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Meaning In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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In the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, there are many quotes that have a very significant meaning in the story, as well as in the real world. Equality lives in a society where everyone does, says, and thinks what they’re told to, having no sense of being their own person. Equality eventually gets tired of all of these rules, spoken and unspoken, and decides to defy his society. Throughout the novel, Equality was able to find who he was and what his purpose was by challenging his society, and it’s rules. One of the first quotes that has a more significant meaning is when Equality says, “The word ‘We’... crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the gray of it” (97). Once Equality discovers the word …show more content…

My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end” (95). Towards the end of the story, Equality realizes that he is free to feel any emotion he wants, and however extreme he wants to. He doesn’t need to have some reason to be happy, or some reason to not be happy, he can just be. Being happy without a reason isn’t a crime in the real world, but in Equality’s world, it was. You had to have a reason to be happy, to feel any emotion. But once Equality ran away and was free, he experienced a happiness he’d never felt before. Perhaps the most important quote of the whole story is when Equality declares “I am. I think. I will.” (94). This is the turning point when Equality finally learns he is his own person, who doesn’t have to be oppressed by his society. He learns can think for himself, and he can do what he wills himself to do. No one in his society was able to claim theirself as an ‘I’. They were all we. In our society, we are our own person, going by ‘I’, not ‘we’. We are able to think for ourselves, and we are able to be unique. These were just three quotes that had major significance in and out of Anthem. Throughout the novel, Equality was able to find who he was and what his purpose was by challenging his society, and it’s rules. He also discovers that there’s nothing more important than the pursuit of true happiness and

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Anthem is a good book about the future and their own versions of a Utopian society. This novel is all about independence and how options are limited. The question asked is if you think Equality’s eventual assessment of his sins is correct. My answer to this question is, he felt as if his sins taught him more.

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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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The book Anthem by Ayn Rand is a very interesting book. At first it is confusing to the reader because of the use of the words we and us instead of I. The main character, Equality 7-2521 introduces himself in the plural form. The reader takes a while to figure this out. The era that Equality is in, is after the Great Rebirth.

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From Equality’s point of view, his desires and fulfillment are of more importance than the society’s excessive restrictions. Individuality, Rand claims, is necessary for one’s contentment; thus, the individual must always weigh themselves greater than all else. By emphasizing his independent priorities, Equality is able to rebel against the regulations he believes are

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These are not the words of one who has been freed to find personal happiness; these are the words of an individual has become overly dependent on the collective mindset of self sacrifice. Equality sees this subjectively as her expression of love for him; for it is not sacrifice if she gains happiness in suffering with him, but this simply breaks the fundamental ideals of his new individualistic ways. This brings to light the fact that a society cannot truly exist in which individuals know how to treat one another without unintentionally or unknowingly being at detriment or asking for the sacrifice of others. Without

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Equality lives in a collectivist society, which is a society that believes, “that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.” Therefore, Equality being the person he is, struggles with being an individual. He knows it is against the law but he enjoys knowledge so much, it confuses him. He states, “And in our heart-strange are the ways of evil! - and in our heart there is the first peace we have known in 20 years.”

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In our society, people are motivated in lots of different ways. This can create both positives, such as putting a man on the moon, and negatives, such as war and starving people. Anthem is a story about a man who is going against his collectivist society in his search for individuality. Equality’s main motivation is to discover new things and new ideas in the world around him, as well as to try to figure out who he is as an individual. His motivation is correct because he enables the thought of free will, and the world could become a better place if everyone was motivated like Equality.

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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.

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Equality was a creator his mind had driven him to science he had his own mind, his own strength, and his own courage he was independent, he was brighter than the rest. Standing alone in a modern world ruled by the suppressed government he faced the world alone. In a world where being intellectual was a severe sin he possessed gifts unlike no other that were despised by the government: intellectual and psychological strength. In a world where free will was not allowed and any form of diversity was punished by the authorities. Here we find Equality on a path of self-discovery and independence.

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Equality is something people want till people actually have it. Equality often limits a person’s abilities and disables to do something for themselves or inspire themselves. Equality's, the main character in the book Anthem, the primary motivation is proving that he is smart enough to become a scholar. Equality has a right to be motivated in this way since he believes that he can help the society so he is giving into the collectivism. I think that if everyone was motivated in this way, there would be a more progressive society where people sought to improve themselves and society at the same time.

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So long a road lies before us, and what care if we must travel it alone!” (54) In this statement all Equality cares about is his invention and he is still trying to expand his

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Equality is still referring to himself as “we”, even as he struggles to determine what the better, unspeakable word might be. His second instance of feeling there is a better word than we comes a bit later in the novel, when he and his romantic focus, The Golden One, are trying to tell each other their feelings after they have both escaped the city into the Uncharted Forest. The Golden One starts by saying, “we love you”, but quickly decides that was not what she wanted to say (86). She is trying to say I love you, but doesn’t have the correct word, and so stumbles over an awkward re-phrasing that still relies on describing individuals in the plural. Equality quickly realizes what she is trying to do and “knew that the

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