You think, therefore, you are a criminal
Equality smashed a window with one bare hand, grabbed his invention with the other, and leapt out of the broken window to save himself and his invention from the angry mob of so-called intellectuals who could not understand him or his genius gadget. From there he runs straight into the uncharted forest. The protagonist is trying to escape from the dystopian society imagined by Ayn Rand, in her novella Anthem. Equality, the central character of the story, is a naturally inventive person who wants to have an intellectual profession; instead, he is assigned a street sweeper's job, which he is required to perform for the rest of his life without question or complaint. Scientific progress is achieved through individual effort and single-minded pursuit of an idea; however, these are just the things that are prohibited in this society. That is not all, even love and friendship are not permitted in this society, and Equality and Liberty have to hide their feelings for each other to avoid persecution. A …show more content…
Equality and another man are friends, but that is not permitted “for it is a transgression, the great transgression of preference . . . since we must love all men, all men are our friends” (30). It appears that society is trying to figure out, how many ways can the citizens be tormented. In many ways, the main antagonist of the story is the society. Equality and a peasant woman called Liberty love each other dearly, yet are afraid to profess their love fearing persecution by society. Remarkably, after Equality escapes into the uncharted forest, breaking all societal norms, Liberty follows him there, crying: “we have followed you,” proving yet again that love conquers all, and that love cannot be suppressed (82). The interesting point is that Equality and Liberty left the society to give expression to their
Equality smashed a window with one bare hand, grabbed his invention with the other, and leapt out of the broken window to save himself and his invention from the angry mob of so-called intellectuals who could not understand him or his genius gadget. From there he runs straight into the uncharted forest. The protagonist is trying to escape from the dystopian society imagined by Ayn Rand, in her novella Anthem. Equality, the central character of the story, is a naturally inventive person who wants to have an intellectual profession; instead, he is assigned a street sweeper's job, which he is required to perform for the rest of his life without question or complaint. Scientific progress is achieved through individual effort and single-minded pursuit of an idea; however, these are just the things that are prohibited in this society. That is not all, even love and friendship are not permitted in this society, and Equality and Liberty have to hide their feelings for each other to avoid persecution. A …show more content…
Equality and another man are friends, but that is not permitted “for it is a transgression, the great transgression of preference . . . since we must love all men, all men are our friends” (30). It appears that society is trying to figure out, how many ways can the citizens be tormented. In many ways, the main antagonist of the story is the society. Equality and a peasant woman called Liberty love each other dearly, yet are afraid to profess their love fearing persecution by society. Remarkably, after Equality escapes into the uncharted forest, breaking all societal norms, Liberty follows him there, crying: “we have followed you,” proving yet again that love conquers all, and that love cannot be suppressed (82). The interesting point is that Equality and Liberty left the society to give expression to their