PROMPT: Equality knows that his invention will benefit mankind greatly. However, this was not his primary motivation in conducting his experiments, and it is not the primary source of the joy and the pride he experiences in his work. What is his primary motivation? Do you think that Equality is right to be motivated in this way? Explain the reasons for your answer. What do you think the world would be like if everyone were motivated in the same way? Equality knew he was different from everyone else. From the day he was born he knew something was wrong. Not necessarily wrong with him - he knew that there was something different about him. He knew the inventions he made would be against the job that he was assigned, but he believed …show more content…
To prove everyone wrong. He wanted to prove that everyone had their own special ability, and all you had to do was dig deep down and find it. He knew that he loved to read and dissect things when he was growing up. He also knew that it was nothing that his brothers enjoyed doing. He somehow got into fights with his brothers because he was so different from them. His world would be like the Unmentionable times. They would be more advanced than what they are now. Where he lives now is where the House of Councils wanted everyone to live. They did not want to live those times. But most people did not know about those times so they would not know. Equality wants everyone to join him and come start their lives all over again. Equality knows that his invention will benefit mankind greatly. However, this was not his primary motivation in conducting his experiments, and it is not the primary source of the joy and the pride he experiences in his work. What is his primary motivation? Do you think that Equality is right to be motivated in this way? Explain the reasons for your answer. What do you think the world would be like if everyone were motivated in the same way? Equality 7-2521 wanted freedom. That is all he ever wanted and it was not as easy for him to be
Lionel Messi once said “you have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it. Equality discovered electricity in Ayn Rand’s book “Anthem”,Just like Prometheus, The god who stole fire, sacrificed a lot to show the world there discoveries. They did not fail at what they created and what they did.Although they had different outcomes equality felt a bond with prometheus, Because of how alike they were and how different they were.
Equality feels ashamed for his natural born curiosity and wonder. He isn’t like the rest of his society and therefore he is made to feel isolated and unhappy as he believes there is something wrong with him. He is yet to seek joy until he is with like-minded individuals in an environment he is deemed free. Additionally, the novel, Fahrenheit 451, provides insight to a fireman who lives in a nation where they are forced to burn literature because books are banned and viewed as
In fact, Equality was a different individual because of his intelligence and self awareness. All throughout school he asked several questions during lessons, which was wrong to do in their society. He would be beaten and punished because of how wise he was, so Equality tried his best to not know of things, but it wasn’t possible. In the text he says, “It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy.” He wanted to be challenged and taught a variety of subjects. He says that he loved the science of things, which is why Equality wanted to go to the Home of the Scholars to follow the occupation he was interested in. He was very much aware of his surroundings and knew that there was more to the world than what the teacher’s tell the students. Equality knew there were all kinds of mysteries a part of the world and commented about it, saying, “We think there are mysteries to the sky and under the water and in the plants which grow.” He recognizes that the information they are taught is not all accurate and there is much more out there that they are not aware
At the time he began to write, Equality agreed to society’s rules, and was afraid of his great knowledge. The first thing Equality writes: “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… We were born with a curse.
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.
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
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.
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
Equality lives his life, over twenty years of it, being oppressed by the system. When he finds the subway tunnel, his hideout, he begins to discover a new way to live; a new world to explore is opened for him. It scares Equality at first, but he quickly realizes that there is more to his life than sweeping streets. As he continues working in the subway and developing his light box, he meets the Golden One, and
The book Anthem by Ayn Rand is about Equalities journey to become an individual and get out of the collective society. Throughout his journey he is shown how he is different than everyone else because he is smarter and curious about the secrets of the community. By doing this he invents new things like the light bulb which is forbidden and finds a secret tunnel that he is forbidden to enter. After being rejected and almost killed by the council he runs away to the “uncharted forest” to get away from the society. While there he learns about the time before the community was created and how each person had their own thoughts and feelings he also learns the work “ego” which Ayn considers individuality.
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
At the end of the story, Equality 7-2521 wants to live in a world without the rules and controls the council has set forth. Equality 7-2521 re-invents electricity, surpassing the best Scholars in his society. As well, Equality 7-2521's brilliance continues, as shown as at the end of the novel, when he’s writing philosophies on the meaning of life. The story proves that even though society is equal, human creativity creates a more diverse way of life.
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 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
In conclusion, Equality 7-2521 has executed a wrongdoing by writing his journal. Equality 7-2521 has traveled far to be able to continue his writing, showing he does not feel safe around others while actively committing this sin. He has also thought on his own and wrote without the Council of Vocations authorization, even though he has been raised to obey the laws. Through these actions, Equality has carried out a great