Equality In Ayn Rand's The Anthem

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.

In the novel, Equality 7-2521 learned that to be your own person you must first stop trying to be like someone else. Exemplifying a theme of Anthem where individuality breaks through teaches Equality a big lesson. Brothers stick together and help each other but are not supposed to be exactly like one another. In this novel it tried to make everyone the same and as one, rather than as individuals. The quote “To be a free, a man must be free of his brothers” (chapter 1 page 1) exemplifies a theme by saying that not everyone has to be the same.

The society portrayed in Anthem is a society revolved around collectivism, which is the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it”(Source 3). The social nature is almost non-existent and becomes less the more you age. Equality states “we fought with our brothers. There are few offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers, at any age and for any cause whatsoever. The Council of the Home told us so, and all of the children of that year, we were locked in the cellar most often.

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.

What makes one person different from another? Is it height, weight, and color of skin, or is it personality, family, and attitude? These differences can define a person and separate them from those around them. These differences make a person an individual; however, in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Equality 7-521 is anything but an individual. He spends his days sweeping the streets and his nights sleeping in a white room with ninety-nine of his brothers.

The story “Anthem” by Ayn Rand is a dystopian novel that shows how freedom is an important right. The story is based on a character named Equality 7-521 and the society is all about being equal. There is no freedom, every choice is decided for you. You cannot speak for yourself and are not allowed to use the word “i”. If you think highly of yourself it is a sin.

This shows Equality distancing himself from the dystopian society and gaining greater freedom. Equality does this through his constant resistance and rule-breaking tendencies when searching for his own freedom. Freedom is something that both Equality in the Anthem, as well as its author Rand valued, as it is a frequent and recurring theme in the

Imagine living in a society where you had to be the same as everyone else, risking your life to fight for individuality. In the life of Equality 7-2521, that is exactly what he has to live through. The book Anthem by Ayn Rand, is about a young boy who goes by the name of Equality 7-2521 that is commonly referred to as just “Equality.” Equality is a little different than everyone, as he is taller than everyone else, smarter, and breaks the rules. Equality lives in a society where everyone is the same, and no one is to be different than one another.

Everyone is born with independence, but imagine a society where this virtue is ceased. In the novel “Anthem” written by Ayn Rand, she describes a society in which everyone is the exact same. Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 are two characters that live under a strict and controlling rule, in which they make decisions for you. As they story goes on, the two characters discover love, freedom, liberty, and independence. To Equality, being similar to his brothers was not equal, he believes that the meaning of “I” celebrates joy and peace within a society.

Where equality is forced as well. But in this dystopian society equality is represented a little different the government doesn’t want anybody alone or to have their own mind. Equality 7-2521 is the main character in “Anthem”. Equality is smart, six feet tall, and 21 years old. Equality invented something never that would have been invented if I weren’t his own mind.

When Americans stopped fearing the British government, they were able to overcome them. In Anthem, Equality realized he wasn’t happy with the world he was living in. “My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end. It is its own goal.

Intelligence. Something that Equality 7-2521 has a great deal of. Ayn Rand, the author of Anthem, suggests that Equality 7-2521 knows that he is too intelligent to be a street sweeper, and he tries to prove his intelligence through his experiments so he can be “willed” into the Home of the Scholars. She shows this through his time in the Home of the Students when Equality is punished for his quick head, his love for learning, and the idea of learning, and when he escapes to the tunnel to work on his invention. Equality knows he is intelligent when he is punished in the Home of the Students because of his quick head.

“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.

¨We do not wonder at this new sin of ours. It is our second transgression of Preference, for we do not think of all our brothers, as we must, but only of one, and their name is Liberty 5-300. We do not know why we think of them” (Rand 41). In Ayn Randś dystopian novel, Anthem, the citizens are forced to think that they cannot have any preference, this includes liking someone more than others. Randś protagonist, Equality 7-2521, started the book falling in love with the Golden One, but as he moves toward individuality he begins to be in “love” less as he realizes there’s more than just being in a group.

Equality has changed from a collective to an individual having the knowledge of realizing what he can do to change himself in the environment. Anthem has shown how the society works. The main character Equality has proven the allegory when he realizes there's more than just a collectivism society. From start of the novel Equality has been able to grow from a part of a collectivism to learning about individualism to becoming an individual. Equality conquers the battle of collectivism and individualism for