The Importance of Names “Can you imagine what a mess a world would be without names? (website)Names are very important to a person and their individuality. Ayn Rand’s novel “Anthem” is a book in which the people written about do not have names. The importance of having your own individual names is huge. A name can have meaning given to it, like how the name Sue means lily. Most parents when giving you your name have a meaning behind it and put much thought into what their future child should be named. Names can give you a part of your identity. In the book, Equality 7-2521 first starts talking about this woman called Liberty 5-3000 and how he wishes “to write this name. We wish to speak it, but we dare not speak it above a whisper.” (Rand, p. 38) This shows how emotions can be connected to names, so when Equality 7-2521 thought of her he was enthralled with the thought of her name. If you want to put it into your own perspective think about someone special to you, whenever you are with them or think about them you usually feel …show more content…
He begins to “not think of them as Liberty 5-3000 any longer. We have given them a name in our thoughts. We call them The Golden One.” (Rand, p. 41) This shows that he wanted to give her a name, a name that gave her meaning to him. This book shows how a random name can take away from the individuality of a person. Your name makes you stand out and gives you a sense of individuality. As you get to know a person you begin to associate their name with their gender, looks, and personality. The Golden One gives Equality 7-2521 another name just like he gave her one too. She called him “Unconquered”. Soon after you read that “Such thoughts as these are forbidden” (Rand, p. 56). This quote from the book reveals even more on how feelings towards opposite sex were not accepted. The name she gave Equality 7-2521 gave him meaning and separated him out from the
In the book Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 had never seen his physical appearance. He was surprised seeing such a strong individual staring at him. One day after escaping into the woods, he finally met himself at a flowing stream and gained new confidence. This was an essential part to the theme of "Anthem." This shows how Equality finally found himself as an "I" in order to help others see themselves as an "I." This is an important part of "Anthem" since it reveals Equality 7-2521's determination, bravery, and development as a person.
Equality 7-2521 aspires to be a self-proclaimed individual. In the novella, Anthem, Ayn Rand discusses of a dystopian society in which every man and women are set equal to each other. Equality is damned by the World Council after a discovery of light and electricity, and a contradictory belief in individualism. Freedom is an essential factor in the happiness of man. Equality is scorned for his different looks, mental competence, and independent beliefs but laughs when he recognizes that he should be glorified for understanding that his perception of life leads to contentment.
Many people seem to get entangled into society's customs. In the novel Anthem, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, lives a period of his life as a follower. However, Equality eventually, tries to distant himself from his society. He is shaped to be a follower, but eventually emerges in to an individual and a leader. On his journey, he discovers the past remains of his community. Ayn Rand uses Equality's discoveries of self to represent the importance of individuality in a functional society.
The society that Equality 7-2521 was brainwashed in since birth was based on no individualism. Ayn rand in fact was the maker of the self individualist philosophy. She based Equality’s qualities on individualism. Which means putting yourself first and showing all qualities of individuality. Equality 7-2521 wanted to have certains thing like people, places, and the way he learned more than others. As well as looking different than others; taller, smarter and of different color. He was an Individual; which allowed him to want to be a scholar in the house of scholars.
In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand. The book is about a dude named Equality 7-2521.
Ayn Rand's novel is still popular almost a century later because Equality 7-2521 is a representation of a character who is different and he is treated differently for it. In Anthem Equality 7-2521 tells the reader about how he fights with the other boys in the house and as a punishment he is locked in a cellar.
Ayn Rand, a contentious woman, the new favorite author to multiple people’s list. People who have read her magnificent book, Anthem, understand how exquisite and meaningful her words are. Books like Anthem are worth reading because it gives the reader more knowledge about controversial topics and it takes the reader to experience new places and new adventures. Equality, the main character, is a symbol. He represents many people today, living in countries like his society. Equality has to find his true identity first before helping the others. People are not allowed to believe in individualism, they should not have a identity of their own. Each person has a monotone routine to follow every single day of their lives. Each step a person takes
Ayn Rand’s Anthem is a politically satirical novel set in a future society that is so highly collectivized that the word “I” has been banned. The world is governed by various councils who believe that man’s sole reason for existence is to enforce the Great Truth “that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together” (Rand, 20). Any indication of an individual’s independent spirit is swiftly and brutally put down, with the transgressors being punished with severe prison sentences or even death. It is this dysfunctional world that Equality 7-2521 is born into. The novel begins with Equality 7-2521 alone in a dark tunnel, transcribing his story.
