Leonard Peikoff

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…

There are many societal ideals that influence individual behaviour. In our society, these may include peace, freedom, and equity. In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, the ideals that influence the protagonist are collectivism, equality, unity, liberty, and harmony, as seen in the naming of the characters. A societal ideal (in this instance collectivism) deeply affects every individual’s identity and purpose in life. Additionally, collectivism impedes the imagination and creativity of each individual.…

Some countries believe in communism. After all, it aims to make everything equal and fair. Despite of this, most of the world rejects this idea. In Anthem, by Ayn Rand, communism and collectivist societies are viewed as a terrible idea. Anthem explores what would happen if the idea of communism continued to grow. There would be no individualism in communist societies, because everyone should be equal. According to Anthem, communism and collectivist societies should be disapproved of because…

“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…

Morality Arthur Paliden once said, “Morality is doing what is right without the threat of divine retribution nor the possibility of divine reward.” These wise words were proven to be true in the novel Anthem. At the beginning, Equality 7-2521 often struggled with the strict rules of what was deemed evil or good; It was a constant torture for him. Once he has escaped, he begins to ponder about his place in the world. For once in his life he desired to know if society was right, if their morals…

In the book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand the character Equality lives in a totalitarian society where everyone has equal rights. Everyone in the society is taught that they are equal to their brothers and sisters, that they are to think of everyone as equal and that nobody is better than others.Equality begins to change throughout the book in so that he is gaining an “ego’. Equality soon meets a woman named Liberty. Equality sees her different than the others. He begins to have feelings and begins to…