Examples Of Individuality In Anthem

Adam Pawlak

Mrs. Rollings

Honors English 10

7 August 2016

The Conflicting Values of Obedience and Individuality

Many times in life, people are faced with choices that object to their own personal interests. The main character in “Anthem”, Equality, had to struggle with these choices as the story progressed. In the book,”Anthem” by Ayn Rand, the role of the conflicts of conformity and individuality are to make Equality develop as a character during his quest for freedom.

Equality develops as he disobeys the rules of thinking for himself and grew apart from his other brothers. In “Anthem”, it says “We say to ourselves that we are wretch and a traitor. But we feel no burden upon our spirit and no fear in our heart. And it seems to us that our

spirit is clear as a lake troubled by no eyes save those of the sun. And in our heart––strange are the ways of evil!––in our heart there is the first peace we have known in twenty years”(Rand 17). This demonstrates how Equality develops into a person who desires to learn for himself and know more than others. He changes from the obedient person he was before into a person who wants to be alone and discover new things that his brothers had never known before. Equality abandones the concepts of not thinking for yourself and only for your brothers and made himself further progress as a character.
Equality also conflicts with the rules when he has created electricity in his tunnel.

In the novel, it says “ We stretch out our arms. For the first time do we know how strong our arms are. And a strange thought comes to us: we wonder, for the first time in our life, what we look like. Men never see their own faces and never ask their brothers about it, for it is evil to have concern for their own faces or bodies. But tonight, for a reason we cannot fathom, we wish it were possible to us to know the likeness of our own person”(Rand 33-34). This continues to prove how Equality continued to show an increasing desire for himself over his brothers. This also shows how he wants to learn more about himself and the world as well. Equality continues to develop into an independent person who exceeds in learning and creating in his own ways. He continues to consider himself over the rules and obligations of the Counsel and starts to think independently without the consideration of his fellow brothers and peers. People in this society are supposed to consider all others without consideration for themselves at all, but Equality is doing the complete opposite of that. Equality proceeds to break the rules of society without fear or any

regrets.
Equality learns that he needs to protect his rights when he reads and studies the manuscripts left in the house at the top of the mountain.

In that section, it says “I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them...I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, and my freedom.And the greatest of these is freedom. I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others...I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it”(Rand 58). Equality develops into a character who desires and protects his own freedom and rights at any cost. Equality learns how to speak for himself and think for himself without any thought of his brothers whatsoever. Equality knows that love is a thing to cherish and earn rather than it be fit for every person he is surrounded by. He preserves these values of freedom and will to himself and the people he cares about the most in order to keep these values from dying out from the

Earth.
Equality is met by many life-threatening and dangerous decisions that helped him progress through the novel. He learns to think separately and to lose the thought of helping his brothers.He learns to see the world through his own eyes rather than through the eyes of his comrades. Equality grasps how to protect his own freedom and desires so that no one else will take them from him. In the novel, “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, the conflict between conformity and individuality help Equality to mature and to change throughout the entire novel.