Essay On Equality And The Golden One In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Ayn Rand depicts characters that make important choices; her characters select from alternatives available to them — significant and sometimes life-and-death issues. Equality 7-2521 is the most obvious example, but not the only character in the book to make such choices. He chooses to wonder about the Unspeakable Word when he could (and, according to this society, should) decide not to. He chooses to conceal both the existence of the tunnel and his experiments, refusing to bow to the Councils ' will. He chooses not to tell his captors where he has been though they torture him.

With the rejection of his creation, "It must be destroyed!"(Rand, 27)  it turns Equality 7-2521 to turn against his society and run away with the light bulb. He renders into the Uncharted Forest believing that no man would follow him here in which he uncovers the unknown that the Great Rebirth has hidden away. Before long, the Golden One accompanies Equality 7-2521 in his awaited journey to find a home that contains the long lost manuscripts and books that he presently reads. This results in him to rename himself Prometheus and brings the plot to a close with himself finding his true identity and what he has always believed to be a curse to be a gift that helped him to unveil the long lost word

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.

“It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them” (Rand 21). Equality cannot prevent himself from having certain abilities, but he is punished for them, even where these abilities could benefit the collective. Equality does not have the freedom to be his best self.

For Liberty is so beautiful and “glowing” that she cannot be ignored. It, however, is against the commandments of Equality’s brotherhood to peruse her, as it would unbalance the mutual emotion between all men by creating preference. In a wretched battle of nature vs nurture, Equality finds that despite these regulations, he cannot stop himself from yearning for Liberty, whom serves as “blade of iron” cutting through to the undeniable truth that Equality is a selfish being, generally motivated by his own personal

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.”

Equality 7-2521 can free himself from collectivism because he was independent. In the novel Anthem Ayn Rand makes us comprehend that Equality had and inner struggle and

Moral Assessment of Anthem In Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem, Equality lives in a communist society that believes everyone must work for and be exactly like one another. For much of the novel, he believes what the Council of Vocations tells him, despite his intelligence and independence. By the end of the book, he realizes that the idea that everyone is the same and must work for each other is flawed. He deserves to live his own life and enjoy himself.

With all of his experience that nobody has known in at least a century he is extremely capable of deciding whether of his choices are right. His personality keeps him from giving up hope and giving up on his society and his companion but keeps him curious enough to keep searching for something better in life. Equality has aged to the point where he thinks he needs to change the world and will try to do so. Most would believe that Equality’s actions were righteous and could not contemplate that his actions were

Equality broke all of these rules and more, like building electricity. After making electricity he was locked away until he would be punished for being different. He wanted to prove what he built could be a key to the future, therefore he escaped and ran to tell someone his ideas. Once no one accepted what he built he ran into the forest. From then on Equality's lover Liberty ran away to find him.

"We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever’”(Rand 19). In Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel, Anthem, the citizens are trained from birth to think only in the plural, to the point where they cannot even conceive of individuals, but only see each other as part of the whole group. Rand’s protagonist, Equality 72521, begins the novel as a street-sweeper who is devoted to the group, but begins to move towards individuality as he progresses towards pure selfishness, as Rand believes we all should. Rand uses the words “we” and “I” to represent Equality’s journey from being dependent on the group, to being utterly independent of everyone.

In the beginning, Equality was devoted to the Council and their reasons behind the social structure. Equality begins to experience emotions that separates himself from his brothers and he

There's so much emphasis on putting others before oneself that people often forget to look out for their own needs, as shown in this book. Ayn Rand successfully captures the negatives of an overrated ideology and presents an unorthodox perspective on the matter. In conclusion, Equality's true motives behind his work are much more selfish than they first appear to be. Equality strives to fulfil his own personal desire rather than contribute everything to society, and this isn't necessarily a negative thing.

We can see their eyes, green and yellow as coals, watching us from the tree branches beyond” (84). When he was living under the protection of the City, he was unaware of how to perform these tasks. However, once he left, he had to employ cognition to determine what he should do and how he should go about doing it. This was important to his survival, as Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism states. The desire for individuals not to sacrifice themselves for others is present in

Toohey's explanation of his actions is a facade for his true motivation of gaining power and control over others. The author Ayn Rand does not agree with Toohey's assessment of his reason and portrays him as a villain who is willing to sacrifice the happiness and well-being of others to promote his agenda. Rand believes that individualism is a superior philosophy to collectivism and that Toohey's actions demonstrate the dangers of collectivism. Toohey's explanation of his actions is a facade for his true motivation of gaining power and control over others. The author Ayn Rand does not agree with Toohey's assessment of his reason and portrays him as a villain who is willing to sacrifice the happiness and well-being of others to promote his agenda.