Ayn Rand Institute

In Ayn Rand’s fiction novella “Anthem”,the world is a dreaded dystopia of collectivism that labels all forms of individuality as sin which seems to resemble an exaggeration of socialism or communism. Members of this society are selfless. They’re told by their superiors that their only purpose in life is to toil for their fellow men. They should not have feelings or care about living but rather care about working for their fellow brothers in whatever way they can. They are forced into dismal and…

The book Anthem starts off with “It is a sin to write this”(1). However, is it really a sin? How can something so simple be a sin? The truth, is that it isn’t really a sin. Throughout the story Equality 7-2521 gains different moral views on the matter of his sins, and he has a different opinion about them. This eventual view that all of his sins were actually not sins is correct. We learn that Equality can be considered a sin himself, as it is a sin to be taller than your brethren, or be…

How would the world go if everyone were to listen to the rules and be exactly the same? Have no different thoughts and being involuntarily equal? Ayn Rand creates a world as if that was how we lived today in Anthem. Equality 7-2521 lives in a small city with rules undergoing almost everything. He has an insufficient job that the leaders expect him to learn nothing so he can not discover true reality and be individual from everyone else. Throughout the story he begins to disobey the rules and…

Anthem is a novella first envisioned as a play by Ayn Rand when she was a teenager living in the Soviet Union. The plot of Anthem revolves around Equality 7-2521, a young man living in a dystopian society in which there is neither individuality nor free thinking. Throughout Equality 7-2521’s life, they have always been different from their brother men, whether it be due to their abnormal height, or their thirst for knowledge. As they grew older, they find themselves committing many…

mind into thinking about, in this passage, an ultimate kind of happiness by giving up everything that makes the people happy. He describes these certain terms of ultimate happiness as "Universal Harmony, Divine Purpose, Paradise, Racial Supremacy" (Rand). It almost sounds sarcastic to give such a grand title to such a low-class job or even social status to people. Similar to the job Equality gets from the council as "Street Sweeper" (26). Being a Street Sweeper is a lowly appreciated job that…

“I shall choose my friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey.” (Rand 96). So says Equality 7-2521 in Ayn Rand’s “Anthem”. Equality lives in a society where every aspect of life is controlled by the leaders of society, even who becomes the next leaders. This society is one that claims to be perfect, it strives to be a utopia, and all of its residents naturally agree and conform to…

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual”(Albert Einstein). In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, all that is valuable in human society is gone. What is left is a collectivist society that justifies, and keeps their power in dominating ways. With the overwhelming weight of this system, it is hard to imagine how the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, finds an out and a different way of living. Anthem shows a collectivist society that expresses only…

Anthem Essay In Anthem there are a lot of things that are misconstrued, including the wording in the book. Once you get past the wording it turns out to be a fantastic book. Ayn Rand has thought everything through and Anthem has been very well put together. Though, there are some questions that I have, and I am going to break the questions down. Equality 7-2521 is right about criticizing his leaders because there community is not natural and they need a change of environment. Equality is right…

In the book Anthem, the people think and work as a group. This means there is no individualism throughout the whole community, instead there is one collective thought. This is much different compared to how life is now, at least here in the United States where everyone has the will to think and act as an individual. The purpose of this essay is to state the similarities and differences of a collective society, like in the book, and an individual society, similar to most of the world at this…

equality. Essentially by being equal, they submit to a morality the society feels fit, it takes away our sense of purpose and identity. They lose rights to their bodies and minds. To their ideas and feelings. To their sense of what is good and bad. Ayn Rand makes me realize we are chasing the wrong ideal, we are pursuing an ideal that will one day take away our choice of morality, and freedom. What we really should be focusing on is respect. Respecting one another will give the person their…