Totalitarian Government In Anthem By Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, depicts a totalitarian society that oppresses the ideology of individualism. Within these societies children live apart from their families and grow up without any inherited characteristics of being an individual. Anthem is an example of this kind of society because it showcases the link between a totalitarian dictator’s power to the oppression of individualism found in a children that live apart from their families. Totalitarian Dictators enforce the arrangement of children living separate from their families because it oppresses individualism and allows for a better grasp of beneficial control over a society.

Within the pages of Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem, a government which resembles a dictatorship is exhibited. Both the leaders and the society itself seek to control mans body and mind as they follow ideals similar to that of a communist party. The leaders and society in Anthem seek to control mans mind using tactics such as collectivism and suppression of the past to accomplish a tyrannical end.

The society depicted in Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, has the people working for other people, and that their own lives are useless, a system known as collectivism. The rules are quite restrictive in Anthem’s society for the purpose of keeping people in line so they would not rebel against the government. Rules also serve to keep people equal to one another; however, at the end of the novel, Equality 7-2521 creates his own society with hopes to give people full freedom and individualism. The government’s society in Anthem created laws to keep the collectivist ideals alive.

The situation in Anthem is closely related to how Ayn Rand lived through the early years of the Soviet Union’s rise to power. The people of Russia were expected to everything for the state, and were expected to put their needs and wants on the back burner with no if ands or buts about it, and this is very much what was going on in Anthem.

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.

The future as we imagine it, is to be filled with hi-tech gadgets and gear. Yet we consistently forget about the past and how the past always catches up, where light is gone and equality is a must were no sight of uniqueness is allowed. If that were the case we wouldn’t not be human. “Anthem” by Ayn Rand explains this world where everyone is the same and everyone is told exactly what to do. Equality 7-2521 is the main character of this story and tries to fix this problem. In this story, there is a dystopian protagonist, and a dystopian protagonist is a character that feels trapped and is struggling to escape his/her society. Equality, the dystopian protagonist in “Anthem”, questions the society he lives in by figuring out that being

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do” (Robert Heinlein). Sometimes, there are certain rules where we will listen to them, and others that we do exactly the opposite of what is told. Either road you go, you will have to take responsibility for the choices you make. In Anthem, the major character, Equality, did exactly this. Anthem is written as a diary in the eyes of Equality, an individual living in a place where nobody knows what individualism is, to the point of not knowing words like I. Everybody works in groups, with their lives controlled by councils which makes an insane novella. In the novella, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand has a variety of rules which purpose is to create a dystopian government in which residents can’t express emotions, can’t make decisions for themselves, live in a communistic style of society, keeps the power in the hands of the elites, and as Equality creates a new society, some of these rules will exist and some will be different, either way, it will make a positive impact.

The society in which the characters from Anthem by Ayn Rand live in is one of little to no opposition. The World Council made rules at their own discretion and the citizens followed them without question. The big question, though, is why. Why did the citizens mindlessly follow the rules and restrictions of the World Council? The citizens of this futuristic society followed their leaders because they were suppressed. They were trained to believe that the World Council was smarter than them, they were lied to about their jobs and the “common good,” and anyone who thought differently was punished. These three things are seen in several places throughout the novel, highlighting how much the citizens in the futuristic society of Anthem were suppressed in order for the State to remain in power.

Throughout the course of the book Anthem, Equality 7-2521 was never afraid to disobey rules that were put in place for those in the city. In fact, just about every action he engaged in was a direct challenge to the leaders of the “irrational society”. Although he did not complete these deeds with malice in the beginning, eventually Equality 7-2521 had a revelation about what his society was doing to the human race. All members of the collective society were being “kept in the dark”, both

We often think that this world has a lot of cruel rules, but when it comes to Anthem by Ayn Rand, you get to realize that it’s far worse. There are plenty of strict and harsh rules for men in Anthem. To name just a few of them, the Council of Vocations select your job whether you like it or not. Not being able of who you want to have children with. The rules and controls in the book that Equality 7-2521, the narrator, states, should be different and less harsh and cruel.

Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, shows us a society where people are forced to be the same and are scared to be different. In Anthem’s society, the citizens are forced into specific lifestyles. Ayn Rand had written Anthem during World War II while some nations were trying to make their citizens the same. While this was going on, Rand decided to write about why individuality is important. In Anthem, Rand uses Equality 7-2521 to represent the individuality of one’s self.

The morning bell rang again, like it does every morning in the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand. Everyone knows what that means and they know exactly what to do. By law they’re required to know that no one brother will be different for they are all the same. Until Equality 7-2521 finds proof from the past that it wasn’t always this way. Throughout the course of the text, the laws and government has changes and developed in many ways.

A perfectly “ideal” government is a part of all utopias, but it’s impossible to have unity no matter how hard society tries because everyone has a different definition of the “perfect government”. The World Council in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem tries to achieve this by creating a collectivist society. However, the main character Equality was correct in disapproving the ideals of the Council and censures the collectivist society, because he discovers a new sense of freedom that contradicts the Council’s ideals.

Hitler once stated “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” This means that whoever is in control of the youth will control what is going to happen, because the youth are the future. Anthem by Ayn Rand demonstrates that Dictators are all powerful and will do anything to keep that power.

For as long as governments have existed, the people they ruled feared them. This fear and the desire to improve these governments have let to countless different attempts to perfect government. From the most liberal democracy to the most crushing dictatorship, governments have all faced some shortcomings. Because of the faults inherent in all governments, various types of governance have been the topic for many authors. The late novelist Ayn Rand wrote many books on the trouble that a socialist government could bring and espoused the virtue of individualism. She felt that by allowing government to limit our individual freedoms, we were sentencing ourselves to a certain death. She wrote that “We are fast approaching the