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Ayn Rand's Anthem: A Collectivist Society

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Anthem Essay Topic 1 Ayn Rand's Anthem depicts a collectivist society where each person is stripped of his/her individuality and forced to do only things that work to better society. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521, has just invented some sort of lighting creation similar to the common lightbulb. Equality knows that his new invention may have a huge, and positive, impact on mankind. However, his knowledge of the prosperity that his creation could have on society is not what causes him to experience feelings of satisfaction and pride while constructing it. Equality's main source of motivation for creating the lightbox is to feel like he has something all to himself that another person is yet to have, and to experience a sense of accomplishment. Equality is right to be motivated in this way in the context of Anthem. If each individual on Earth were to be motivated in this way, the world would be extremely chaotic. It is …show more content…

His reason for doing so is simple, he just doesn't care about what he could do for the society. He even states "We have fought against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care" (54). This shows that Equality is tired of trying to do what is best for society and is ready to do something for himself. Equality's other main motivation for conducting his experiences is that he wants to finally be in control of something that is his very own. The idea of little to no individualism is a very common theme throughout dystopian works of literature. While Equality is explaining his thoughts on his new- found knowledge he exclaims, "So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!" (54). It is easy to see from the change in Equality's tone that he is very passionate about learning new information on his own for himself and for himself

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At the beginning of Anthem Equality has changed his mind about a lot of things in the beginning of the story. Equality got picked to be a street sweeper by the government, but he really wanted to be a scholar but couldn’t because of the government. Equality had a rough life. Well he was a street sweeper but he was smart enough to be a scholar the government did not think he was. In the book anthem by ayn rand Equality was not good for any body or anything at the beginning he had a rough start to his life.

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In the book Anthem, Ayn Rand uses diction, imagery, and syntax to create a confident tone in Equality 7-2521 to show how he is changing for the better. Equality learns that individuality is ok and states “ I am done with this creed of corruption,” to emphasize that he’s “done” with how the governing body brainwashed him and that he now has his own views on society (55). Equality thought all the things the governing body wanted him to think, but as he broke off he realized that none of it was true. He did not want to live by the standards of the governing body so he broke through the standards and started to individually listen to himself. Equality grew up with the impression of everyone should have the same thought but, the individuality

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This made Equality find out who he is and gave him the chance to be an individual. Equality’s views and mindset changes through out the book. He was born in a society where people are named by numbers. A world where people are used as machines. In this world the word “I” is out of existence.

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In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, mankind is a philanthropic machine. The brotherhood nobly works together to achieve a common goal. In doing so, each man is asked to disregard his own personal means and goals. For every decision must be a collective thought and every advancement, a joint action. However, one man in this machine malfunctions.

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Equality lives in a collectivist society, which is a society that believes, “that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.” Therefore, Equality being the person he is, struggles with being an individual. He knows it is against the law but he enjoys knowledge so much, it confuses him. He states, “And in our heart-strange are the ways of evil! - and in our heart there is the first peace we have known in 20 years.”

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Equality’s main motivation is to discover new things and new ideas in the world around him. Early on in the novella, Equality finds a tunnel from the Unmentionable

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There's so much emphasis on putting others before oneself that people often forget to look out for their own needs, as shown in this book. Ayn Rand successfully captures the negatives of an overrated ideology and presents an unorthodox perspective on the matter. In conclusion, Equality's true motives behind his work are much more selfish than they first appear to be. Equality strives to fulfil his own personal desire rather than contribute everything to society, and this isn't necessarily a negative thing.

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Equality breaks these rules and escapes his suffocating home to create his own society of independent people. In Equality’s new world he will have complete freedom and no rules holding people back from learning and growing.

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Throughout the novel Equality 7-2521 had been living a sort of double life. He would work his assigned job as a street sweeper, then he would go and work on his electricity box. He finally gathered the courage to present his great finding to the council. The council looked down upon Equality in disgust one member went as far to say, “And if the Councils had decreed that you should be a Street Sweeper, how dared you think that you could be of greater use to man than in sweeping the streets” (72). This is the council's way of humbling Equality in telling him that he is no use to any of his brothers other than sweeping the streets.

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Imagine living in a society where you had to be the same as everyone else, risking your life to fight for individuality. In the life of Equality 7-2521, that is exactly what he has to live through. The book Anthem by Ayn Rand, is about a young boy who goes by the name of Equality 7-2521 that is commonly referred to as just “Equality.” Equality is a little different than everyone, as he is taller than everyone else, smarter, and breaks the rules. Equality lives in a society where everyone is the same, and no one is to be different than one another.

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