Anthem Literary Analysis

In Anthem, the protagonist, Equality, lives in a society where it is illegal to have an ego. Every aspect of their life is controlled by the ruling government. Essentially they are all robots. The government had not only stripped the protagonist of his basic human rights but they also had dehumanized all citizens of this post-apocalyptic civilization. Equality makes a justifiable response to the human rights infringement by fleeing into the forest to escape the tyranny. The government of this novel has censored and restricted all the citizen’s human rights. This is shown through their brainwashing techniques. Additionally, they teach their subjects that they are evil for attempting to be free-thinking individuals. The society even forbids …show more content…
When Equality attempts to introduce his finding of electricity to the council of scholars they immediately enforce the oppressive laws onto him. Rather of allowing authorities to come to arrest him, “We swung our fist through the windowpane, and we leapt out in a ringing rain of glass.” Although escaping from the society is forbidden, Equality decided to take his chances and run. He could no longer conform to these unjust laws. Equality also “sinned” by writing this account of his adventures with in this society and after escaping. However, morally he knew these rules were not fair, and opted to flee in search for freedom. In conclusion, even though Equality was faced with a plethora of dehumanizing practices from the government of this dystopian society, he persevered through. Rather than complying, he made the decision to break the laws. As Martin Luther King once said, “...an unjust law is no law at all.” This quote reflects the actions of Equality because he rejected the unjust laws. Although Equality had never been exposed to democracy or actual equality, his gut feeling told him he was doing the right