Dystopian Society In Ayn Rand's Anthem

As stated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”. In the novella, Anthem by Ayn Rand, the setting takes place in a futuristic, dystopian society that has abandoned the use of modern technology and has set rules and regulations in order to keep one practice, Collectivism, or a practice where people do not think or make decisions for themselves. No men are permitted to think of others as closer to them than any others, or have preferences on things such as their profession. If one considers his own well being and desires above that of his brothers, it is seen as a transgression. The City is ruled by the Councils who select how their citizens

He envisions a society that is heard of all over the world, and he believes all men will wish to reach it and this new city will someday “carry the greatest of the world’s blood to his threshold.” The rules in place in the society Equality once lived in were all restricted to working and living together and never individually. In the new world that he envisions, I believe Equality will encourage individuality and thinking for oneself, especially in the way of creative thinking, since Equality himself loves to create and explore the past times and sciences, this is how he discovered the power of electricity. Another rule implemented in Equality’s old home was that men were not allowed to have preferences of their brothers. They could not like or become friends with another person. Equality, in the book, has a preference of International 4-8818, they are friends, even if their society forbids it; In Equality’s new society I believe he will give all men freedom to have friends. I also believe that Equality can see how the differences that each person has can be an asset to the new world because they will all possess different strengths that could be useful to the new world he

I think Equality believes the controls and rules present in his previous home are unnecessary, and a barrier to what men could really accomplish if they were permitted to think, imagine, and create, not just alone but, together. I believe Equality finds these things important above all others and for these reasons, I do not believe that the recent rules that dominated the city of where Equality once lived will appear in the society that Equality