Ayn Rand's Anthem Essay

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

At first he writes only in a tunnel, that he has stumbled into by mistake while working as a Street Sweeper, hidden from everyone. “Each night, for three hours, we are under the earth, alone” (35). He is then caught, he arrives at the Home of the Street Sweeper late one night and the Council of the Home asks him “Where have you been?” (63). But Equality refuses to tell them. He is then punished, lashed by two Judges in hopes to procure and answer from him, to no avail. Equality eventually escapes into the Uncharted Forest, a most forbidden place. “We were in the Uncharted Forest. We had not thought of coming here, but our legs had carried our wisdom, and our legs had brought us to the Uncharted Forest against our will” (75). He continues to write in secret here, under the trees, hollow openings in the roots, and eventually in an old house from the Unmentionable Times, “We are sitting at a table and we are writing this upon paper made thousands of years ago” (88). Equality 7-2521 had to travel as far as the Uncharted Forests, which no soul has searched in centuries, in order to feel safe writing once again.

In the book Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (Equality) lived in a society where everyone was equal and treated with disrespect. The society had no tolerance for being different and having their own opinion and ideas. People couldn’t even pursue the career they dreamed of having. They were punished for disobeying any of these “rules”. Despite Equality’s strict society, his motivations in conducting his experiments are finding individuality, starting a new revolution, finding freedom, and trying to become a scholar.

Now-a-days, when we think of the future, we picture flying cars, and being able to transport. In the novel “The Anthem” society and technology as we know it had been driven to an entirely new direction. The characters in the society do not have the right to speak freely nor do anything that they wish. They lost all of their freedom, they couldn’t even think for themselves. The society had to think as a whole, the word “I” did not exist in their vocabulary. The society is very balanced, and everyone fears the thought of even questioning it. Up until one man known as Equality 7-25271 wants the answers to all of his questions.

During the unmentionable times, people had to follow the rules that the council has made. Of course no one wanted to follow them because they wanted to go their separate ways so they can be free. Equality 7-2521 the main character had to make some bold choices, which means he has to go down a few paths to do what he wants to do in the future. Equality wants to make some big changes in the future, he knows what he wants to do, while everyone else is following the council's rules. Equality has to get through some hard times.

government. In the novel, the government assigns you your career based on how you succeed in school. Equality 7-2521 was assigned to be a street sweeper. Although Equality 7-2521 wasn’t satisfied with what he had gotten he had pretended to be pleased as everyone must accept it. It was against the rules to think on your own and for him to say in his mind, “We would accept our Life Mandate, and we would work for our brothers, gladly and

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

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 government and most of the city’s citizens are programmed to be fearful of new inventions and discoveries. In the book, Equality 7-2521 has discovered that he is different from all of the others. He is more attentive and more intelligent. The Teachers in the Home of the Students disapprove of his ability to be superior to others. He was sentenced to be a Street Sweeper, to try to prevent his creativity.

Anthem, by Ayn Rand has a major theme of oppression, a problem throughout human history. In the book everybody in the society are extreme followers and take the Councils rules of laws as absolute truth. (The counsel is a small group of people who oversees that the rules are enforced). All civilians seem to follow these rules with little acceptation they do this voluntarily not by force. In the book those few who brake tyrants council, who preach extreme communism, meaning that not one person matters, but only the survival of mankind matters. This means that all humans are equal in everything, and it is, actually looked down upon for trying to be anything more than the group.

After moving from soviet Russia to the United States in 1926, Ayn Rand became a well known playwright, author, and philosopher. Rand is well-known for her philosophical system, objectivism. Objectivism stresses that happiness is the most important goal one should have. All of these ideas and philosophies are present in the novel Rand composed, Anthem. In this collectivist society the people act as robots as they carry out their lives with little emotion, limited technology, and the constant threat of punishment. The atmosphere of this novel depicts a society with very rare opposition to the leadership because the people whom it is made up of have no reason to oppose it and since they are constantly threatened with punishments.

Equality 7-2521 was smart in writing what he was doing down because now he will remember what he did year or three ago. Also it is a good idea to write important information down because if somebody finds what was written then they might learn something. This happened when Equality 7-2521 found the manuscripts in the house and he learned more from those than all of his years in school. That was another reason that Equality 7-2521 was right in writing because he may now be able to educate someone who finds his writings because if it happened to him why can it not happen with Equality’s writings. If nobody would have wrote these manuscripts how would anybody be able to remember anything that happened in the past of remember instructions. This would be almost impossible and the information would change every time it was told. If we could not write in our society it would not be as advanced as it is today and might be like it was then. Our world might even devolve like there's because we would not have directions and could not make complex inventions and would be stuck with instructions like the wax candle. Equality 7-2521 will help the society grow because once people see that it is easy to go against sins more people will do it and more people will write. This will help because then the society will be able to advance instead of being so behind in technology. Equality 7-2521 is actually helping the society because he will soon evolve the society up

However, Equality 7-2521 by the Council of Vocations was assigned to a life of sweeping streets, which he believes is his punishment for being curious growing up and asking many questions because of his curiosity. He wished to become a Scholar and be able to make discoveries and be curious freely. While working on cleaning the streets, Equality 7-2521 wondered off and discovered an underground tunnel built long ago in the Unspeakable Times. He constantly went to this tunnel for two years, and it is where he conducted experiments like the electric light bulb. Equality 7-2521 knew his discovery would benefit his brothers greatly.

Because of this, those in the Home of the Scholars may not have the same drive to discover new things about the world like Equality. The reader sees this in the book, where the Home of the Scholars has only invented candles and glass “only a hundred years ago” (24). However, in the span of just a few months, Equality was able to perform and create the unthinkable. His love for the Science of Things brought him to his findings, and gave him the ambition to share it as well. The discovery of candles and glass did not spark motivation in the Scholars; otherwise, it would have lead to more discoveries in the period of 100 years. In order to have technological advancement, an individual must not be forced to work on projects he does not wish to work on. Rather, it takes dedication to do so. This dedication resulted in Equality’s discovery of electricity in his time period.

When Equality found the opening to the tunnel in the ground, he couldn’t help but to go see what was down there. He wanted to learn things that school didn’t teach, be able to think new things, and ask new questions. When Equality was working as a street sweeper, he would go by the Home of the Scholars and take things from their yard they threw out if he found them useful for his experiments. He took scrolls and read them to teach himself so he could carry his experiments through. He wanted to be with the scholars, he even took his invention from the “unmentionable times” to them, but the scholars wanted his invention destroyed. He wanted to share his new-found technology with the others, but what he found interesting, the scholars wanted it gone. The scholars didn’t think was he was doing was