Individuality In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Ayn Rand, the author of the novella Anthem, was born is St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. The novella was written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. Anthem is based on a man named Equality 7-2521, who has found a secret tunnel and has hidden inside of it to write down his thoughts, among other things. In this dystopian society it is illegal to write, have a personality, or a sense of individuality of your own. One of the themes in this novella is the domination of one’s individuality. Equality 7-2521 discovers the importance of his existence when he realizes one is the center of one’s universe, and that one’s perception gives the world its meaning, the creation and component of a persons own identity and personality. In Anthem, the

“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think” (Rand 10). Equality writes this quote in his notebook inside the secret tunnel he discovered. He wanted to uncover his talents, and his identity. The problem with him discretely writing freely inside a tunnel, was that it was exactly what the government strictly prohibited. The council manipulated its people by restraining freedom of contemplation, which keeps people from accessing their capabilities. “The nature of our punishment, if it be discovered, is not for the human heart to ponder. Never, not in the memory Ancient One’s Ancients, never have men done what we are doing” (Rand 46). Equality is speaking about the tunnel which he has been living in for the past two years. This tunnel represented freedom, freedom to think, write, and the knowledge that all of these thoughts came from himself. The government manipulated so many people, for so long that Equality believes he is one of the first, if not the first to think for himself. Equality, being the first to think for himself, had such a meager amount of knowledge he was not aware that people had their own, individual names, such as Gaia, not Equality 2521. He would later learn that by reading in a cabin, after escaping the community. The government had completely eradicated individual thought. Until Equality found the tunnel and educated himself into discovering what