'Individualism In Ayn Rand's Anthem'

Improved Essays
Individualism is a highly controversial topic, as its outlook varies tremendously on a global scale. According to a ClearlyCultural survey, an overwhelming ninety one percent of American favor individualism rather than collectivism. In essence, an individual is more important than the group not only because he stimulates talent and creativity but also because he innovates the world and maintains diversity.
Likewise, a sensational figure of individualistic prowess would be the most popular advocate of racial equity himself, Martin Luther King Jr. King was a noble man, organizing civil right boycotts as early as Rosa Park’s seat incident; his influence on racial prejudice was remarkably significant, as a result the government retaliated by arresting
…show more content…
Likewise, Equality 7-2521, later renamed as Prometheus, increasingly develops a firm belief in the eminence of individuals rather than a group, discovered his self-worth and perceived his physical and mental superiority compared to his brothers as the story progressed. With his innovated aptitude, he inevitably discovered electricity by only utilizing scraps of metals most likely from the Unmentionable Times; unfortunately, his optimistic and inventive mindset as well as his invention are threatened and rejected by the Council of Scholars mainly because they feared it would arouse curiosity in the Unmentionable Times and would cause revolts and doubt in the credibility of the laws. In like manner, Rand indirectly communicated her firm belief in the maliciousness of collectivity and group work and its negative effects on society. We see Equality’s efforts to make the world a better place repressed by the rest of society’s close-mindedness. Additionally, Rand seems to believe the only antidote to this dilemma is for the distinguished individual to fend for himself rather than society as a whole. Similarly, Equality reaches the same conclusion at the end of the book and proposes a new objective: to resurrect an individualistic type society from the Unmentionable Times. In other words, Rand presumed an accurate claim, collectivism only

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The book, Anthem, is about a twenty year old male, who is six feet tall and named Equality 7-2521. His society that he lives in has made him feel as if he was different and being different is the worst transgression to commit. The saying "Curiosity killed the cat", was almost the fate for Equality in this novella and his ego saved him from this tragedy. Equality has always felt like the black sheep in his society and ego plays a huge role as to why he feels this way, throughout the book it is shown through the lack of ego in his society, as well as equality coming more in touch with his egotistical side, and lastly the word "I" becoming more understood.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Equality 7-2521 finds a way free himself from collectivism, what makes this possible is taking risks, hard work, and thinking for himself. Something that helped Equality 7-2521 is his will to take risks. The book states “We shall not report our find to the City Council. We shall not report it to any man”(Rand, 33).…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One’s individuality is much stronger than the fake society around them. Ayn Rand’s writing shows the readers that International 4-8818, Equality’s friend, is not shaped by society even if his decisions are mostly made for him. This quote shows the theme throughout describing International 4-8818; “And they were also not liked because they took pieces of coal and drew pictures upon the walls, and they were pictures which made men laugh. But it is only our brothers in the Home of the Artists who are permitted to draw pictures, so International 4-8818 were sent to the Home of the Street Sweepers, like ourselves” (Rand).…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book Anthem being like everyone else is what they want you to be. They don’t want you to be your own person and they don’t want you to make your own decisions. They want to pick everything for you, and to be honest, who could ever live like that? Being like everyone else would be boring and nobody would be unique. The first consequence of not being an individual is not being able to pick what career field you go into.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Most importantly for the future. Equality is a very vain and self centered person. He believes strongly in individualism and always rejects the society around him. He is a street sweeper and does not like his job, the only part he likes is that he can go around the town and get new things to pick up or use for his next experiments. Equality is very unafraid about of the society around him, he does not care if he goes to jail or gets punished for his experiments if anyone ever finds out about what he does when he is not working as a street…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ayn Rand wants people to think that when a person loses their right to be an individual or have natural human things like family and love, life becomes meaningless to the ones taking part in it. The story portrays the suffering the citizens undergo by not being free and how they cannot understand their awful situation. Near the end of the novel it is shown that life gains meaning when people are allowed to be different and given choices to do the things they love. In Equality’s case he loves Liberty, The Golden One, and creating things for the use of others. This is proven when Equality says “But the only things which taught us joy were the power we created in our wires, and the Golden One.”…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Equality knows “We are defying the will of our Councils” still, “there is no shame in us and no regret” (35-37). Equality realizes the danger of getting caught, but he considers that a small price to pay for his engagement in learning. The investigations that he execute…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By cause of its nature, scientific and technological progress will thrive in an environment where free thinking is allowed and encouraged. In Anthem’s totalitarian society, science and technology is incredibly rudimentary. Their latest invention, the candle, was presented and accepted 100 years ago; they haven’t invented anything in at least a century. When Equality 7-2521 presented his valuable discovery to the Council, they treated him unfairly by disregarding the invention’s many benefits for the society and focusing on the inventor’s so-called “wrongdoing”. The Council condemned Equality for his audacity to disobey the rules that confined him to be a thoughtless, street-sweeping drone.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A Journey Through Choices Imagine looking at a mirror and seeing nothing but a blank gray image;there is no character and no difference from one person from the next. From several works of art, individuals form their identity and gained control of themselves. Equality, the triumphant of the dystopian novel, Anthem, escapes his collectivist society and becomes the king of his own mind and body. Ayn Rand, the author of this novel, details how Equality overcomes the regime and forms his own identity. Similarly, the children from the article, “Don’t!…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Anthem is a very interesting dystopian story written by Ayn Rand. Anthem is written about people who have no freedom. They don’t feel emotions, aren’t allowed to think on their own, or use the word I. Nobody is better then someone else. There is always and limit of what they can do, and where they can go. But two people fall in love and decide to change everything.…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine living in a society where individualism wasn't an acceptable concept. Picture a world where “I” wasn't a state of mind. This is the theme of Ayn Rand's Anthem, a dystopian novel set in the distant future. “We learned that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it, which causes the day and the night. We learned the names of all the winds which blow over the seas and push the sails of our great ships.…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ayn Rand Individualism

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    During this time for Ayn Rand, there was a huge lack of individualism and self-interest. The people were not allowed to have our own opinions, they were not allowed to vote, they were not able to take control over their life’s. Overall, the people were not allowed to display their own opinion. As an example, the lack of individualism during the time was outstanding. This book will take place in the future, I which freedom and individual rights did not exist.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Furthermore, Rand utilizes complex sentence to demonstrate the difference collectivism and objectivism has on an individual 's thoughts and ideas. Also, in Rand’s edits she omits a paragraph, which concerns “the holy war” (253). The omission of this paragraph creates an allusion to the bible, it leaves room to imply that Equality is a prophet. Moreover, Rand’s allusion deepen the message that objectivism is a necessity, while objectivism is an evil that must be stopped. Therefore, Rand’s revisions establish an expansive meaning of the…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    (60 Rand). Equality has a rare gift of intelligence and free-thinking in his oppressive society and he plans on sharing his findings with everyone to make their…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You can see that people are forced to be equal. It might seem like a reasonable idea at first but it isn’t as well as it appears because, it kills our identity as human; our differences make us who we are. Applying substantive equality as in “Harrison Bergeron” not only kills our free will but also influence our singularity. Our singularity is what motivate us to craft and make something new.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays