Anthem Essay
The ability to judge right from wrong is mankind’s defining characteristic. To express that characteristic of humanity is how someone denotes their actions to be. In the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, the character Equality 7-2521 is seen writing, for himself, in an underground tunnel, alone. He remarks in the early on in the first chapter that he is sinning his society’s teaching for doing so. This is because he belongs to a socialist, collective, community where everyone must be equal. Now, a sin is an offense that is against religious and or moral law. It is something that Equality admits harshly to himself (and to the reader) in his writing. “It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper…alone…May we be forgiven!” (1) However, Equality 7-2521’s mind changes on the matter as he discovers his individuality through the course of the story, as he becomes independent re-finding usage of lost words such as …show more content…
“I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse. I understood why the best in me had been my sins and my transgressions; and why I had never felt guilt in my sins. I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.” (98) Equality vows to create his own community with the knowledge he has found, a community which bases value on individual work and skill. Equality disobeying his society’s teachings are justifiable by his fundamental rights to independence: his pursuit of knowledge, his right to create his own unique personal relationships with others, and his right to peacefully protest a violent, radical government being denied. Further justifying his changing of morals; through these reasons, it is proven he is being selfless. He is thinking collectively of society when obtaining his
The ability to judge right from wrong is mankind’s defining characteristic. To express that characteristic of humanity is how someone denotes their actions to be. In the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, the character Equality 7-2521 is seen writing, for himself, in an underground tunnel, alone. He remarks in the early on in the first chapter that he is sinning his society’s teaching for doing so. This is because he belongs to a socialist, collective, community where everyone must be equal. Now, a sin is an offense that is against religious and or moral law. It is something that Equality admits harshly to himself (and to the reader) in his writing. “It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper…alone…May we be forgiven!” (1) However, Equality 7-2521’s mind changes on the matter as he discovers his individuality through the course of the story, as he becomes independent re-finding usage of lost words such as …show more content…
“I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse. I understood why the best in me had been my sins and my transgressions; and why I had never felt guilt in my sins. I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.” (98) Equality vows to create his own community with the knowledge he has found, a community which bases value on individual work and skill. Equality disobeying his society’s teachings are justifiable by his fundamental rights to independence: his pursuit of knowledge, his right to create his own unique personal relationships with others, and his right to peacefully protest a violent, radical government being denied. Further justifying his changing of morals; through these reasons, it is proven he is being selfless. He is thinking collectively of society when obtaining his