Collectivist Society in 'Anthem': Erasing Individuality

Anthem

Anthem provides us a picture of what the world would be like if we were a collectivist society. There are many rules the society in Anthem is forced to follow. These rules erase individuality and meaning to their lives. They were created to make their community a utopia. They wanted all men to be equal so they didn’t allow them to think about themselves. Instead of using the word “I” to refer to oneself, they had to use plurals since they were part of a big community that was more important than any individual. These rules existed to create a society that focused on working as a whole. Rather than having individuals that acted with their own selfish reasons, everyone was forced and brainwashed to go along with what was told to

Equality 7-2521 seemed to always be different from everyone else. He thought of himself as cursed because he went against the rules of his community. He had a preference to be assigned as a scholar but was instead assigned as street sweeper. He discovered the place left behind from the Unmentionable Times and kept it a secret despite that being illegal. He also began to develop feelings for a woman named Liberty 5-3000. Although he was always on a quest to find individuality, it was first explicitly mentioned when he provided a name for Liberty 5-3000. “We have given you a name in our thoughts, Liberty 5-3000… The Golden One” (Rand, pg. 55). By naming her, he is assigning a name that actually distinguishes her from everyone else rather than the generic names they are given at birth. This quest was fulfilled after he ran away with Liberty 5-3000 following him. The search for the word “I” can be seen when she struggles to come up with a way to say “I love you” to Equality 7-2521. Instead she says, “We are one… alone… and only… and we love you who are one…alone… and only” (Rand, pg. 87) She is struggling to show him that she as an individual loves him as an individual. After reading the manuscripts they find in the house from the Unmentionable Times, Equality 7-2521 discovers the word “I,” and with it, the sense of individuality and ego. He renames himself Prometheus and names Liberty 5-3000

He wants to bring knowledge to men and to invent things that will progress their futures. He does not want any of the old rules from the society he came from. He sees them as limiting and the people who follow them as blind. He also begins to realize that friendship and love is something earned rather than given just for existing. In his new envision of the future, he imagines a society where emotions and feelings are allowed. People will also be allowed to wonder and learn and create things and act from their own will. If Prometheus had decided to keep any of the rules created by the previous society, it would have gone against his long and painful discovery of the