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Equality In Ayn Rand's The Anthem

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“An individualist is a man who says: I will not run anyone’s life nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself nor sacrifice anyone to myself.” - Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand believed that collectivism is a hardship. She believed every man should be an individualist and live for themselves and no one else. This vision was portrayed through her book Anthem that featured a young boy named Equality 7-2521. Equality lives in a society that suppresses individualism and raises the “brotherly contribution and need” above anything else. “The Anthem” , a song by the pop punk band Good Charlotte, is about a young man that wants to be nothing like the other people in his world. They all are just like one another and he wants to break away from this. There are many similarities and differences between Anthem by Ayn Rand and “The Anthem” by Good Charlotte. …show more content…

In the society of the speaker in “The Anthem” everyone in everyday is the same. The sameness and likeness are a burden that he is unwilling to bear any longer. They struggle to break away from this trend. Equality is privy to the same concept in his society: “We strive to be like our brother men, for all men must be alike” (Rand 19). In the society Equality lives in, it is crucial to be just like your brothers. If you are not exactly like them in emotions, physical aspects, and character aspects you are a curse to society. Equality eventually rejected this way of thinking and separated himself from this group. The speaker in “The Anthem” must now do the

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In Ayn Rand's story Anthem, the protagonist Equality 7-2521 has a power unlike no other within their collectivist society. One day when Equality was working as a street sweeper, he finds an old abandoned underground railroad tunnel from the Unmentionable Times long ago. This is where he conducts his experiments that fill him with pride and joy. Equality dreams how his new invention that he brought into existence can change the world, but helping mankind is not his true motivation behind his passion to create. Throughout the story, Equality's true motivation is him trying to find his inner self and his identity as an individual.

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“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (Rand 19). How can an individual be a hero in a collectivist society? In The Anthem, a novella by Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521 is portrayed as an archetypal epic hero. Equality 7-2521 exhibits the characteristics of an epic hero because he is capable of great deeds, he has a nemesis, and he experiences an event that leads to a quest.

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In the book, “Anthem” by Ayn Rand she explores many different topics about our daily life as human beings. One of the characters she uses to explore these topics is a young man named Equality 7-2521. Equality 7-2521 is a young man that was raised in a dystopian society on which all men must strive to be equal, but Equality is different from them. He’s got different motivations from the rest of the men that he has grown with. He’s curious about the world around him and wants to know how everything works.

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Intelligence. Something that Equality 7-2521 has a great deal of. Ayn Rand, the author of Anthem, suggests that Equality 7-2521 knows that he is too intelligent to be a street sweeper, and he tries to prove his intelligence through his experiments so he can be “willed” into the Home of the Scholars. She shows this through his time in the Home of the Students when Equality is punished for his quick head, his love for learning, and the idea of learning, and when he escapes to the tunnel to work on his invention. Equality knows he is intelligent when he is punished in the Home of the Students because of his quick head.

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In the book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand there is a society where everyone is the same. The book starts out by introducing Equality 7-2521, a young man who doesn't understand why he can’t follow the same rules as others. In “Anthem” people were never taught the word “I” but “we” because they should not care about anyone than the people around them. In the book it explains many different characters that break the rules for their friends. Having friends, looking at girls, talking to girls is not allowed.

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The society portrayed in Anthem is a society revolved around collectivism, which is the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it”(Source 3). The social nature is almost non-existent and becomes less the more you age. Equality states “we fought with our brothers. There are few offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers, at any age and for any cause whatsoever. The Council of the Home told us so, and all of the children of that year, we were locked in the cellar most often.

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Someone needs to arouse Equality’s primal instinct that has been buried by his camaraderie, and her name is Liberty. “Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt. […] They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under their feet” (49). For the first time Equality feels desire and knows pain.

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The quote symbolizes that when applied to life, Equality 7­2521 has free will ­ a choice in how he lives, his own destiny and the path that he wants to follow. In Anthem, the society is one in which everyone is equal and no one is superior to anyone else. However, society comes with a price as no one is able to think or speak for themselves. When Equality 7­2521 realizes that he can think and speak for himself in his “new world” then his new reality stems from

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¨We do not wonder at this new sin of ours. It is our second transgression of Preference, for we do not think of all our brothers, as we must, but only of one, and their name is Liberty 5-300. We do not know why we think of them” (Rand 41). In Ayn Randś dystopian novel, Anthem, the citizens are forced to think that they cannot have any preference, this includes liking someone more than others. Randś protagonist, Equality 7-2521, started the book falling in love with the Golden One, but as he moves toward individuality he begins to be in “love” less as he realizes there’s more than just being in a group.

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The story “Anthem” by Ayn Rand is a dystopian novel that shows how freedom is an important right. The story is based on a character named Equality 7-521 and the society is all about being equal. There is no freedom, every choice is decided for you. You cannot speak for yourself and are not allowed to use the word “i”. If you think highly of yourself it is a sin.

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This shows Equality distancing himself from the dystopian society and gaining greater freedom. Equality does this through his constant resistance and rule-breaking tendencies when searching for his own freedom. Freedom is something that both Equality in the Anthem, as well as its author Rand valued, as it is a frequent and recurring theme in the

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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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Where equality is forced as well. But in this dystopian society equality is represented a little different the government doesn’t want anybody alone or to have their own mind. Equality 7-2521 is the main character in “Anthem”. Equality is smart, six feet tall, and 21 years old. Equality invented something never that would have been invented if I weren’t his own mind.

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When Americans stopped fearing the British government, they were able to overcome them. In Anthem, Equality realized he wasn’t happy with the world he was living in. “My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end. It is its own goal.

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Equality has changed from a collective to an individual having the knowledge of realizing what he can do to change himself in the environment. Anthem has shown how the society works. The main character Equality has proven the allegory when he realizes there's more than just a collectivism society. From start of the novel Equality has been able to grow from a part of a collectivism to learning about individualism to becoming an individual. Equality conquers the battle of collectivism and individualism for

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