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The Council Of Vocations Revealed In Anthem, By Ayn Rand

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In Anthem by Ayn Rand the Council of Vocations assigns Equality 7-2521 to be a Street Sweeper even though he wanted to be in the Council of Scholars. They made Equality a Street Sweeper mainly because of how smart he was and the fact he was always asking questions. The teachers new that if he had been put in the House of the Scholars he would ask to many questions and might find out information he wasn’t supposed to know. Equality didn’t have the best childhood mainly because of how strict the communist society was. Equality grew up a smart kid and the society said it was a sin to have a quicker mind than everyone else and because of him being smarter and learn stuff easier and quicker he would be punished and he had to try to forget what he had learned and had to not learn at …show more content…

And we who were fifteen and all the teachers came into the great hall. And the council of vocations sat on a high dais, and they had but two words to speak to each of the students. They called the students names, and when the students stepped before them one after another, the council said: “carpenter” or “doctor” or “cook” or “leader”.” Then each student raised their right arm and said: “the will of our brothers be done.”(Rand 25)The council of vocations in an attempt to keep Equality away from the knowledge they didn’t want him to have made him a Street Sweeper, this at first made Equality mad, because it was a waste of his good mind. He was put in a group with a half mind boy and another not so smart boy. Then one day while cleaning he found a tunnel. Equality then started collecting supplies and did experiments and discovered electricity. Equality met a girl named liberty that gave him hope and inspired him to keep doing and she named him the Unconquered. Equality invented the light bulb and took it to the Council of the Scholars but they didn’t except it, because he worked on it alone and broke many

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At the beginning of Anthem Equality has changed his mind about a lot of things in the beginning of the story. Equality got picked to be a street sweeper by the government, but he really wanted to be a scholar but couldn’t because of the government. Equality had a rough life. Well he was a street sweeper but he was smart enough to be a scholar the government did not think he was. In the book anthem by ayn rand Equality was not good for any body or anything at the beginning he had a rough start to his life.

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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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“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (Rand 19). How can an individual be a hero in a collectivist society? In The Anthem, a novella by Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521 is portrayed as an archetypal epic hero. Equality 7-2521 exhibits the characteristics of an epic hero because he is capable of great deeds, he has a nemesis, and he experiences an event that leads to a quest.

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When he does the council is outraged with the new knowledge and declares it and him a threat to society. Although Equality sees the light as knowledge and a way to evolve and become better people, his elders see the light as a plot to separate everyone in society rather than unite them. His version of what can help the society is different from the society’s which means he has a totally different version of truth from them. In this quote the light could be seen as a form of symbolism which is a person, a place, an object, or an activity that stands for something beyond itself. The light in this text can represent the knowledge that the main character, Equality poses and how he wishes to share this knowledge with the people.

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It is well known throughout the society that “We [the people] are one in all and all in one. There are no men, but the great WE, One, indivisible, and forever,” (19), yet Equality spend two years’ worth of his nights thinking separately, and working alone in the hole that he and International 4-8818 discovered. Equality also is guilty of the Transgression of Preference due to his favoring of International, and Liberty 5-3000. Another action seen as a sin to his society is Equality’s creation of the light. The light was created in solitude and “What is not done collectively cannot be good,” (73).

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“We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no power or will in us to stop it” (18). Equality 7-2521 is born into a society in which individuality is a crime.

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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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Equality truly believes in what he is told, and he accepts it. He talks about how he feels that he is cursed, and that he is a bad person, “Such would have been our life, had we not committed our crime which changed all things for us. And it was our curse which drove us to our crime. We had been a good Street Sweeper and like all our brother Street Sweepers, save for our cursed wish to know. We looked too long at the stars at night, and at the trees and the earth.”(29).

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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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Collectivism and Selfishness in Anthem Imagine living in a world where everybody's lives are completely mapped out by the government. Where every decision is made without the input of the citizens it affects. In the novella Anthem, Ayn Rand depicts a completely collectivist society, where every idea, action, and invention is purely for the benefit of society as a whole. Everything is done with the entire population in mind, and individuality is extremely frowned upon.

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Such thoughts are only expanded upon with the creation of electricity when Equality truly begins to doubt the Council stating “But we think that he Council of Scholars is blind” (52). This becomes the turning point for Equality as he continues resisting the beliefs of the Council. Soon his disbelief begins to change Equality creating a pride that becomes the driving force for his decisions. When Equality discovers electricity, he takes credit for the discovery proclaiming, “We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we are alone to know it.”

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788 Words | 4 Pages

Equality will try anything and everything in an attempt to gain new knowledge. This combination of work ethic and determination is what causes Equality to achieve so

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Equality was a sinner, in the book it even states in the very first line on page 17 it says “It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see.” Equality was a discoverer, and by doing that he was sinning. After discovering what he believed was a discovering of a “new power of nature” as said on page 52, he knew that he said to show his new power to the Council of Scholars. It was forbidden to go out of your house, but he did it anyways.

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In response to the choice of Street Sweeper, Equality thinks, “We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it” (26). With his intelligence and curiosity, Equality would do much better as a Scholar. The government punishes him for being different, and as a result, they can’t see him become advantageous. They are blinded by their beliefs on

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Equality can only think of himself, at the beginning

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