Ayn Rand once said, “Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to ‘society’, to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its interest.” In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, she depicts an anonymous, communist city in which no individual has any rights, they only exist for their “brothers”. Equality 7-2521 is a very venturesome and curious character that wants nothing more than to be an individual and live with no limits.
The complication with Equality 7-2521 wanting to be his own individual is the rules and controls that comes with his collectivist society. In Anthem, it is a law that men and women should not speak or think of eachother. The book states, “And we take no heed of the law
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Equality wants nothing more than to be an individual, think his own thoughts, and live without constraint. He wants to be able to love Liberty 5-3000 without being slashed or sent to the Palace of Corrective Detention. Outside of the city limits they’re individuals and live by no law, what they’ve always wanted. Equality states, “I shall live here, in my own house. I shall take my food from the earth by the toil of my own hands. I shall learn many secrets from my books. Through the years ahead, I shall rebuild the achievements which are open to me, but closed forever to my brothers, for their minds are shackled to the weakest and dullest ones among them” (Rand 99). Equality wanted to live no more under any law. The laws and rules implemented by the councils were created because they strongly believed in collectivism. Everyone was equal and considered to be a whole thinking only of their brothers and never themselves. Liberty and Equality break through the rules and controls whenever they go past city limits and find their own home to reside