The struggle to be oneself has always been just that, a struggle. There is always a great deal of pressure to be what others expect of you. In real life it is parents, siblings, coaches, and teachers that expect more than you can offer. In the case of Ayn Rand’s book Anthem, it’s not really what people expect of them it is what they don’t. The main character, Equality 7-2521 is supposed to never ask questions and to accept things as they are. He is not supposed to crave knowledge and yearn for answers and yet even after punishment and ridicule by teachers and community he does. Anthem, is a book that depicts the future as a collectivist society that has made the word “I” vanish as if it never existed and to be even the slightest bit selfish
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There are very few things the community finds darker than fighting against one another so he was punished more often than the other children by being put in the cellar. This wasn’t exactly a struggle for Equality 7-2521 but it did show his individuality from the beginning of the book showing the readers that there was always something just a little bit different about him.Then, he was put with the rest of the children his age at the Home of Students. This is where a lot of his conflict with his community and the rules started to happen. He always remembered lessons and he always understood what the teachers were teaching before the other students. Even though Equality 7-2521 tried to be like Union 5-3992 , “a pale boy with only half a brain,” no matter how hard he tried he could not convince the teachers he was like the other boy. (Rand 21).These differences caused Equality 7-2521 to get lashed more often then the others but he thought these lashings were right and just. The Teachers were chosen by the Council and Council was considered to be the, “voices of justice.” Again this wasn’t a major struggle but it shows that he believed in his system and thought the system was right and he was wrong. This was more of a man vs. self struggle more than man vs. man or man vs. …show more content…
He always knew he was different and didn’t belong with the rest of the people and he always knew there had to be something other than, “WE.” Ayn Rand said in , The Fountainhead, “But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. No man can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private.” It wasn’t him that was wrong. It was the idea of collectivism, group priority over self priority. A person will always have private thoughts and ideas and because of ego they will always want to act or share thoughts and ideas and not care what people think about
There are very few things the community finds darker than fighting against one another so he was punished more often than the other children by being put in the cellar. This wasn’t exactly a struggle for Equality 7-2521 but it did show his individuality from the beginning of the book showing the readers that there was always something just a little bit different about him.Then, he was put with the rest of the children his age at the Home of Students. This is where a lot of his conflict with his community and the rules started to happen. He always remembered lessons and he always understood what the teachers were teaching before the other students. Even though Equality 7-2521 tried to be like Union 5-3992 , “a pale boy with only half a brain,” no matter how hard he tried he could not convince the teachers he was like the other boy. (Rand 21).These differences caused Equality 7-2521 to get lashed more often then the others but he thought these lashings were right and just. The Teachers were chosen by the Council and Council was considered to be the, “voices of justice.” Again this wasn’t a major struggle but it shows that he believed in his system and thought the system was right and he was wrong. This was more of a man vs. self struggle more than man vs. man or man vs. …show more content…
He always knew he was different and didn’t belong with the rest of the people and he always knew there had to be something other than, “WE.” Ayn Rand said in , The Fountainhead, “But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. No man can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private.” It wasn’t him that was wrong. It was the idea of collectivism, group priority over self priority. A person will always have private thoughts and ideas and because of ego they will always want to act or share thoughts and ideas and not care what people think about