“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (Rand 19). How can an individual be a hero in a collectivist society? In The Anthem, a novella by Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521 is portrayed as an archetypal epic hero. Equality 7-2521 exhibits the characteristics of an epic hero because he is capable of great deeds, he has a nemesis, and he experiences an event that leads to a quest. During the novella, Equality 7-2521 undergoes a journey to express individuality. Equality 7-2521 states he is a great sin to the community since he is capable of great deeds: “This is a great sin to be born with a head which is too quick” (Rand 21). Born into a community, where it is told to be different from your brothers, is a sin. Equality 7-2521 consistently believes he is a sin to the society …show more content…
The society's rules and standards acts as a nemesis toward Equality 7-2521: “We asked many questions and the teacher forbade it” (Rand 23). The society has regulations to keep Equality 7-2521 from learning more than he already knew. In the story Equality 7-2521 tests the rules of the community to explore the unknown. The Council is the protagonist most powerful nemesis because they constantly attempt to make a Equality 7-2521 feel like a threat to the society: “We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it” (Rand 27). The council placed Equality 7-2521 in grades lowered to make him feel like a sin. The council did everything to make him less of a danger to their society, such as leaving him Street Sweeper that requires no knowledge. As a Street Sweeper, Equality 7-2521 is restricted the resources needed in order to reach his goal of learning.The council also turned away Equality’s glass box because it is “dangerous” to the society. The council is Equality 7-2521’s biggest nemesis resorting in him escaping the
Ayn Rand in her novel Anthem exhibits a society where people only purpose is to serve and better the community. Rand was writing Anthem, while World War 2 was emerging and she was watching countries change their views on society and the citizens in it. Some of these countries started to force their citizens into a mold. Thinking that society would be benefit if everyone was like-minded. Rand wanted to show these views in an extreme situation to demonstrate what could happen in the future if countries continued to do this.
In the opening pages of Anthem, Equality 7-2521 gives much background knowledge of the society he lives and the horrible details of the laws and regulations they have created. Along with that he explains that he has committed a grave sin already which is writing and that in doing so it doesn’t allow him to live, tagged with other misdeeds in which is labeled as “transgressions.” Being categorized as a Street Sweeper he has unwinded the discovery of a hidden tunnel that once existed during the Unmentionable Times. "Since the Council does not know of this hole, there can be no law permitting to enter it.
Equality 7-2521 just wants to be different from everyone else. In chapter 6 of the novel Anthem Equality 7-2521 hopes lie on
One of the biggest rules is you cannot try to learn to anything new or invent something. Equality decides that he wants to learn more and invent new things. In this society the council decides what you will do like a road worker or a teacher. Equality gets assigned to be a street sweeper. He doesn’t like this assignment
Not fitting in for Equality 7-2521 meant that his differences ranged from his above-average height of six feet to his overly advanced intelligence level. Although, I don’t think that Equality 7-2521 being assigned the job of a Street Sweeper was meant to come off as a punishment, but rather as a way to make things equal. The Council of Vocations might have wanted Equality 7-2521 to realize that he wasn’t “better” than anyone else in the society. I think that the Council of Vocations just wanted to give Equality 7-2521 a job that people wouldn’t enjoy because they already knew Equality 7-2521 had the gift of being extra smart, and most people in the society didn’t have the qualities of Equality
This causes a sense of ethos because ethics are morals and Equality felt like he wasn’t being treated the way that he was supposed to be. He believed that the council wasn’t being ethical. So, the reputation is not something that everyone in the society agrees on especially the character
Another thing that Equality 7-2521 realizes, is that being the same does not add happiness, and appears to be very boring, and selfish of the Council of Vocations, the leaders and elders of the society, where our main character lives in. Equality 7-2521 dislikes the rules and orders, of his society, and his life as a Street Sweeper, a job that the Council of Vocations, chose for him. The Council of Vocations, a group made up of five, three males, and the other two, females. The leaders and elders of the dystopian society, who make the rules, which Equality 7-2521 secretly dislikes.
“We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no power or will in us to stop it” (18). Equality 7-2521 is born into a society in which individuality is a crime.
“...we confess it here: we were guilty of the great transgression of preference”(Rand 22). Equality never understood why he is guilty but he
Later in the novella, Equality does not care what laws he breaks because he knows that he is different and he is starting to realize that being different is not something to shelter and be ashamed of. “We have stolen candles from the Home of the Street Sweepers, we have stolen flints and knives and paper, and we have brought them to this place” (Rand 35). This shows that for Equality to fulfill his curiosity, he will go against his society and do what he feels is right. “We lunged against the door and it gave way. We stole through the dark passages, and through dark streets, and down our tunnel” (67).
They leapt to their feet, they ran from the table, and they stood pressed against the wall, huddled together, seeking the warmth of one another’s bodies to give them courage” (70). Equality is smart, perhaps too smart or so that's what the councils thinks. The council recognizes that Equality is too knowledgeable and too inquisitive to allow himself to become a blind sheep in the herd. In the puzzle of which Equality lives, he is simply a tiny piece of a bigger picture.
In response to the choice of Street Sweeper, Equality thinks, “We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it” (26). With his intelligence and curiosity, Equality would do much better as a Scholar. The government punishes him for being different, and as a result, they can’t see him become advantageous. They are blinded by their beliefs on
From the very beginning, Equality had known that he was different, he had an inimitable mentality from his brothers. As long as he could have remembered, Equality was shunned for being unequal from his brothers, when asking questions or wanting to discover new things. “Your eyes are as a flame, but our brothers neither hope not fire. Your mouth is cut out of granite, but out brothers are soft and humble. Your head is high, but our brothers cringe.
In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Equality 7-2521 rediscovers electricity. In the collectivist society Equality lives in, it is illegal to conduct such experiments. Knowing his transgressions, what is his motivation for his experiments? Is he right to be motivated in that way? How would the world change if everyone was motivated as Equality was?
Equality suffers greatly from his cause. Equality’s cause is to be able to create an invention that will appease the council of scholars, and further the knowledge of the society. He also wants to use this as forgiveness for his sins. However despite Equality’s best intentions, he is persecuted for his individuality. “A street sweeper!