Neil Peart

Everyone is told to be themselves. In a society such as our own today, it is easier than ever to be your own person and express yourselves in your own way. Being an individual is something that is very important to people and to society. Although, in a book like Ayn Rand’s Anthem, individualism is taken from everyone and our main character strives for some expression of his own despite it being the greatest sin in his world. With a name like Equality 7-2521 you can tell that he is only being treated as a another collective to all other men. Equality was taller, smarter, and stronger than his fellow men but he was assigned to the lowliest job there is, a street sweeper or in other words a garbage man. Equality wanted to be a scholar and learn things but the council thought differently and gave his a lowly job because of all his advantages as an individual. Why would the council do this? Well lets look back at Equality as he was younger. When the children of this society turn 5, they are sent into the “Home of Students” which is a school for them. Equality has always been different from his brothers. “It was not that learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy” (21). Equality was superior to his brothers but this was frowned upon. “This is a great sin, to be born with a head too quick. It is not good to be different from our (my) brothers but it is a sin to be superior” (21). Not only is Equality superior to them in intelligence but he is also the…

How would you react if someone controlled your entire life? Your job, thoughts, spouse, home, everything! In Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, this is exactly the case. Throughtout the book Equality tests his limits and eventually gets caught. However, he runs away and finds the Uncharted Forest. Equality laughs when he remembers that he is “the damned” because he is now able to be curious and to prefer others. In Equality’s society the government chooses his life mandate. The government puts…

The phrase “rules were meant to be broken” has held true for rebellious teenagers throughout time. But what if breaking the rules meant death or banishment? In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, the protagonist Equality 7-251, lived in a “utopian” society. This society had many rules and inhibitions implemented in it in order to prevent individuality and selfishness and promote collectivism and unity. After Equality escapes into the forest, he sees himself creating his own society. The society…

Many times throughout the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 goes against the rules and regulations of his community. In the final chapters of the novel Equality 7-2521 finally goes against all of the laws and runs away from the community. Although he goes against rules in his community, it brings out the best in him. Throughout the entire novel he progresses and changes into the characters he has become in the end. Equality 7-2521 learns many things including self worth, individuality,…

Communism and Collectivism Anthem depicts a dystopian collectivist society. The society is ruled by a world council that uses the concept of equality as an excuse to oppress the people. They do this by taking the idea of equality and turning it against itself. The concept of equality is perverted by using ideals nearly identical to those used in the speech “the soul of the collectivist” in a different Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead. In the speech Ellsworth M. Toohey an architectural critic…

The famous story “Anthem” written by Ayn Rand and the true stories of North Korea really have great similarities but also have big differences. Both governments have a strange way of controlling their people,disciplining and also rewarding them for their good and the bad. Plus their branches of government are a little different from the U.S and other countries. These countries, both show a little of selfishness a no care for the people whatsoever besides profiting off of them in different ways.…

In Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem , Rand discusses issues of Individualism and the problems that lie within it. A young man named Equality is curious about the world around him. He battles the society around him and tries to discover his own individuality. He is threatened with death by the society who now despises him. In the end, Equality finds his happiness and justifies that personal happiness is the goal of life. Just like Rand’s Equality trying to rediscover individuality, John Stuart Mill in…

Anthem Not many of the people in the book Anthem’s society have courage to express their individuality or to rebel for their freedom; Equality realizes his identity is important and he needs to respect himself. The world does not define you, you do and you need to let your individuality show and let people be inspired by it. "'Your eyes,' they said, 'are not like the eyes of any among men"'. (Rand 44) This part of the book is telling that The Golden One is noticing that he is different from the…

In Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem, the world she describes has each freedom taken from the characters and all they have is hardship and hard work for all their fellow brothers in the cities. Forced to follow the world council's rules, Equality 7-2521 tries to fit in with his fellow brothers, but when finding a tunnel from the unmentionable times he fails to follow the rules of his brother men and creates a great gift to man before getting run out of the city to the uncharted and unexplored forest. A…

“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever.” On page 19 of Anthem, Ayn Rand informs the readers of a chant or saying that the people of this time have to read to themselves whenever they feel tempted. In the society within the story, the forbidden word was “I”. Nobody was allowed to speak in the first person, they had to refer to themselves as We. The main character, Equality 7-2521, was a little different than the others. He had “a…