The dystopic novel Anthem written by Ayn Rand, published in 1937 and later an American version was released in 1946, offers a perspective on a life that is completely controlled by the government. They offer the population of the area a “freedom”. That “freedom” is actually a false sense of happiness, purpose, and security. However, what if the totalitarianism like government in Anthem is a way to have a stable and effective government? In Anthem by Ayn Rand, the bureaucracy is portrayed as cowardly, controlling, and inefficient; however, the totalitarian government, as it stands in this novel, is actually quite stable, and effective.
The first thing shown about the government in Anthem is how the government assign jobs to the people. Instead of letting the citizens choose what they want to do for work, the ministry decides where they should be instead. This keeps all areas of business stocked with workers and gives every person a job to sustain them. “You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you. For the Council of Vocations knows in its great wisdom where you are needed by your brother men.” (Rand 22) The government uses a totalitarian approach for the assigning of the jobs. This form of job assignment keeps everyone from exploiting a different line of work and becoming a threat to the people. “A distinctive feature of totalitarian governments is an “elaborate ideology, a set of ideas that gives meaning and direction to the whole society”".
One reason why the book “Anthem” has a lot of rules is because in Chapter 1 its state that there were some laws called the world council and that they took all the words that we use to described individualism and remove and had saying “We Are one in all and all in one, there are no men but only the great WE, One indivisible and forever. Basically, the reason why they want these rules so no one can have their own ideas or do things on their own. They were also divide into groups based on their looks and how they acted like. These rules indirectly showed collectivism in a rude way which gave rise to lack of individualism. The citizens of the city in Anthem were expected to follow every single rule existing in that society, or else it would be a severe punishment or they would be put to death.
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
Totalitarianism is a concept of government that emerged from the ruins of war. Although it has existed since the dawn of the human era, the twentieth century is where this form of government flourished.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This proves as a threat to the Council by displaying the possibilities a single individual can have when not bound to the mindset of others. The light brought to the Council may analytically symbolize the power that individualism has in a collective society and the Council’s inaptitude to control the electricity may represent the need for the oppression of individualism in Equality 7 – 2521’s society. Totalitarian dictators oppress individualism in order to maintain power therefore avoiding the threat that single individuals with free minds pose to their power. Controlling these characteristics derived from ones childhood setting can be used in totalitarian societies by giving more power to the dictators because it limits individualistic capabilities by limiting the qualities known unto what a group knows. This type of society is displayed in Anthem because the Council of Scholars control the individualistic qualities derived from the childhood setting and instead teach the ideology of collectivism. This helps express Ayn Rand’s philosophical views by displaying the potential found in those with individual characteristics and how they lead to less power as far as those in control. This shows why totalitarian dictators must oppress the power found behind individualism in order to maintain beneficial power in
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
The 22nd century was known for the dystopian societies. One dystopian society story that caught my interest was anthem. Anthem is a story by Ayn Rand , This story is about a guy named Equality-2521 . Equality lives in a dystopian society where he is controlled and he can only live until he’s 45 years old and he can only live for his brothers. In the society there is no such thing as being yourself there is no such thing as using the word “I”. This society is run by a council this council is made up of three men and two women . This dystopian Society goes to school until 15 and then they get assigned jobs and names ,Equality is different from all his other brothers equality is taller and smarter. Equality is
“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.
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.
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.
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