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The Importance Of Life In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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According to John Rohn “Life does not get better by chance, it gets better by choice.” Life does not just get better, there must be changes. Each day people make choices in order to better their life. In Anthem, this never happens because the Council makes choices for everyone. When Equality 7-2521 is punished he is banished from the society and experiences what it is like to be an individual. This leads to the happiest moment of his life. Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem teaches the reader about the lack of individuality, freedom, and love on the character’s lives.
Being an individual means making decisions and having an opinion. Part of being an individual is being able to prefer one thing over another. Everyday, many choices are made, but …show more content…

In the society “men are forbidden to take notice of women and women are forbidden to take notice of men. But we think of one among women, they whose name is Liberty 5-3000, and we think of no others” (38). Equality sees Liberty for the first time and calls her the Golden One. This is a sin because Equality likes Liberty more then everyone else, and men are not supposed to notice women. He is willing to commit many transgressions, which reveals how strong his feelings are for her. One day, Equality gets exiled from society after creating electricity on his own. He goes to the Uncharted Forest, and the Golden One follows him, showing him that she loves him. At first, she is unable to say that she loves Equality because no one knows of the word “I”. After Equality learns about the word through reading books, he tells Liberty and they are finally able to express their love to each other. The lack of love in the society does not allow people to be happy. Getting married is often considered one of the best and happiest days of a person’s life. This great moment will never happen for the people who live in this society because they are not allowed to love someone. Once Equality and Liberty leave society, they find a house that makes them happiest they have ever been and they say “we shall never leave this house nor let it be taken from us” (91). They plan on living in the house for the rest of their life and starting a family. They are finally able to love each other and enjoy their lives, unlike the rest of

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In the book Anthem their society is way different from ours. They are not allowed to be individual or say the word “I”. They can’t have names, instead they are in groups and have group names. They all have a part in society like their jobs and things they do. For example the equality group belong to the street sweepers.

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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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Prompt: Explain the following quote: “To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.” How does this quote exemplify a theme of Anthem? In the novel “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, the main character Equality 7-2521 expresses his own individuality. Through the challenges that he was faced with, he learned many way to express himself differently.

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In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, the idea of egoism is addressed. Is it wrong to be an egoist? The philosophy is a controversial subject; however, I believe that is acceptable to be an egoist. It is acceptable to be an egoist because it is the only way you will get anywhere in life, happiness will be more prevalent in our society, and the technology of our society would progress significantly. The Soul Of An Individualist will be analyzed as well to add validity to my opinions.

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This made Equality find out who he is and gave him the chance to be an individual. Equality’s views and mindset changes through out the book. He was born in a society where people are named by numbers. A world where people are used as machines. In this world the word “I” is out of existence.

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As soon as he discovers electric lighting, he writes in his journal, “We can light our tunnel, and the City, and all the Cities of the world with nothing save metal and wires. We can give our brothers a new light, cleaner and brighter, than any they have ever known.” (Rand 60). Equality’s selflessness is exemplified when he wishes to share his light, one he believes he’s created and tamed by himself, for the betterment of the world. Throughout Anthem, Equality helps others and wishes to share his knowledge to others.

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Someone needs to arouse Equality’s primal instinct that has been buried by his camaraderie, and her name is Liberty. “Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt. […] They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under their feet” (49). For the first time Equality feels desire and knows pain.

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Equality’s road to individuality begins with standing up to his oppressors and learning that thinking for one’s self is the only way to happiness and success. To begin, Equality’s road to freedom begins with finding the underground tunnel system. This is where Equality begins to explore his individuality. He steals candles, flints, knives, paper, glass vials, powders, acids, and even manuscripts. He is breaking the law by taking these things, but he is curious, which is where his individuality stems from.

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How could losing individuality affect a society? The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is about a guy named Equality 7-2521 who is trying to find himself in a society where everything is controlled and different. Later, he finds himself even though he will have to go through many obstacles to get there. The process behind losing individuality in an Anthem’s society are in forcing strict laws, brain washing of their citizens, and removing of family. The Anthem society in forcing of strict laws made it easy for everyone to lose their individuality.

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Equality and The Golden One have a relationship despite society forbidding it. Knowing fully about this rule does not stop the two's love. This love was strong enough that when Equality ran from the city she followed. This is another felony. Equality has taken stands against his society for his own personal thoughts and agenda.

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Evidence to support this is, “We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so.” (Rand 17) Equality was talking about how he wasn’t allowed to write because the Council doesn’t allow citizens to do that. Their reputation was very controlling and they were the people who decided the rules that citizens are allowed to abide by. They have to do certain things within the book, based solely on the council.

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Equality also talks about the Home of the Infants and the Home of the Students. He talks about how much he loves the Science of Things and yearns to learn more about how things are made. He asks so many questions that the Teachers restrains how many he may asked, “We asked so many questions that the Teachers forbid it,” (23). Equality was determined to learn about everything around him and how everything worked, he asked questions after questions that no more questions where allowed. Equality eventually finds out his life job as a Street Sweeper, he meets a woman named Liberty 5-300 working in the fields.

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In the novel, Anthem by Ayn Rand, conveys a deep understanding of collectivism. Collectivism is when you give a group priority over yourself as an individual. The main character, Equality 7-2521, does not have an identity and cannot express himself as an individual. In Equality’s world they can not be self-centered and always have to think about others. Anthem takes place in the future, and the citizens are unaware of the past.

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Rand uses the the relationship between Equality and the Golden One to represent Equality’s journey from being obsessed with the Golden One when he feels he has to be apart of the group, to being ignorant to the Golden One because he has become utterly independent and selfish. At the beginning of the story when Equality felt he had to belong to a group, he noticed the Golden One and fell in love with her. In Rand’s novel, she states, “They raised their hand to their

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In the novella Anthem, individual rights and freedom do not exist. The word “I” is prohibited to be spoken by men. Equality 7-2521 is a street sweeper of the city and he is different from the others in the society. Equality is more intelligent, taller, learns quicker, and he enjoys learning about science; especially how things move and work. Since the word “I” is the unspeakable word, Equality uses the word “We” to resemble that he is doing these actions .

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