Anthem 'And Hairy Ape'

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In Rand’s Anthem, O’Neill’s “Hairy Ape”, Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, and Miller’s “Crucible”, an individual’s bad choices determine the reputation assigned by a conformed society. These four books have characters that have different personalities from each other but still end up sharing similar problems within a conformed society. A conformed society is where people follow certain rules just because they are afraid of the consequences that come with not following the rules. Conformity impacts the way that someone thinks because of the influences around them. It can be a good thing, but in these character’s live they make bad choices that impact their reputation. The way that these characters think is what makes them different from society, …show more content…

Within Anthem the characters are impacted by the society’s rules and their reputation changes throughout the story. Also, the characters give the society a reputation too. The society in Anthem has a very big part within the story. As stated in the Author’s Foreword, “Some of those who read the story when it was first written, told me that it was unfair to the ideals of collectivism; this was not, they said, what collectivism preaches or intends; collectivists do not mean or advocate such things; nobody advocates them” (Rand 14). So, as said by the author the society chose to be a collectivist society and it caused Equality to rebel and seek to be different. Evidence to support this is, “We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so.” (Rand 17) Equality was talking about how he wasn’t allowed to write because the Council doesn’t allow citizens to do that. Their reputation was very controlling and they were the people who decided the rules that citizens are allowed to abide by. They have to do certain things within the book, based solely on the council. 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