Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Ayn Rand’s Anthem is a rebuttal of collectivism. The ideology of collectivism is heavily criticized in Rand’s novella where the oppression of an individual is summarized in the following statement, “What is not done collectively cannot be good” (Rand 73). Collectivity robs the people of their individuality and uniqueness, attributes that are disregarded in Anthem. The need for everything to be done collectively in order to be beneficial for the society is a fallacy. Reaching a full consensus…

In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Equality 7-2521 is faced with a lots of problems. In the begining, Equality is living in a collectivist society, where morals dictate that any individual act is a sin and should be severely punished. But still Equality doesn’t like the life of togetherness, and as a result he wants individuality. As the story goes on, his morals begin to change from those he learned to ones he finds in his own mind. In his last journal he says that all the guilt and shame he felt…

A world without an I Ayn Rand wrote this book during the 1960’s during the First world war. She was born in Russia in 1905 just a few years before the war between Russia and the U.S started. During the time that Ayn Rand began to write about the novel, it was during the chaos that Russia was going through. In Russia there was a big problem in the community, something that Ayn Rand wanted to fight for. In 1926, she left Russia to move to the U.S, she left for Russia because they were treated…

The 1860’s and 70’s marked the beginning of the biggest art movement since the Renaissance, Impressionism. In the beginning, paintings in the impressionist style were sharply ridiculed for their “sloppiness” and “disrespect for tradition”. Impressionist artists were banned from exhibiting at the Paris Salon, the largest and greatest art event in the world at the time. This exclusion only fueled the artist’s passion and resolve to show the world the beauty of the new style. Perhaps the most…

In the story of Anthem, by Ayn Rand, The theme is pushing toward, people shouldn't fear the unknown but look towards it for hope. She uses fear to shape the society into a dystopia, because people blindly obey and if they fail, they are punished which gives them something to fear. Which is why she is pushing the idea that people shouldn’t have to fear the things outside of their territory but instead look to it for something new. Rand wants people to understand that people have always been…

In the novella Anthem, Ayn Rand portrays the collectivist society as the antithesis of a Utopia. Collectivism Is the belief in the interdependence of all beings and stresses the importance of the group over the importance of the individual. Rand realizes the theoretical good in collectivism, but illustrates how the downfalls are far greater than the advantages. Rand uses the protagonist, Equality, to demonstrate how the ideas of collectivism, though with good intention, ultimately sacrifice…

Equality Revolution “I” a word that is banned in equality 7-2521 society, where there is no individualism yet instead collectivism. In this book equality 7-2521 is living in a collectivism society and he slowly rebels against this. What are a few reasons why he starts to rebel? These reasons are that he was curious, fell in love, and individuality. To begin with one of the reasons he slowly rebels against his society is he was curious and had desired to learn things. For example, Equality…

While The Fountainhead provides an insight to Rand’s perspective regarding individualism, Atlas Shrugged is the novel where she defined her school of Objectivism which holds individualism as one of its major tenets. Individualism is the driving force which keeps the intellectuals of Atlas Shrugged committed to making their ideas work for them rather than being drawn into a system of collectivism which effectively destroys their progress and spreads it equally across the masses. The two main…

Having to face countless amounts of hardships in a cruel, twisted society proves no easy task for anyone to accomplish, however, Equality 7-2521 was able to break this barrier and step into a new, reformed world. Throughout the course of the novel Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, Equality’s motivations allowed him to see the society people were living in from a different point of view. In a society where everyone lives by the quote “‘We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the…

A life engulfed with fear, drudgery, and forced obedience, has compelled the people in this dystopian society to accept a miserable way of life and give in to the dictatorial, collectivist regime, yet all it took was one twinkling star amongst a dark, desolate midnight sky, Equality 7-2521, to escape the clutching grasps of this regime and finally discover the long-lost yet such a priceless word to humanity, I. Ayn Rand, the prolific writer of Anthem, portrays her repudiation for the ideals of…