The Importance Of Odds In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Several times in history, battles have been won despite the winners being heavily outnumbered, with the battle of Muret being one of the greatest, as 1,600 French troops held off over 30,000 Aragonese soldiers in 1213 AD (Wisniewski). In the real world, there have been battles where the odds are 25 to 1, but in fiction, the odds can be much worse for the characters. Throughout the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, one character is extremely outnumbered. Anthem illustrates to fight for what one believes in, no matter how outnumbered they are. Despite questioning his society, Equality brings his invention to the World Council to try and make his world a better place. While he is planning to do this, he writes, “We shall go to this Council and we shall lay before them, as our gift, the glass box with the power of the sky. . . This has never been done before, but neither has a gift such as ours ever been offered to men” (Rand 61). This quote is saying that Equality wants to give his box to the Council despite knowing that nobody has ever done something like this before. Since Equality worked on his invention alone, it’s also shown that he is scared to be caught making it on his own. Plus, he committed transgressions like stealing from other homes to work on …show more content…
Equality shows that he is willing to fight to make his world a better place by showing the World Council his box. He also tries to be with Liberty despite the boundaries between men and women in the society. Furthermore, Equality goes back to the city to fight for their freedom. It is shown throughout this novel that people can still fight even if they are heavily outnumbered, just like the battle of the Muret. To be one among those 1,600 French troops would be frightening, but because they were fighting for something that they believed in, they were able to defeat anyone who stood in their