The Role Of Ego In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Ego

Ego is a holy word for Equality 7-2521 tHe main character in Anthem by Ayn Rand. The definition of ego is a person’s self-esteem or self-importance. Where Equality 7-2521 grew up men were taught that the word “ego” was a synonym for evil and selflessness, but Equality didn’t believe that. Being an egoist can be both good and bad, Equality was someone who held his truth above everything else in the world, so would he be considered an egoist?

In Equality’s world, to be in egoist was bad, in the speech The Soul of an Individualist it states that “Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and selflessness the ideal of virtue.”, since men such as Equality were taught of that, then he would have been taught to believe not to be an egoist. Equality later on in the story developed a crush on Liberty 5-3000, also known as the Golden One, in the speech, it states “To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions of the ego”, in Equality’s world, showing emotion is being an egoist, but Equality and Liberty simply showed the forbidden

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. Once he showed his discovery, he is booed, but Equality knew it was something special and it should have been shown for the whole world to see. At this point, Equality already had the idea of an ego in his mind, but it wasn't fully known to him what an “ego”