Individuality And Freedom In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Anthem by Ayn Rand is a soul-shifting and mind-blowing novella that explores the dangers of a collective, dystopian society. As a man named Equality 7-2521 stumbles through life, he realizes that he has a burning desire to learn and explore, traits discouraged by the society he lives in. In the City, there are many rules, and all of them shadow the idea that “we are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE. One, indivisible, and forever.” (3) Equality 7-2521, with his passion for learning and science, slowly breaks away from this iron rule set by society, and in doing so, learns of the importance of individualism and freedom. In Anthem, Rand’s use of literary devices such as symbolism, characterization, and imagery help develop and present the tone of the importance of individuality and the dangers of a collective society.
Slowly but steadily, Ayn Rand highlights the importance of individuality with the use of symbolism. The City has strict rules – citizens rise and sleep with the toiling of the bells, men and women are separated, people’s lives are laid out for them by the Council, and no one has a name. Instead, there is a word and a number etched onto an iron bracelet. In the protagonist’s case, he says, “Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all men wear on their left wrists with their names on it.” (3)

The iron bracelet is symbolic because it represents the chains of society; the people are constantly reminded that they must follow the laws of their captors, or else they will be punished. In order to suppress each person’s individuality, society binds them to rules and gives them a tag, not unlike the tags on cattle. Later in the story, Equality 7-2521 meets a woman named Liberty 5-3000, and is enraptured by her beauty and enthralled by her disgust for society (a feeling so familiar to him). Soon, he falls in love and secretly bestows a name upon her, Golden One. But, he remembers, “…it is a sin to give men other names which distinguish them from other men. Yet we call them the Golden Once, for they are not like the others. The Golden One are not like the others.” (13) Names symbolize individuality, and in the society centered on the collectiveness of its people, names are forbidden and shunned. By giving Liberty a name, Equality breaks the rules of the City, and in doing so, is able to cut away at the chains binding him to that as he progresses ever closer to the word “I”.
Additionally, the idea of individuality is also developed through the characterization in Anthem -from characters to the society itself. Equality 7-2521 is a curious and bright person, and during his time at the House of Students, he found himself learning quickly – too quickly. His Teachers told him, “It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them.” (4) Because of his quick mind and passion for knowledge, Equality 7-2521 sets himself apart from his peers at an early age, thus giving him unique traits and a special personality. His individuality, unbeknownst to him, shines through, and the Council sees and feels threatened by it. Later in the story, there is a scene where Equality 7-2521 presents electricity to the World Council. In a world where candles are the newest method to drive away darkness, Equality 7-2521 knows that electricity can be used for wider, more efficient practices, and that electricity might as well be the doorway to much greater things. However, when electricity is presented to the World Council, they recoil at the thought of something being done by only one person. One member says, “‘What is not done by all cannot be good’, said International 1-5537.” (26) and the comments from the rest of the members mirror International 1-5537’s. They proceed to reject the light bulb and command to destroy it. This shows how deeply the fear of individuality has taken root into society, and how, because of this irrational fear, society cannot progress.
Furthermore, the use of imagery in Anthem supports the author’s tone of the importance of individuality. Equality 7-2521 describes his lodgings as, “The sleeping halls were white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds.” (7) He repeats this phrase three times: once when describing the Home of the Infants, once when describing the Home of the Students, and once when describing the Home of the Street Sweepers. White has a negative connotation of isolation, emptiness, detachment and disinterest, traits that all seem to adequately describe Anthem’s society. The empty sleeping halls, void of any color or anything else that inhabitants could use to express themselves, further underline the society’s fear of individualism and show how the City keeps a tight rein on its citizens through a constant brainwashing, from the time they are mere children to their adult years, and beyond. For Equality 7-2521, a crucial step in breaking free of the City’s intense brainwashing was meeting a woman, who he describes as, “[Liberty 5-3000’s] body was straight and thin as a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt. Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it. They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was a beggar under their feet.” (11) A stark contrast from the blank, lonely walls of his home, Liberty 5-3000 immediately captures Equality’s attention with her boldness and scorn at the world. They find similarities within each other, and, in the end, find peace together, away from the society that had once chained them down.
In Any Rand’s novella Anthem, the use of rhetorical devices such as symbolism, characterization, and imagery all pave way for the development of the tone of individualism.

In the society which the characters live in, individuality is forbidden and collectiveness is absolute. Throughout the course of the story, the main character is propelled forward into finding his own individual personality, separate from the dull hive mind of the rest of the City. Anthem stresses the importance of the individual while urging readers to be mindful of the dangers of a collective, mindless society that fears

progress.