Equality had more than one primary motivation on his mind. I think the world would be a better place if everyone were motivated in the same way. Equality had more than the light on his mind. Equality started looking at Liberty 5-3000 and called her the ‘Golden One” “You are Beautiful, Liberty 5-3000” ( Chapter 2, Paragraph 17) I think Equality is allowed to feel this way. He should have the right to like a person more than he likes another person. He cared about Liberty and was glad she was only seventeen, so she didn’t have to go to the Palace of Mating. “How old are you?” we asked “Seventeen” they whispered “And we sighed, as if a burden had been taken from us, for we had been thinking without reason of the Palace of Mating.” ( Chapter 2, paragraph
In the beginning, Equality talks about the sins and what he remembers as child. Equality 7-2521 is a twenty-one year old and six foot tall young man, who is told he was born with an
However, these ‘selfish’ people often just want to find their own happiness. Equality has spent his whole life feeling as though he is nothing but a glitch or mistake. After he starts to use his ego and think only about himself, he becomes happier than he could possibly imagine. Rand writes, “...we had lived for twenty-one years and had never known what joy is possible to men” (49). The emotions that Equality feels after using his ego show readers, how remarkable it feels for Equality to only have to worry for his own happiness. All of this jubilation becomes accessible for Equality after he uses his ego, and lives for the benefit of himself rather than for the benefit of others. His new and improved thought process is explained, when Equality vows to never live for another man again. Rand writes, “And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it... It is its own purpose” (57-8). Equality’s mindset shown in this quote differs from his mindset in the beginning of the novel. Now Equality is able to reach his own happiness, because he was selfish, and put his needs before other people’s
Equality and the Golden One go far away from the overly controlled society of Anthem and instead try to live with their own free will and individuality in the forest. while they were there, they eventually come across a building very differently built than the ones they had seen where they previously lived while climbing a mountain in search of food and shelter.There they find information regarding the unmentionable times. “ What kind of world did they have, the men of the Unmentionable Times?”(pg 90). There were many books from the Unmentionable Times in the house and this is when Equality stops using “WE” and uses the word “I” which was very significant part of completing the journey of finding his true identity as an individual. Equality renames himself Prometheus and renames the Golden One as Gaea after seeing names from Unmentionable Times.
In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, the society in which Equality 7-2521 and his fellow brothers live is one where all must be the same. The epitome of an altruistically collectivist society, it not only discourages but punishes any deviance whatsoever from the standard man. It is a widely accepted belief in this society that “We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State” (21). Equality 7-2521 has been taught this from birth, and knows well the values of his civilization. However, Equality 7-2521 was always different. He was “born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden … We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear, that we know and do not resist” (18). Every day he explores a mysterious tunnel that seems to have been left from the Unmentionable Times, a forbidden age long
Equality 7-2521 seemed to always be different from everyone else. He thought of himself as cursed because he went against the rules of his community. He had a preference to be assigned as a scholar but was instead assigned as street sweeper. He discovered the place left behind from the Unmentionable Times and kept it a secret despite that being illegal. He also began to develop feelings for a woman named Liberty 5-3000. Although he was always on a quest to find individuality, it was first explicitly mentioned when he provided a name for Liberty 5-3000. “We have given you a name in our thoughts, Liberty 5-3000… The Golden One” (Rand, pg. 55). By naming her, he is assigning a name that actually distinguishes her from everyone else rather than the generic names they are given at birth. This quest was fulfilled after he ran away with Liberty 5-3000 following him. The search for the word “I” can be seen when she struggles to come up with a way to say “I love you” to Equality 7-2521. Instead she says, “We are one… alone… and only… and we love you who are one…alone… and only” (Rand, pg. 87) She is struggling to show him that she as an individual loves him as an individual. After reading the manuscripts they find in the house from the Unmentionable Times, Equality 7-2521 discovers the word “I,” and with it, the sense of individuality and ego. He renames himself Prometheus and names Liberty 5-3000
Equality renames himself Prometheus because Equality perceives that he tolerated for all his achievements. Prometheus took light from the gods and fetched them to the citizens, and he educated men to be gods. Equality feels that since he suffered so much in his life, he ought to rename himself after a mythological creature. Equality renames Liberty Gaea. Gaea is the mother of earth and all the gods. Equality believes that Liberty deserves the name Gaea because she is very compassionate and Equality loves her so much. “Let this be your name, my Golden One, for you are to be the mother of a new kind of gods” (Rand 99).