Examples Of Individualism In Anthem

Individualism
As the book Anthem starts, Equality 7-2521 states that it was a sin what he was doing. For example, “we knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it. We would accept our Life Mandate, and we would work for our brothers, gladly and willingly, and we would erase our sin against them, which they did not know, but we knew”. Equality 7- 2521 feels guilty about wanting things for himself, he feels guilty about having his own life, spending time alone and doing things that don’t involve their brothers or sisters was forbidden (Rand 26). After the Great Rebirth, all humans started to think of themselves as “we.” Equality 7-2521 only speaks of himself as “we” and in this society the word “I” was unknown. People obey the

Equality 7-2521 realizes that “to be free, a man must be free of his brothers” which means that he cannot succeed in this society if he is not independent and different from his fellow brothers. He struggles throughout Anthem because of his desire to learn more, and benefit the society (Rand 101). Rand write this dystopian narrative to show how a society that value collectivism and equality is a bad society because one day an individual will rebel and try to find freedom. Rand show this through the systems of government, society and economy in Anthem. Therefore The relationship between government, economics and society is that the government controls people’ lives by setting laws, the government control the society from giving them a daily schedule, to where they live and who they socialize with, the government also control economy by assigning people

The people in this society are told that they only exist for the sake of serving their brothers or sisters, and have no other purpose in life. For example, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State” This means that in this society the purpose of mankind is to serve their brothers so they could be equal and not be superior to their fellow brothers(Rand 21). The government does not allow the citizens to socialize with each other. For example, “International 4-8818 and we are friends. This is an evil thing to say, for it is a transgression, the great Transgression of Preference, to love any among men better than the others, since we must love all men and all men are our friends.” In the Anthem society, friendship is not allowed because it causes the individual to value their friends more than their other brothers (Rand 30). Since all men are equal, everyone should be loyal to each other and if they are not they are committing great sin. Therefore in this society the government controls society by setting laws that forbidden individualism and also who the citizens socializes