Teresa Nguyen Mrs. Sardar 10/05/17 First period The hidden messages behind collectivism and individuality Collectivism and individualism, both have a fair share of issues. The articles that exemplify both collectivism and individuality are “1984”, “Anthem” and a poem called “Unknown Citizen”. Collectivism and individualism have an even amount of dilemmas, both collectivism and individualism come from totally different perspectives. The Struggles associated with a collectivism is that everything, every action, every thought, every person acts as a whole in unison, so there isn’t any room for different opinions and thoughts, as for an individualist society people have to sacrifice themselves both physically, mentally and overcome their …show more content…
In the book, Equality breaks many rules and laws that could’ve resulted with severe punishments, but the laws that he’s broken aren’t the typical crimes being committed like for example assault, murder or armed robbery. The laws that Equality has broken is more related to expressing his feelings and thoughts which is a regular activity in an individualist society that happens on a day to day basis, but it happens to be prohibited in the society that Equality resides in. The quote “We had broken so many laws, and today we have broken one more. Today, we spoke to the golden one.” (pg.42 Rand). Equality uses the word “we” in this quote and he says “we” because he doesn’t know how to say “I”. The quote illustrates individualism because he’s trying to say, “I broke the law, and today I have broken one more and today I spoke to the golden one.” This implicates that he broke the laws and quote would also make more sense if he said “I” instead of …show more content…
The quote “There was something subtly wrong with Syme. There was something that he lacked: discretion, aloofness, a sort of stupidity. You could not say he was unorthodox. He believed in the principles of ingsoc, he venerated big brother, he rejoiced over victories, he hated heretics, not merely with sincerity but sort of restless zeal, an up-to-dateness of information which ordinary party member did not approach.” (Pg.53 Orwell). This quote reveals that Syme is an eerie person because Winston mentions that he is a strong supporter of Ingsoc, but the Parsons children are also supporters too. That would make Winston the odd one out and that shows individualism because Winston doesn’t support Ingsoc. He begins to feel very insecure and self-conscious about himself because he doesn’t feel and think the way everybody else in the society does. For example, Winston doesn’t participate in the event of hate week and he also doesn’t even praise the hate song. The reason why he doesn’t show his true self because he’s afraid that he would get caught and be punished for coming out. Eventually Winston overcomes his anxiety of getting caught and does come out of his shell, but he didn’t get what he wanted. Instead he got the opposite of what he desired and that was to be
In the last section, I get to know that individualism is the symbol of freedom and liberty, but it will also cause lots of problem like the abuse of guns and drugs. Collectivism is criticized as taking away the freedom and forbidden a lots human rights, but still, according to Zha et al. (2010), “historically, the collectivism of China, on the other hand, may influence its citizens to become highly skilled, qualified citizens who place societal needs above personal ones” (p. 363). Americans are better at creative area, but Chinese people have advantages on mathematics. Everything can be controversial, so does individualism and collectivism.
Equality eventually escapes from the place that never felt like home, and runs off with his love, Liberty 5-300, who he calls the Golden One. After learning about the men from the Unmentionable Times, Equality would agree with Ayn Rand’s words in her short essay, “How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?”, where she not only talks about the importance of having moral judgment, but also about being brainwashed by your leaders and government. Equality can relate because, for his whole life, he was in a society where their version of wrong and right were opposites to what they should have been. Individualism and moral judgement weren't encouraged, they were prevented, and that is where the society became
“‘Her name was Gaea. Let this be your name my Golden One, for you are to be the mother of a new kind of gods.’ ‘It shall be my name,’ said the Golden One”(Rand 99). In Ayn Rand’s futuristic novel, Anthem, the people are taught that everyone is part of a whole group. At the point where no one can even think of being an individual, they only see themselves as part of a whole group. Equality 72521 is elected the job of the street sweepers, through his job he begins to have a relationship with Liberty 53000(the Golden One), but through this relationship he begins to move towards individuality and selfishness, as the author Ayn Rand thinks we should.The Golden One and Equality 7-2521(Equality) evolving relationship throughout the book illustrates the theme that you can only be one and you are the only person that matters is yourself evidenced by Equality loving everything about the Golden One in the beginning, then he become less involved with the Golden One and it only helps if he looks at her for a while in between, and at the end the Golden One doesn’t matter to him any more and she is only for making babies and trying on pretty things.
“We shall not report our find to the city council. We shall not report it to any men” (Rand #33). This quotation shows that Equality does not want to share it with any others and he wants these findings for himself. This is the first time Equality experience a little taste of individualism. “It is our second transgression of preference, for we do not think of all our brothers as we must, but only of one, and their name is Liberty 5-3000” (Rand #41). This quotation shows that Equality is not thinking about everyone but one single person. In this society thinking about only one person is a sin and now Equality is starting to show that he doesn't care if he commits a sin. “So long lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone” (Rand #54). In this quotation Equality says that he would be fine with living alone and without his
By the end of the novella Equality comes upon a house from the Unmentionable Times for him and the Golden One to live in. Equality is in love with the Golden One who followed him to the forest after he was gone from the city. Later Equality 7-2521 gives the Golden One a new name: Gaea. They live in harmony together and finally discover the meaning of the Unspeakable Word “I” instead of which they always used the word “We” to refer to themselves like all the other collectivists did. After finding everything Equality searched for, he is a happy individual living in a perfect place with the woman he loves.
