When someone is on a first date they often ask people “What is your favorite color, movie or T.V show?” These questions are to ask about the person’s preferences. The world today revolves around what people like, or prefer, more. Most people do not realize how much freedom of preference they have. For example in grocery stores people have over 100 options of cereal, people have 1,000 of options for schools, they also can choose what color they want their room or home to be. Anthem by Ayn Rand demonstrates that preference will always exist. Even though in Anthem it is banned, citizens demonstrate the Transgression of Preference with certain people, ideas, and places. Even though preference is a sin, Equality cherishes two people more than …show more content…
He is enthralled by the philosophy of science. He does not care about other subjects of his life, he spends every extra second he has to experiment with the electricity. Electricity represents education and happiness. In this society, the most advanced technology they have is the candle. Since Equality discovered electricity and has continued to pursue its domestication, it signifies that he enjoys creating and experimenting more than simply memorizing facts.Equality even said himself that he has “followed it [electricity] in preference to all of our [his] studies” (53). This shows that instead of the other studies of his life, he prefers to explore the uncharted information and experiment. Clearly he is committing the Transgression of Preference, because he is spending more time on creating more electricity, than his other studies. Liberty also a certain preference over an idea. She enjoys discovering herself. She likes to stand in front of the mirror that she discovered in the house from the Unmentionable Times. This signifies that by looking at her reflection constantly it shows she wants to learn about herself. She wants to learn who she is. She is so enthralled in learning about her body that it even stated in the book that
Why do you think the author chose the title he/she did? Analyze its deeper meaning. If it is an obvious title, rename it something more symbolic and explain your rationale.
Equality is different from the other men in his world, and because of this he has lived most of his life concealing his emotions, being outcasted and punished by the leaders and teachers of his society, and stripping himself of his talents and uniqueness, therefore he has every right to criticize the leaders who kept the real Equality trapped inside for so very long. Equality expresses his love for science and aspiration to be a Scholar throughout the book and talks of how he wished to be sent to the Home of Scholars so badly his hands trembled under the blankets at night and he had to bite his arm just to stop the pain of wanting something so much (Rand 24). To want something so badly and have to conceal it everyday with no one to share it with is a very difficult thing for someone to have to do. Equality also struggled with concealing his friendship,“International 4-8818 and we are friends.
One day, Equality is supposed to be in the theater, but he is not there. Consequently, Equality is imprisoned to the Palace of Corrective Detention. Oddly, the prison does not have many restrictions, so easily Equality escapes. After his departure, he goes directly to the Council of Scholars, which is where a group of people have a job to gain more intelligence. Intentionally, Equality goes here because he wants to reveal his new discovery of electricity to the scholars. In effect, they denounce him for carrying out a discovery because it is contradicting to the laws of their society. After this happens, Equality bolts to the Uncharted Forest, he begins to actualize that people should live as individuals instead of one group. Liberty follows Equality and, eventually, catches up to him. In the Uncharted Forest, they find a sublime house on top of a mountain. Once they examine the house, Equality and Liberty decide to live in it. Uninhibited, they develop a more profound relationship along with a newly-founded liberated life. As an individual, Equality wants to free the people of his society and eventually begin his own. Equality says, "We matter not, nor our transgression. It is only our brother men who matter. Give no thought to us, for we are nothing, but listen to our words, for we bring you a gift such as has never been brought to men. Listen to us, for we hold the future of mankind in our hands" (70; ch. 7). Equality's life dramatically changes as he extends his life as a
Again, this is about Equality 7-2521. But this time it is about his love interest. In his society, love doesn’t endure or in other words not tolerated. But he falls in love anyway. Love teaches Equality that you can’t love and care everyone equally. Because he loves Liberty 5-3000 more than anyone else, he is breaking the Transgression of Preference. That is why society forbids it. After discovering Liberty 5-3000, he can’t stop thinking about her. Equality even makes a name for her, Golden One, that he calls in his head.
Anthem, by Ayn Rand, is a very unique novel. It encircles individualism and makes the reader think of how people can conform to society and do as they are told without knowing the consequences and results of their decisions. Also, it teaches the importance of self expression and the freedom that comes along with being your own person and having the power to choose what path to take in life. Figurative language is used often in this book and in a variety of quotes that have great importance to the theme, plot, and conflict of the novel.
“For I know what happiness is possible to me on Earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it” (Rand 95). In this part of the novella, Equality, the narrator, is aware that he can find his own happiness and he should show it once it is found. Throughout the novella, Anthem written by Ayn Rand, Equality is trying to find himself in a society full of equals. As he discovers the tunnel, Equality creates a light bulb in which he wants to flaunt upon the people of his society. Subsequently, when it is rejected by the Council, he hides in the forest from those who see him as a betrayer. Equality tries to find himself in a collectivist society that he knows he does not belong in, in which he evolves. The author believes in objectivism,
In Ayn Rand’s famous, or in some circles, infamous, story Anthem, the differing ideologies of objectivism and collectivism are pit against each other. With objectivism being so tight knit and different from the society in the book, it seems that it would be almost impossible to truly follow in its entirety. However, Anthem, as a whole, doesn’t violate the ideals of Rand’s philosophy of objectivism.
