Anthem Reflection

Imagine a society where a name is provided by the government, creativity is prohibited, and people are not raised by parents. The city is ruled by dictators who control all means of life. Individuality and freedom needs to be earned through a series of painful quarrels. This is exactly what happens in a novella, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand. The protagonist, Equality, struggles to express himself amongst the rest of the corrupt city. In Anthem, Ayn Rand uses symbolism and fearful diction to convey the value of fighting for freedom in one’s society.

Anthem is about a man named Equality 7-2521 who finds a subway underneath his corrupt city to learn. While he is down there he discovers the power of electricity and figures out how to use it. When he tries to show his city they punished him and he ran away with The “Golden One” and found a home which they wished to start a new life, but Equality found out to understand the word ” I” and finds out the truth behind the “Utopia” he lived in for all his life. Anyone who is different gets punished. The City has so many rules and controls because they are there to keep the people unaware of the truth, to keep people down a certain path and to keep their “Utopia” a great place and Equality would have many rules and controls.

Ceaseless collectivism is not something that can be forced upon a community. Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem conveys this through the writings of Equality 7-2125, a man willing to stand up to the collectivism of the society he is confined to. Anthem not only shows how dull and lifeless a society can be with a lack of individuality in its people, but also reveals how one person can significantly impact a community. This novel displays the importance of individualism through Equality’s thoughts and actions. This includes when he reinvents electricity in the tunnel, falls in love with Liberty, and when he completely separates himself from society.

The dystopian novella, Anthem, is set in an age in which every aspect of life is controlled by oppressive leaders. In this society, everyone was deemed equal to each other, meaning no new ideas were allowed and the past could not be discussed. Individuals are told they exist only for the sake of serving society and have no other purpose. Strict rules were put in place involving everyone’s daily lives, their partners, and even when they were allowed to smile. The goal of this controlling environment is to be completely free from conflict and maintain peace and order by giving citizens little freedom.

The story of Anthem takes place in some unspecified future in which freedom and individual rights have been obliterated. Equality 7-2521, the protagonist, is a street sweeper who finds a tunnel where he conducts his science experiments. Throughout the book we see him change and move towards individualism as he discovers how capable he really is. Ayn Rand uses vast amounts of literary devices to describe the evolution of Equality 7-2521. In the dystopian novella, Anthem, Ayn Rand expresses epochal symbolism and poetic personification in order to passionately display the individual’s superiority over the collective.

Societies are different in many ways. The society that Anthem is based around is a collectivist society, in this society everyone is treated equal. Equality 7-2521 didn’t care for this type of society organization. He discovered a tunnel that had been left from the unmentionable times, and they were instructed to have no affiliation with the unmentionable times. While in this tunnel he made some gave discoveries, one of these discoveries was electricity. He later presented this finding to the scholars, they didn’t not appreciate his assertiveness with his new finding, so he had to leave fearing his life. He ran into the uncharted forest and eventually found a house from the unmentionable times.

Have you ever read a book such as The Hunger Games, Twilight, or Harry Potter, and thought it would be amazing to live in those imaginary worlds, where magic and fairy tale creatures exists? Actually, a society just like the one in Ayn Rand’s book Anthem actually does exist among us today, but it definitely not one full of fairy tale creatures or magic, and it is nothing close to the life anyone would want to live. Ayn Rand, a “supporter of rational and ethical egoism (the idea that we should do what we think is right for our own self-interest and not for others)” (page 3), wrote the novel Anthem to give people insight on what the world might turn out to be if the government continues to control more and more of our life. It tells a tale of a world completely controlled by the government, where people can’t be considered a person, but instead a part of a whole. Nobody has any independence, any free thought, but worst of all, nobody can leave. This harsh government can be seen in a country in our

Imagine living in a world where being different was a crime, and thinking will send you to jail. This is the society that the book Anthem is written in. Equality 7-2521 the main character and the narrator is faced with this every day. Equality’s negative assessment of himself was what is expected of him, but he should have the right to be unique.

A society where a man’s precedence is to serve only for his brothers. Laws and rules are crafted to prevent promotion of individualism and preserve cruel uniformity under the form of moral virtue. Anthem is a clear depiction of a repressive society in which the word “I” is unheard of, and men belong to the collective word “We”. The norms in the society force agreement and sacrifice among all the people in the society. The idea that,“If you are not needed by your brother men, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies”(Rand 8), has been pushed into the average mindset of the society. The people’s lives are fully controlled by a group that maintains a powerful dictatorship by conquering the public from the beginning of their lives called the “Council of Vocations”. This explicates the objectionable consequences of collectivism that the society has suffered. One of the most obvious features of Anthem is it’s use of language, especially the nonexistence of the word "I”. The use of the language is confusing, but it must be understood if the book's meaning is to be clear. Characters refer to themselves using the first person plural "we" and not the first person singular "I". The use of the plural rather than the singular self-reference, goes to the core of Anthem’s meaning. It is found that Equality 7-2521 is on the path to

Anthem is a novel about a young man, Equality 7-2521, who lives in a futuristic world where there is no sense of individualism. Growing up, Equality 7-2521 is taught that being different from his brothers is a sin, and therefore tries to suppress his own thoughts and selfish desires. Once Equality 7-2521 finishes school, he is assigned a job as a Street Sweeper. He follows the collectivist lifestyle until one day he and another street sweeper find an abandoned tunnel thought to be left behind from the unmentionable times. Here he begins to fulfill his desire to be a Scholar and conducts different experiments with the trash he gathers as a street sweeper. He also finds himself attracted to Liberty 5-3000, or who he calls “The Golden One”,

A society without free will is a society without identity. Take away identity and humans have been stripped of everything: interests, decisions, and what comes to mind when they think in terms of the word I. In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, nobody has a sense of individuality because the word I is forbidden. Prometheus, the protagonist, is an egoist, increasingly so when he finds a sense of singularity and starts to think in his own self-interest rather than for the betterment of his society. The protagonist who gives the speech “Soul of an Individualist” in another of Rand’s novels The Fountainhead describes how this is not necessarily a bad thing; although the word ego has come to insinuate negativity, Anthem exposes how the word can also reference individuality.

People who consider life having boundaries represent the collective who think that if their individuality was taken from them nothing would really happen. From what Anthem showcased that wasn’t the case. Instead it showcased the opposite, chaos. In the end of the story, it shows that Equality finds balance with himself and his individuality. This showcases the true value of individuals and how something so precious can change the society that you live in; in seconds. This is mainly because individuality gives saying about the person directly rather than a collective. Having individuality shows the concept of personal feelings and existence. Without that, people are just beings that have no internal purpose or self-recognition but rather people

Thesis: Ayn Rand the author of the book anthem was an objectivist and also developed a philosophy called objectivism. Would a lot of people lean toward Objectivism or would people lean toward collectivism? Well in Anthem she describes a society that is collectivism, but equality 7-2521 leans towards being an individual.

Overall, in my opinion, my Anthem essay showed my creative side when it comes to writing. It also showed some risk taking as I wrote in a style that I’ve never written before, I attempted to sound “passionate” rather than “passive” through new and complex vocabulary. Despite it being my first essay of the year, I felt it was still an excellent essay, however, I’ve noticed flaws such as not explaining my quotations and claim very well, and some minor grammar and wordiness issues. Compared to my freshmen essays, my Anthem essay definitely showed substantial growth. It was not my best work, though, I struggled a great deal in trying to explain how my textual evidence related to my thesis.

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