The Significance Of Equality's Mask In Anthem, By Ayn Rand

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

“We cannot resist it. It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that we must know them. We ask, why we must know, but it has no answer to give us.” (Rand 24) he then goes on talking about how he loves “the Science of Things” (Rand 23) and how he could ask questions in the House of Scholars, “for they do not forbid questions.” (Rand 23) However, at the near end of Anthem, Equality states that the Scholars are “blind” and are being “cowardice” (Rand 19) even though he had once looked up to these same Scholars when growing up, “We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike.” (Rand

The journey Equality goes on is literally a search for the truth. In the society Equality grew up in, he is told that questions are forbidden. However, he still had questions and wanted to learn more about the world. Eventually, he and a friend find a hole in the ground. Equality then starts to sneak out each night to do experiments to learn more. “Thus did it come to pass that each night … we, Equality

“I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse. I understood why the best in me had been my sins and transgressions; and why I had never felt guilt in my sins” (98). This quote is about Equality’s epiphany about his curiosity he had had his entire life, proof of the twisted logic the collectivist society used on civilians to make them identical. Since Equality was feeling the best he had ever felt once being free from the collectivist reigns, he was bewildered with the reality of being ‘shunned’ or as his civilization would call him, ‘damned’. Equality laughs, “For the first time this day, we remembered that we are the Damned. [...] We are writing this on the paper we had hidden in our tunic together with the written pages we had brought for the World Council of Scholars, but never given to them” (80). Equality assesses that running away from the law didn’t come with any consequences that he isn’t willing to live with. He was no longer scared to be judged on his thoughts or creations. He comes to the conclusion that nothing is worth giving up

“ … 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).

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.

The fiction novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, begins as equality takes a journey to individualism. He begins by writing how wrong he is to be writing what he is, how much of a sin it is. To be thinking as his own, and as an “I”. Ayn Rand is from Russia, which is a communist society. As Rand was growing up in this time frame, she had made the time to give herself an education which was frowned upon as she was a woman. She was not given a sense of “I” it was the normal thing for women to stand back and watch. To continue deeper into the book, Equality's eventual assessment of his writing on his own, changed from being a sin to being and individual activity, from the beginning to the end of the book.

Equality’s assessment of his sins at the end of the book is that his so-called “sins” are not sins at all. Rather they are things that make him different and special. These things are considered as sins in Equality’s world because the group must be homogeneous. His new views differ from his previous assessment of his sins because he used to believe that the things that make him different were a curse and should make him ashamed. Equality’s new assessment of his so-called sins is correct. What he

All his life he had been told that it “is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them” (21). The Teachers made Equality believe that everything he did was wrong, and because they were appointed by the Councils, he believed them to be correct. The appointing of all things by the Councils relates to the Supreme Court. This situation relates to the moral sin in society. Everything is controlled. When Equality turned fifteen, the Council of Vocations appointed him the job of a “Street Sweeper”; it pleased him. This happiness did not last because he was unsatisfied. He always craved more, and one day, a gift was given. Equality 7-2521, with fellow Street Sweeper International 4-8818, uncovered an underground tunnel that was used for subways during the Unmentionable Times, which gave Equality hope. This underground tunnel became everything to Equality because it gave him peace, and it became the one of the many reasons why he was able to break free from being controlled by the leaders of his time of the Great

Equality is motivated by himself. He wants to invent things. He’s not doing it for fame or to try to impress the council, but for himself. He’s eager to discover and he’s curious about things and how they work. He is very passionate about his experiments and puts a lot of pride and work into them. Equality is much smarter than the rest of his society as it states “It was that the learning was too easy”(21). He dreamed of being a scholar where he can put his talents to a good use;

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.

Equality’s mental escape is highlighted through his heightened knowledge. Equality’s gained knowledge gave him the power to escape his society. Once he escaped, Equality declared, “I shall learn… they have nothing to fight me with…” (Rand 41). “They” being the members of his oppressive society, Equality now realizes that no one can defeat him as long as he has knowledge on his side.

“It is a sin to think words no others are to see.It is the base and evil...We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bud them so. May we be forgiven!” (Rand 17). The rules that he has grown up with will stay with him all his life, and some remnant of them will find their way into his “new and improved” society. Then at the end of the book he seems less undecided and frightened, but he still has the remnant of the scare unity has burned into him. “And man will go on. Man, not men” (Rand 104). Here, Equality is dreaming if his future society, and even though he is speaking about his own society there is still a protective and unsure manner in which speaks of it. It is almost as if he is repeating it the second time to ensure he can say it. It might not have been a conscious act of unsurety, but he wavered nonetheless.He still fears the society. He also still respects the society. So its rules will make it into his rules through some way, shape, and form. Equality’s problem at the end of the book is his mindset and the thought process that has been engraven into his mind by the nameless Anthem society’s

Striving to know more about his surroundings, ¨We think there are mysteries in the sky and under the water and in the plants which grow..(...)..and questions give us no rest.¨ Wishing to be a Scholar, Equality’s curiosity landed him the job of street sweeper. His questions were forbidden, since his brothers didn’t have any, neither should he; or at least that’s what his teachers said. Equality struggles with this concept, but is not yet ready to rebel. He has had the word altruism sculpted into his mind, and in this society, there is no second choice, for egoism was effaced.

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