Control The Mind Of Citizens In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Ayn Rand's novella "Anthem" is a dystopian tale that explores the concept of a totalitarian society in which the government seeks to control every aspect of an individual's life, including their thoughts and beliefs. The leaders in this society aim to destroy the minds of their citizens by indoctrinating them with collectivist ideology and suppressing individualism, creativity, and freedom of thought. The novel is a powerful critique of collectivism and a call to value individualism and freedom of thought. In this essay, I will explore how the leaders in "Anthem" seek to control the minds of their citizens, the insight that Rand is attempting to share with her readers, and how the readers are supposed to feel, understand, and learn from the story.

In the novel, the government operates a strict educational system that teaches children to conform to the collectivist values of the society and to reject individualism and freedom of thought. The leaders in the society also suppress the use of certain words that are associated with individualism, such as "I" and "me". Equality 7-2521, the protagonist of the story, reflects on the effects of this indoctrination when he says, "We were taught from our babyhood that every choice and every action of our lives must be for the benefit of all humanity. And this was the reason for our school, where children learned to be happy with what they were given, and to do as they were told." (Rand, p. 33). The use of indoctrination and the suppression of certain words demonstrate the leaders' attempts to control the minds of their citizens and to erase the idea of individualism from their