Have you ever thought of living in a place where everyone is the same and one is different? Boring, right. In the book Anthem, Rand fully expresses her thoughts about the role of the individualism and of society. Anthem is a dystopian novel, written in 1937 and published in England in 1938. The book is about a dystopian society, in which there is no “I” and only “we” is allowed. The dictatorship of Anthem tries to keep the members of its society brainwashed by focusing on the importance of obedience and equality by restricting men from having the right to pursuit individual life and by limiting their knowledge and vocabulary. Ayn Rand was born on February 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She grew up during one of the country’s most violent
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You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you." (Rand 22). In the book, Rand describes how the Council keeps its subjects manipulated, maintaining obedience through their strict teaching. The main character Equality 7-2521 demonstrates how people are not allowed to follow their own path and are victims of a repressive system, which rewards complacency and discouraged free thinking. In this society everyone must be just like everyone else. The society's commitment to Equality 7-2521, which basically means a commitment to sameness. According to Equality 7-2521, individuals have no identity of their own. In this society no one is allowed to choose what they do with their lives, or even to think about what they want to do in the future. The Council of Vocations punishes Equality 7-2521 for being "different," which means being intelligent and loving science. Instead of being made a scholar, which is what he really wants, Equality 7-2521 is made a Street Sweeper. The irony is that Equality 7-2521 would better serve his society as a scholar because of his great intellectual gifts, but that would make individuals capable of distinguishing and separating themselves from the Council. “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever" (Rand 19). All of their names are combinations of numbers and social values. Their names mark them as part of society and nothing else and the only identity they have is the group identity. Everybody thinks of themselves as a group. That is why they all speak only in the first-person plural. One of the main concept in the novel is the exclusion of the word "I" which didn’t exist in their vocabulary. Over the course of the novel, Equality 7-2521 begins to recognize the need for this Unspeakable Word, but his society has not prepared him with the mental process
You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you." (Rand 22). In the book, Rand describes how the Council keeps its subjects manipulated, maintaining obedience through their strict teaching. The main character Equality 7-2521 demonstrates how people are not allowed to follow their own path and are victims of a repressive system, which rewards complacency and discouraged free thinking. In this society everyone must be just like everyone else. The society's commitment to Equality 7-2521, which basically means a commitment to sameness. According to Equality 7-2521, individuals have no identity of their own. In this society no one is allowed to choose what they do with their lives, or even to think about what they want to do in the future. The Council of Vocations punishes Equality 7-2521 for being "different," which means being intelligent and loving science. Instead of being made a scholar, which is what he really wants, Equality 7-2521 is made a Street Sweeper. The irony is that Equality 7-2521 would better serve his society as a scholar because of his great intellectual gifts, but that would make individuals capable of distinguishing and separating themselves from the Council. “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever" (Rand 19). All of their names are combinations of numbers and social values. Their names mark them as part of society and nothing else and the only identity they have is the group identity. Everybody thinks of themselves as a group. That is why they all speak only in the first-person plural. One of the main concept in the novel is the exclusion of the word "I" which didn’t exist in their vocabulary. Over the course of the novel, Equality 7-2521 begins to recognize the need for this Unspeakable Word, but his society has not prepared him with the mental process