no freedom rule. Furthermore, the theme of
When most people think of the forthcoming, they think of the evolution of technology. Yet, the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand contrasts your thoughts of the impending. This future date in the story is a dark age where technological advancements are planned out and individuality is nonexistent. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521 is a noble an independent young man who challenges the rules of the Society, who is the antagonist of the novel. Being that Society opposes self freedom and voice, Equality 7-2521 is in a constant battle to hide his true feelings throughout the plot. Equality 7-2521 progresses the plot by showing the readers how he chooses to deal with the Society's rules. Also demonstrating how he decides to break away from the Society when it becomes too overwhelming.
In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand the city has multiple rules and controls in place to keep everyone in line and from knowing too much about the unmentionable times. The city keeps them busy with a set schedule every day including work, meals, and entertainment. The purpose of these rules is to prevent an uprising, if everyone knew about the amazing achievements of the unmentionable times they would all surely revolt against the city.
Independent and dependent both have their good and bad reasons in Ayn Rand's novel “Anthem” Equality 7-2521 experiences both of these. Equality 7-2521 starts out in this novel as everyone else in his society dependent on each of their brothers on every decision. He then slowly starts to become independent towards the end of the novel. Well Equality was still depending on his brothers he was disobeying the law by working by himself. He had discovered electricity and he then invented the “glass box that was able to hold light,he soon after wanted to show his new invention thinking that it would be life changing to the house of scholars but they rejected him causing him to become completely independent and not rely on any of his brothers.
Morality in Anthem Society is lost and no one is individual. Since birth, it is no longer “I” but “we”, this is all Equality 7-2521 has ever known. The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand opens up with an empowering first line, one that strikes the reader immediately and sparks their curiosity to possibly read on. This first line “It is a sin to write this,” (Rand 17) is a unique opening line that sets the plot for this entire story and ends with a full circle once the reader has reached the very last page.
How would you want to live in a Society? In Anthem by Ayn Rand Equality- 7-2521 struggled to learn about individuality in the strict society he lived in. Equality would let his society be free and let the people in it make their own decisions. He believes that everyone should take pride in the word I. Equality would not make his society like “The City of the Damned.”
Anthem – Ayn Rand Morality is a system of moral conduct or conformity to ideals of right human conduct. In the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, one system of morality was so destroyed that Equality creates his own system of morals. Throughout Anthem, Equality, the narrator, goes through a series of events that led him to change his view of morality. At the end of Anthem, the collectivist society’s view of morality remains the same while Equality’s view of morality changed to ideals of right human conduct and an increase in his personal inner strength.
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
The Book “Anthem” written Ayn Rand is the tale of a man with many names “Equality-7 2521” to “The Unconquered” to “Prometheus”. He is living in a dystopian world where individualism has been eradicated. Due to the dark times technological advancement and individualism brought, in what seems to be life after an apocalypse they have been limited those to a bare minimum. It took 50 years for the candle to be approved and the word “I” has been banned and punishable by death. In a society where they try to suppress the aware and the main protagonist being exceptionally smart which generates conflict. The book “Anthem” is based off of communism in Russia where people are prison for the very simple things. No one ever tries to escape the corrective faculty because of 3 reason the prisoner never purposely betrayed the council so why would they start now. and wait to receive punishment, they are scared and the society is brainwashed into not even learning escape or other things that could define the council.
More and more, the question of whether individualism is better than socialism in society has been coming up more frequently. In her novel Anthem, Ayn Rand shows individualism through Equality 7-2521. She places Equality within a society where having a unique identity is forbidden. Throughout the story, Ayn Rand uses Equality to prove that being part of a community is equally as important as being an individual.
Equality declares he is “done with the monster of ‘We,’” and describes it as “the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame” (97). He begins to refer to himself as “I” and gives himself a name that is beyond numbers and collectivism; it has meaning. After contemplating his doubts about the Council, he “[understands] the blessed thing which [he] had called [his] curse” and “why the best in [him] had been [his] sins and transgressions” (98).He learns to appreciate his deviating attributes and considers them as assets instead of oddities. Finding his freedom from collectivist thoughts, Equality develops his own ideas and opinion. His internal conflict between being accepted and having independent thoughts is resolved and due to his new self-awareness of his interests, he chooses independence, which is the option that brings him