This is our home … . This is your house, Golden One, and ours, and it belongs to no other men whatever as far as the earth may stretch. We shall not share it with others, as we share not our joy with them, nor our love, nor our hunger (91).” In this scene, Equality realizes for the first time the meaning of property and possession. It had always been taught to him that everything of his was his brothers’ as well, but now he discovers that he can, in fact, lay claim to things that belong to no others. Why should he share his joy? It is his, for he worked strenuously to make it his. Why should he share his love? It belongs to no other man, for the “Golden One” loves him for who he is, not who his brothers are. This fundamental value of owning is something that is essential to freedom, as Equality later describes. He says, “there is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men (101),” meaning that as long as a man is bound to other men, he will never be truly free. To Ayn Rand, freedom of thought, speech, emotion, and behavior are essential to the human experience, and the only limits on these freedoms are the limits that men force upon them. In this way, a man that is free from his brothers possesses all other freedoms because there are none to snatch them from his eager
When Equality 7-2521 turned fifteen, he writes that he was told that “you shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you” (Rand, 22). He says that although he knew it was sinful, he had a desire to become a scholar and learn the “science of things.” In Equality 7-2521’s world, it was immoral and illegal to prefer one subject or person over another because everything was supposed to be equal. Equality...
Equality 7-2521 embodies this essential idea throughout the story because of his eternal struggle with not quite being able to conform to society’s expectations. He is physically different from the others (Rand, 1946, p. 2) as well as mentally different as he disagreed with others even as a child (p. 4) and was smarter than the rest (p. 5), and this mental sharpness is carried into adulthood as he is able to discern the feelings of oppression and fear that weigh over all men in this time (Rand, 1946, p. 30). Rather than acting as a machine, he feels preferences and desires within himself. Equality 7-2521 enjoys science, dreams of being a Scholar, likes a pretty girl, and wonders about himself. Since these things are not shared by all, they are forbidden, and despite how simple they may be, they define
Equality realizes that he is different from others because he cares about his happiness, unlike others who are convinced to believe that a group’s happiness counts more than an individual’s happiness. After Equality is sent into exile, he comes upon the perfect place for him to live: the Uncharted Forest. Equality feels very safe in the forest and, he is happy because for the first time ever he does not wake up in the morning because he has to but because he rested well. He enjoys eating his food for the first time and realizes that he actually is happier when away from everyone in the city. Before he sees his reflection in the water, Equality says, “We knelt by the stream and we bent down to drink.
Equality had more than one primary motivation on his mind. I think the world would be a better place if everyone were motivated in the same way. Equality had more than the light on his mind. Equality started looking at Liberty 5-3000 and called her the ‘Golden One” “You are Beautiful, Liberty 5-3000” ( Chapter 2, Paragraph 17) I think Equality is allowed to feel this way. He should have the right to like a person more than he likes another person. He cared about Liberty and was glad she was only seventeen, so she didn’t have to go to the Palace of Mating. “How old are you?” we asked “Seventeen” they whispered “And we sighed, as if a burden had been taken from us, for we had been thinking without reason of the Palace of Mating.” ( Chapter 2, paragraph
Equality fights in what he believes in just like Prometheus. He wants Liberty to conceive his child and help create a new society for themselves and others. Equality has many similarities to Prometheus. In Greek Mythology, Prometheus brought fire to mankind. Likewise, Equality had brought fire to his town through a light bulb. It was made to show his light and power. (Ayn Rand Anthem Pg 52) “We Equality 7-2521, have discovered it alone, and we are alone to know it.”
The infamous author Ayn Rand dedicated her life wholly to the study and furthering of her political dogma, Objectivism, the uniting theme throughout all of her published literary works. One of the most obtrusive examples is her novella Anthem, which is set in a futuristic yet inept dystopia that is entirely founded on principles of collectivism. Page by page Rand’s sentiments become glaringly obvious, subsequently causing the reader to question her motivation behind this story, their own agreement with her egocentric philosophy, how Christianity aligns with every aspect of it, and if, overall, it was adeptly written.
As a teenager, I have come across recent discoveries of myself and the world, the thirst to gain more knowledge, new responsibilities, and orders from elders. It is the overwhelming combination of these things that occasionally hit me with the feeling of being enslaved, chained to the world, my home, and my family. These expectations and dictations are restrictions, but they do not represent true slavery. True slavery controls every aspect of a man; the dictator must enslave the man’s body and destroy his mind. This effort to completely subdue humanity is exemplified by the leaders and society of Ayn Rand’s Anthem. In this novel, the leaders try to suppress the actions, emotions, and thoughts of the people in an attempt to destroy both mind and body.