Dystopian Society In Ayn Rand's Anthem

What would you do if you were not able to ask too many questions, write your daily experiences down onto a piece of paper, or talk to people that have a different occupation than you? In the dystopian society that is presented in the novel Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, this is precisely what everyday life looks like. I’m sure we have all heard that one person who says, “I only think of others and never put myself first.” Well, in the world that Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 live in, it is truly a sin to ever think about yourself before others. In the novel, we read the journal of Equality who is “cursed” with curiosity. By being a transgressor and having an ego, Equality was not damned, but rather saved. In our society we so often see people clinging to their amendments. It is hard to imagine what the world would be like without those rights. In the society that Equality lived in, he was taught that he only exists to strive for his brothers. This goes to show how much we take for granted in the world we live in.Throughout the novel Equality realizes that he is different from his fellow brothers and that individualism is okay. For example, when the transgressor is slain for saying the “Unspeakable Word”, he is not among the people who curse and spit in …show more content…
Equality feels that by separating from his society and being his own that he kept himself sane. “But we Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue. Yet our brothers are not like us. All is not well with our brothers.” (Rand, 47), Equality writes talking of how his brothers are weak from being suppressed from individuality. Meanwhile, Equality’s acts of wrongdoing have kept him from becoming weak and beaten down by the society, “I am done with the monster of ‘we’, the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.”