Damnation Is His Salvation In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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Damnation is His Salvation Bill Richardson, politician and former New Mexico governor, states that “Ignorance has always been the weapon of tyrants; enlightenment the salvation of the free.” In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, Equality is able to discover a sense of enlightenment. This causes society to view him as an abomination. Equality laughs when he remembers he is “the Damned” because he comes to a realization about the irony of it all. Equality has always been considered “the Damned” by society, but now he considers society “the Damned”. From the time Equality was young, society had told him that “there is evil in your bones...for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers”(Rand 18). In this collectivist society, man saw any significant …show more content…

As he travels into the forest with Golden One, Equality explains to her that “there is no danger in solitude. We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their good and our evil, let us forget all things...it is our world...a strange, unknown world, but our own.”(83) Now, Equality realizes that because he is finally on his own he is able to have the freedom to a whole world that was not within his grasp as a part of society. Although when one is damned they are supposed to be trapped and condemned in eternal suffering. This then contradicts society’s idea of Equality being “the Damned” because in his escape to the forest he is neither condemned to suffering nor trapped. Then, for the first time in his life he is able to hunt for his own food and experiment without the worry of getting caught. As a member of society, every person had to contribute towards the group and never towards his or her self. While he was still a member, Equality lived in constant worry of getting caught and punished for acting on his own terms. In conclusion, one can see how the irony appears in Equality’s “damnation” as he is finally free from his place in society rather than being suffocated under their

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