Is it possible that Equality didn’t make a wise decision during his time in Anthem? Should he have given away his light bulb so the scholars would destroy it?
In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, a man named Equality struggles to accept the way people live in his town. His brothers are brainwashed into believing their lives mean nothing. Anthem is an Anti-Utopia and Ayn Rand describes what a world would be without individualism. In Anthem, Equality’s major decisions lead him to freedom from his brothers, being able to be independent, and the right to make his own choices.
During his time in his hometown of Anthem, Equality and his brothers were not free, but only Equality knew it. Equality mentioned that everything smelt of fear except for his tunnel which was cleansed.”Fear walks through the city, fear without shape. All men feel it and none
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In Anthem, you cannot choose your job, your mate, or what to do in your free time. Even though Equality was chosen to be a street sweeper, he studied items that were thrown away by the House of Scholars.”We were guilty of the great transgression of preference. We preferred some work and some lessons to the others”(Rand 22). Because of this, Equality kept focusing on science while a street sweeper. He read scripts, Studied animals and bones, and rediscovered electricity.
All three of these causes and effects led to Equality’s escape from Anthem to his new home.
His wise decisions led him to freedom, independence from people he didn’t care about, and the right of preference. Because he stayed in his tunnel, he wasn’t full of fear like his brothers. Since he started to not care about the people he didn’t know, he started to be more independent. Because he dreamed and was curious, he discovered stuff that made him realise how horrible his town is.” But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men”(Rand