The word collectivism often makes people cringe. Overall, there is a general fear of not being able to make personal decisions in America. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, collectivism can be defined as; emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity (“Collectivism”). In Anthem, Ayn Rand describes an extreme collectivist society. Although Anthem’s society seems extremely surreal, aspects of its collectivist society closely mirror today’s society.
Winston is confronted with struggle throughout the entirety of George Orwell`s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Living within a totalitarian regime subsequently causes Winston to seek approaches for dealing with such abundant oppression; he finds liberation through self-awareness, understanding and ultimately rebellion. First, Winston realizes that “if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself”, alluding to the notion of thoughtcrime (162). This recognition exemplifies the complete cognizance that Winston has regarding the oppressive society displayed throughout the novel. Next, Syme states “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words”, alluding to the idea of Newspeak (28). This statement directly correlates to Winston speaking with other party members to gain knowledge about how others feels about policies deployed by the government. This information-seeking also connects with Winston`s rebellion, as he actively searched for others to join his uprising, which is shown when Winston tells O’Brien “We want to join [The Brotherhood]” (171). Winston’s attempt to join a rebellious organization exhibits his evident desire to release his suppressed emotions. Winston devises a very methodical approach to deal with the problematic society he resides in.
This article provides me a detailed research on a group of American and Chinese adults with plenty of data and analysis. They provided a lot of real and objective opinion on the comparison between individualism and collectivism. The fact of the whole respondents are students gives me an advantage on finding better ways to understand and use this research in my
In Anthem, Ayn Rand portrays the idea that even if the journey to freedom is difficult, the end product is worth the work. In the novel, the main character is Equality. He lives in an era that is strictly against individuality. Equality started off as someone who accepted and feared the regulations of the government. Society was deprived of the freedom of their thoughts. When Equality found himself having individual thoughts, he would repeat to himself, “We are one in all and all in one. There are no meant but only the great we, one, indivisible and forever.” (Page 10). The repetition of this statement shows Equality’s negligence to the use of the word ‘we’. In the opinion of the government,’we’ was used as a term that showed the unity of
In the novel, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand takes place when mankind has entered another dark age. A man named Equality 7-2521 lives in a society where he struggles to live equal within the brotherhood. In the world he lives in people are told they exist only for the sake of serving society, and have no other purpose. Therefore, each individual is assigned a vocation as a permanent life career which determines who they socialize and live with. However, Equality being very different from his brothers, believes in individualism and rejects the collectivism society around him. The concept of individualism vs collectivism is portrayed in the story because individuality is unknown to the people where no one is unique or excellent in any way. The people
The author, Ayn Rand, develops the thematic statement of the heroic potential of human beings by the main character, equality, slowly discovering himself throughout the book. Equality is considered an odd one out in the story because he is highly intelligent and taller than all the other citizens. Equality escapes to the forest from the City with the golden one and finds a house after crossing the chains of mountains that was left from the Unmentionable Times. Equality and the Golden One stay in an abandoned house, and they read the books found inside which expands their knowledge of the Unmentionable Times. After reading the books Equality states “I am done with the monster of “we” the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood, and
Comparing the past to the present, one of the things that have not changed in the economy is the people’s love for money. Lots of money. There have been many attempts to further increase the amount of money that an economy or an individual can gain. Whether this is through ideas like welfare state where the government supports its people by providing things such as financial support or individualistic ideas like pursuing your own self-interest. The source provided wants all of us to believe that by supporting the ideologies of collectivism through welfare state, it will only result with us depending on the government instead of striving for our own success. The statement from the source, “The welfare state arose out of a misguided desire to
The source states that by practicing collectivism as a society, individual members will be held back and the strength of the economy will diminish. This statement is very clearly in favour of individualism. It explains that the productive members of society - people who contribute positively to the economy - should not be restricted, but instead given economic freedom. to pursue their self-interests. The source takes on a capitalist perspective, wanting each individual to have the ability to reach their full potential in their productivity, which will in extension benefit the economy as productivity rates will go up. Because of this there will also be more goods available at a reasonable price, which helps decrease inflation and benefit the
Syme can also be marked as a rebel of the party. Although we have very little actual contact with him in the book, Winston thinks that Syme is too smart to have the party favor him for long. This is probably the reason that Syme disappears later on. He was working on a new Newspeak dictionary for the party but may have fell out of favor because of his intelligence. Syme is a rebel because of his brain. He refuses to go along with everyone else and bring himself down to the I.Q. of the masses, so he, in turn, gets himself killed by the party. This is an important note because Syme does not actually hate the party or even dislike the party.
His discovery of the word, “I”, helps him to understand that he is one individual and does not have to be controlled by anyone else. The Virtue of Selfishness, from Ayn Rand, truly describes this first step Equality takes towards autonomy by saying, “The first step is to assert man’s right to a moral existence — that is: to recognize his need of a moral code to guide the course and the fulfillment of his own life. . . .” In the context of Anthem, one can take this quote to mean that man, more specifically, Equality, deserves to have full control over himself and his actions. Equality realizes this during what could be considered the most climactic point in the novel: “Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: ‘I will it!’” At this moment, Equality takes responsibility for himself and therefore rejects the morals of the society he was raised in. He embraces an individualistic point of view where he and only he is responsible for the path his life takes. The United States of America shares a similar view by encouraging young people to take control of their own lives and shape their own