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Motivation And Joy In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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Anthem Essay Equalities motivation and joy both come from a lack of fulfillment with his society and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and innovation. Equality goes against the acceptable behavior in his society as he pursues his own joy, and a better evolved society, one that is not socially awkward, and against almost all progress. He fights for this utopia, driven to the point of being willing to create it himself if all else fails. Equality has a thirst for knowledge that stems from his love for learning, knowing, and inventing to better himself and those around him. From the start, Equality doesn’t truly understand what happiness is, thinking to himself “We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it. We would …show more content…

His drive is shown as he wishes to join the council of scholars with an inquisitive brain, wanting to “know about all the things which make the earth around us. We asked so many questions that the Teachers forbade it” (Rand 23). However, the society at hand calls for the smart to do menial labors of which is rather useless to his potential. Equality as a person gains motivation in pursuit of joy whether he realizes it or not, and he enjoys learning and understanding. Equality gets to a point in which he finds joy in discovery, and states (with pride) that “We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we are alone to know it” (Rand 52). Equality finds this sudden advancement because of his own will in admitting a lack of knowledge, and it is in this lack of knowledge that he finds a need to learn, wanting to better his understanding of...everything. Returning to the idea of Equality’s joy being a massive source of his motivation, he finds joy in being around the golden one, and wishes to improve the quality of life for her, for the one he loves, as such, he is better motivated to make life more luxurious for her sake, to provide her with

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Daisy Pham Language Arts Honor February 2nd, 2017 1st hour Anthem The book Anthem was written by Ayn Rand is a Science Fiction Book. This Science Fiction book would be unknown since the Author didn’t exactly give the time in the book. In the book Anthem there wasn’t any clues or hints that it took place in 1900’s or the 2000’s. Ayn Rand is a Russian-American novelist and she is known for writing books.

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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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Laws and rules are crafted to prevent advancement and preserve elentless uniformity under the guise of moral righteousness. Here we find Equality 7-2521 on the path to self-discovery, struggling to understand the internal conflict he faces—his desire to learn and create against government indoctrination to force stagnation and conformity. Equality possesses gifts despised by the government: intellectual and psychological strength. He aspires to work at the Home of Scholars, where there is some perceived semblance of education and discovery (9).

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Despite his awareness of the many transgressions he commits, Equality chases his desires and defies authority. Through his doubt regarding the society, his egocentric outlook, and his love for both knowledge and the Golden One, Equality

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Equality’s greatest strengths and personal qualities were intended to be restricted and abhorred. Indeed, Equality and his gifts were abhorred, but he found a way to circumvent each restriction, consciously or not. And, though he maintained use of his strengths and kept a strong spirit, Equality was never able to permanently influence the society because, as a Street Sweeper, he was no longer part of the great WE. The Council of Vocations mandated Equality to life as a Street Sweeper in order to limit his intellectual opportunities.

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In the book he talks about his experiences and how he is just supposed to live to serve the council who is in charge of him. If collectivism was spread throughout the world our society would end up like Anthem, on page 21, Equality says, “We are nothing, we exist through and for our brothers who are the state”. Equality and all the people in this society are so easily brainwashed to think like this it makes it seem possible for our world to end up like theirs too. Equality 7-2521 is just a number to the people in charge, he is nothing more than a slave of the collectivist world. In Anthem no one can have a preference or that would mean they have an identity which is a sin, “We wished to know about all the things which make the earth around us, we asked so many questions that the teachers forbade it”(23).

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There's so much emphasis on putting others before oneself that people often forget to look out for their own needs, as shown in this book. Ayn Rand successfully captures the negatives of an overrated ideology and presents an unorthodox perspective on the matter. In conclusion, Equality's true motives behind his work are much more selfish than they first appear to be. Equality strives to fulfil his own personal desire rather than contribute everything to society, and this isn't necessarily a negative thing.

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Equality also expresses his pleasure in the Science of Things as he creates electricity. Slowly, Equality begins to do whatever will bring him pleasure and happiness, and according to the author, a country is based on “a man’s right to the pursuit of happiness. His own happiness” (Soul of an Individualist 38). Equality displays his integrity as he is true to his principles and beliefs. He realizes that no society can be collectivist without depriving individuals of basic rights, conforming to Ayn Rand’s beliefs: “There is no such thing as a collective brain…collective thought” (Soul of an Individualist 9).

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We know not why our curse makes us seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it. It whispers us that there are greater things on this earth of ours, and that we can know them if we try. ”(Rand,24). Equality 7-2521 is trying to point out that if we just try to discover things they might find out about the truth.

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. Learning is what makes us human after all so it is only natural that Equality wished to learn. Intelligence normally equals to helpfulness and helpfulness creates a superior community which explains that from the very beginning Equality wanted to be a scholar. Helping people seems to be the main agenda for the towering male in view of the fact that when he reinvented the light bulb that he wanted to give counsel to help his peers. The fact that the male owned a large amount of helpful spurs seemed to drive him to success and to better himself as a human and learn more than he’d ever expect.

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Robert Frost once said, “If society fits you comfortably enough, you can call it freedom”. Most people can relate to this quote, but what if an individual does not agree or feel comfortable in his or her social system? In the novella Anthem, Ayn Rand shows her willingness to leave an unjust society through Equality leaving his community, purposefully breaking laws, and pursuing his discoveries. The first way Rand proves that she does not agree with her society, is through the main character of the book, Equality, running away from his society. Rand states that Equality’s actions that she will do what it takes to leave her society.

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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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With all of his experience that nobody has known in at least a century he is extremely capable of deciding whether of his choices are right. His personality keeps him from giving up hope and giving up on his society and his companion but keeps him curious enough to keep searching for something better in life. Equality has aged to the point where he thinks he needs to change the world and will try to do so. Most would believe that Equality’s actions were righteous and could not contemplate that his actions were

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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). In Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel, Anthem, the citizens are trained from birth to think only in the plural, to the point where they cannot even conceive of individuals, but only see each other as part of the whole group. Rand’s protagonist, Equality 72521, begins the novel as a street-sweeper who is devoted to the group, but begins to move towards individuality as he progresses towards pure selfishness, as Rand believes we all should. Rand uses the words “we” and “I” to represent Equality’s journey from being dependent on the group, to being utterly independent of everyone.

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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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