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Obstacles Of Advancement In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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Obstacles of Advancement In Ayn Rand's Anthem, we encounter a very unstable future society. Totalitarianism has overtaken this culture. This means that one group of people rules over society and tolerates no variation of opinion. We find the people in Anthem's society to be slaves to the god "We" and individuality eliminated as much as possible. One major way Anthem differs from most books placed in a future time period is the absence of scientific and technological advancement in this society. In fact, there is scarcely any technology in this society at all! Ayn Rand was trying to illustrate certain ideas to the readers about discoveries that are made, particularly in these areas. Let's delve into her ideas presented regarding these …show more content…

When Equality 7-2521 brings his discovery of the light bulb before the council of scholars, one of the council members exclaims, "It took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the Candle, and to decide upon the number needed, and to re-fit the Plans so as to make candles instead of torches. This touched upon thousands and thousands of men working in scores of states. We cannot alter the plans again so soon (Rand 74)." This totalitarian society is completely bound by everyone else. Each person had to have candles in order for it to be fair. Therefore, they were limited in what they could do. Individuality is vital for discoveries to happen and begin to gain a foothold as a part of society. Technological and scientific advancements can't occur when everyone is hampered by everyone …show more content…

First, Rand showed there is a very important connection between developments in science and technology and individuality. Second, she asserted that when people are limited by others, advancement is impossible. Third, she displayed that not only is positive growth impossible when equality for everyone and the loss of the individual occurs, but these actually cause society to move backwards in science and technology since advancements in these areas are obstacles of equality. And finally, Rand showcased that every individual needs the opportunity to discover. Anthem is a unique futuristic book where technology and science have moved in the wrong direction. Rand uses this to make these incredible points along the

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Throughout Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, character developments play a crucial role in establishing the overall concepts present in the novella. One of the most significant developments present takes part in the life of Liberty 5-3000, the Golden One, or Gaea, depending on what stage of life is presented. The development of this character contributes to the idea of individualism, which establishes a base for the most copious theme destruction of a collective society.

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Unlike during the Unmentionable Times, when men created “towers [that] rose to the sky,” it is an affliction to be born with powerful intellectual capacity and ambition in Ayn Rand’s apocalyptic, nameless society in Anthem. Collectivism is ostensibly the moral guidepost for humanity, and any perceived threat to the inflexible, authoritarian regime is met with severe punishment. The attack on mankind’s free will and reason is most evident in the cold marble engraving in the Palace of the World Council: “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (6). Societal norms force homogeneity and sacrifice among all people.

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By juxtaposing her works together, her novella and her opinionated essay, correlation unfolds and similarity shows between the “evil” force of complete assimilation in Anthem and the complete disregard of wrongdoings being denoted as evil in How Does One Live a Rational Life in an Irrational Society. It does not come as a revelation that Equality would find strong personal relation and belief in the opinions of Rand. His resolution that the Council promotes practices of with which he disagrees and finds morally repulsive presents itself in a manner that is agreeable with any morally sound individual. Rand is extremely skillful in effectuating Ethos into her work, weaving together sentences with both beauty and

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This sort of reasoning, stressing the consumer’s choice to represent the people of society, can be useful in what is to come and help benefit society. Because of the mention of Anthem being fitting, it was also appropriate for Ayn Rand’s name to be brought up to remind people of the figure who stood out among the politicians’ original view on the government. All of these elements, Ayn Rand’s name being mentioned, Anthem being referenced to, and the further discussion of Randian logic are appropriate for this matter and should be taken into consideration for the

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Tohniiya Yazzie per 1 Be unique in your own way, do not let other people tell you what to do. Anthem is a dystopian society. No one thinks for themselves, and there is no individuality, everyone has to think like a group. The leaders are called Council of Scholars and they tell everyone in the society what to think and do. No one is allowed to be different, and everyone is supposed to be the same, which is expected to make the society equal.

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Ayn Rand’s Anthem starts by Equality 7-2521 saying “It is a sin to write this.” Throughout the story, Equality’s views and mindset changes, he realizes that he is different from his brothers and its ok to be different. He discovers that if something is legal it is not certainly right. His eager for knowledge taught him the word “I” abandoning the word “We”.

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In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, mankind is a philanthropic machine. The brotherhood nobly works together to achieve a common goal. In doing so, each man is asked to disregard his own personal means and goals. For every decision must be a collective thought and every advancement, a joint action. However, one man in this machine malfunctions.

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Evidence of this would be that Equality was able to reinvent the electric light, a significant improvement over the candle light which was used at that time. With this in mind, though a population with intelligences similar to that of Hazel Bergeron would be easy to control, the citizens found in Rand’s Anthem are brainwashed to do nothing but follow the commands given to them by their form of government, thus making them a much more control

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Dependency. This word is straight from Hades according to Ayn Rand. She believes very strongly in ethical egoism, which is the ideal that people need to look out for themselves and not depend on the government or anyone else for help. She very clearly portrays this warning in being dependent on the government and others in her book Anthem and in her interview with Mike Wallace. Her views on helping the less fortunate through the government and other organizations are no exception to these ideals.

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Some people are filled with an insatiable desire to learn. In “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, the main character, Equality 7-2521, wants nothing more than to study the Science of Things and become a Scholar. Although this is forbidden for a Street Sweeper like him, he does research in isolation. He wants to join the Scholars because he is intelligent, inquisitive, and always driven to learn about the way things around him work.

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Anthem is a story written by Ayn Rand as a propaganda piece portraying the evils of communism. The book takes place in the future in a undisclosed city surrounded by forest. In this city a collectivist society dwells. The conflict of Anthem is character vs. society where one man by the name of Equality decides to go against his broken government. Equality took a stand against his broken society, he has defied the council of scholars and his government, had a relation with a women, and escaped the city to The Uncharted Forest.

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Equality is right to be motivated this way because for once someone who is not a scholar has invented something that the scholars have never thought of. The scholars even rejected his invention because they said it would decrease the production of candles, but truthfully they rejected his invention because they were in fear of his knowledge and intelligence. The idea of Equality’s invention came from the experiments he conducted and the days of work he tried to discover this so called “electricity”. “We forgot all men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to be learned!

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However, he fails to realize that collectivism still exists outside his tunnel of intellectual and individualistic refuge. Thus, the council is horrified by his invention using personal thought and they mock and ridicule him, even threatening to burn him at the stake. One member of the council, International 1-5537, points out the major issue with Equality’s invention, saying “what is not done collectively cannot be good” (Anthem 73). The Council fails to understand the basic idea that Rand proposes in “The Soul of an Individualist” in which she says that “no work is ever done collectively, by a major decision. Every creative job is achieved under the guidance of a single individual thought” (Rand).

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No matter what, until the Council begins to accept changes to their “Plans”, Equality’s society will outmatch theirs. The final fallacy weakening the collective state renders itself in the Council’s inability to care for the individual needs of its

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While this society is controlled well, there are many people that rebel against it, including those who created it. However, in order to bring

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