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Parents influence on children's development
Anthem by ayn rand essay
Themes of anthem by ayn rand
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As seen in many parts of the world, there are dictatorships. One also sees a dictatorship in the book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand. People must abide equally and never say the word “I”. If one considers themselves as an individual, then it is told to be a crime. No one knows who their families are because they were separated at birth. Leaders feel it is best to be apart from one’s family because it keeps everyone in the same category. These people are not supposed to have a figure above them that can be an influence besides the government. Dictatorial leaders separate children from their parents because this sets boundaries at an early age that cannot be passed. Leaders know that once a child is born and raised, they will have learned ways to act and react to different situations. Parents teach their children right from wrong and set an example for them. Once a child becomes a teenager and adult, they normally take after their parents influence. This can sometimes be a negative thing if the parents separated, fought constantly, or were addicts. If a person is raised in that environment, th...
"You shall do what the Council of Vocations prescribes for you...for the Council knows better than you."
In both 1984 and Anthem we have two major plotlines that mirror each other: a man and a
In Anthem there are so many rules and controls, yet there is one that truly rises above it all. And that word is “I”. There is no “I” only “We”, for the great “We” is what they follow. And they are one not individual, they are one. And poor Equality can’t seem to understand that the rules are rules, but in a way he’s making his own rules. And he is mistreated for his looks and appearance and dosen’t seem really one with his brothers. And he’s curious and most don’t even question life, and he notices the little things, “Yet as we stand at night in the great hall, removing our garments for sleep, we look upon our brothers and we wonder. The heads of our brothers are bowed. The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they look one another in the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched, and their muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and wished to shrink out of sight. And a word steals into our mind, as we look upon our brothers, and that word is fear.”(Rand 46). He has a wanting to learn and build his knowledge, but the rules don’t permit his decisions.
Totalitarianism can be defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the centralized control by an autocratic authority. The leaders of these societies are obsessed with complete control and will take whatever steps necessary to reach such a goal. In many totalitarian societies, children are separated from their families. This is enforced on the citizens because rulers want them to be loyal to the government only. Such living arrangements can be portrayed in Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem. In Anthem, the narrator, Prometheus, lives in a community in which all of the children born that year live in the same house until they turn fifteen. Then they are assigned a job and live with the people that share that occupation. This keeps the people from having an emotional attachment to someone like they would have with a family.
Anthem is a story of man’s struggle to be free and to fight the masses of conformity. It tells of human nature and the want to gain all the knowledge that one could possibly attain. Man loses his safe haven and his security when he lets this lust for knowledge overpower him and lets it be seen by others. He becomes vulnerable Like Johann Faust, Prometheus sells his life for wisdom. Unlike Faust, however, Prometheus is expelled from his society but gains his freedom of individuality and his freedom of knowledge and the ability to understand. In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea sin against society to become singular and understanding much like Adam and Eve’s sin against God when they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge to gain wisdom; as a result, they can be compared to each other by there desire for learning and by their damnation.
Anthem takes place in a future dystopian society in which every facet of its member’s lives is controlled. This society came into existence after a great war. The leaders have suppressed any information about pre-war life in the age known as the “Unmentionable Times.” All remnants of the “Evil Ones” were destroyed and society has reverted to the dark ages. The leaders fear independence of mind. Individuals have no rights and exist solely to serve society. They must spend their lives working the job that is chosen for them. They have no personal lives and cannot choose their friends or romantic partners. The word “I” has been erased from their language and is the “Unspeakable Word” that they must never speak lest they be killed. Only collectivist thoughts and speech are permitted.
It is not always easy to steer a child towards the right path, sometimes they do as they please and sometimes it is the parents that make mistake. No sons or daughters truly understand their parents’ choices until they have themselves reached maturity. For example, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein can be interpreted as a metaphor of a kid defying his parents’ wishes and going into a teenage crisis asserting his rights over them. If the novel is deconstructed we can identify the different stages of the creature’s life mirroring the stages towards adulthood; First there is the first actions of the child and how the parent reacts to it, in second there is the learning phase where he acquire awareness of his surroundings and consequences
The gatekeepers in our lives such as parents, media, teachers, peers and community do play a role in a child’s development and his / her future habits. However, a majority of young children spend most of their lives with their parents which make the parents a major aspect in formation of their ideas, beliefs and eventually habits which all lead to shaping of one’s behavior.
The parents’ personalities can very easily influence a child and how they are raised. Erik Erikson gives parents great tips on how to raise children. A person’s personality is made up of their temperament, attachment style, and other unique forces. Erikson came up with a theory made of eight stages that a child will go through during their psychosocial development. The stages include; trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus self-doubt, initiative versus guilt, competence versus inferiority, identity versus role confusion, and so on. The first stages are the most important, a child will learn to trust from their parents, and will learn autonomy from their parents. With adequate interaction, a child will be raised with the basic sense of safety and security, and will be capable to control one’s own body. (Chapter 9, pages 385-386)
Successful parenting may be judged by many different standards. Raising a child to be a respectful, mature, and independent adult requires a great deal of effort. There are several parenting styles, and not all lead a child to reaching their full potential. Overpowering sternness leads may lead to a rebellious child, while passive parenting may lead children to inept for the challenges of adulthood. Parenting requires more than teaching children submissiveness, or building of self-importance. Children learn best from a role model who is admirable. Parenting is a great opportunity to set the course of one’s entire life in the right direction.
Some parents are involved in their children adequately, respecting their children’s autonomy. They try to cultivate motivation in their children. This type of parents are generally called authoritative parents. On the other hand, some parents treat their children like toddler, and they tend to diminish their children’s confidence, and they also delay that their children grow maturely. This type of parents is generally called helicopter parents. Although they look totally different ostensibly, they both love their children and cherish their children’s futures. Nonetheless, while authoritative parents raise their children who are autonomous and confident, helicopter parents prevent their children from developing a sense of self. There are mainly three differences between two types of these parents: the standard of parental involvement, a sense of obligation, and thought for raising their children.
Piko and Balázs (2012) state that during adolescence, emotional closeness to parents may diminish and conflicts with parents tend to increase. If there is a lack of emotional warmth and less open communication it may lead to the development of problem behaviors in adolescents. When looking at various parental protective factors, parental control and monitoring of behaviors have been found to be the strongest to help prevent adolescent substance use and abuse. Moderate and adequate control, not manipulative psychological control, can play an important role in children’s self-control, which is in turn related to their adjustment and behavior. According to the classification made by Maccoby and Martin (1983) the authoritative parenting style is classified by high responsiveness and being highly demanding.
I always believed that you could see the effects of bad parenting, by studying the youth of today opposed to the youth of sixty years ago. The effects of bad parenting can be measured in many different ways. One of the things that we all forget about is “lead by example”. What we as adults, teach our children, is what our future generations will be as people.
How someone’s parents/guardians raised them is a large part of how they turn out in life. Your parent’s guide one to grow into a decent person, form a basic foundation of morals, and teach someone some of the important life lessons you may need in life. I believe that one’s raising can lead to how they handle certain situations. People’s parents opinions and thoughts are the very first thing they get introduced to in life. Children are like sponges; they soak up everything they see and do everything others do. No one can be expected to handle a situation with the maturity they were never taught, no matter how old they are. I learned to be mature because my parents and teaches taught me to be. They disciplined me when I was wrong and rerouted me when I was going down the wrong path. They made sure I understood the
Anthem is the song of a world ending and another one beginning. The transgressions performed have led to a new society where old rules have been broken and lost while others have stayed and thrived throughout the new world. Uniformity has been broken and has morphed the new rules.