Anthem
A young man lives in a place where the word "I" does not have meaning. It is a society where there are no individuals. It is, however, a place where you strive to serve your brothers. Equality 7-2521 was taught from birth that the individual is not important. He is in a crazed society where the only form of government is collectivism.
Their religion is one of few forces holding this disarranged society from spinning out of control. “We are nothing. Mankind is all.” (21). Equality, at age 21, has absolutely no freedom.
There are three steps to a person’s education when entering the society as defined by the book Anthem. When a child is born they are placed in the House of Infants until they are five years old. There they stay with other children born the same year. After the House of Infants they are sent to the House of Students. They stay in the House of Students until they are fifteen years of age when they enter the work force. Members of a board decide the final step of a person’s education. “Their hair was white and their faces were cracked as the clay of a dry river bed” (26). Each profession has a housing center and trains the citizens to the specific profession, also known as a “house”. In this section, his dream of going to the House of Scholars is lost and he is sent to the House of Street Sweepers instead. Here the rules are very strict. He is not allowed to laugh or sing for any reason.
Entertainment was a part of daily life for all citizens within this society. Every day they would sing three hymns and watch a play after that. Among the three hymns were “…The Hymn of Brotherhood, and the Hymn of equality, and the Hymn of the Collective Spirit” (27). These were the only two forms of entertainment the workers had time for. All other time was spent working their jobs, eating, sleeping, and/or meeting with fellow workers. Entertainment was a prized piece of their society. Entertainment was the only part of society that kept the citizens content. Without entertainment daily the citizens would have not had such strong beliefs in the group and most likely would have overthrown the government.
The science and technology of the society is very underdeveloped. Glass and simple candles were some of the newest inventions.
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.
In this novella, the characters have every aspect of their lives planned by the government in an attempt to make everyone indistinguishable. As a result, the characters have no sense of identity. For example, the characters have names such as Equality, Collective, and Union. Alone these names suggest a common core. Drastically, a complete loss of individuality can be noted by how the characters say "we" rather than "I", the forbidden word.
Anthem is a story of man’s struggle to be free and to fight the masses of conformity. It tells of human nature and the want to gain all the knowledge that one could possibly attain. Man loses his safe haven and his security when he lets this lust for knowledge overpower him and lets it be seen by others. He becomes vulnerable Like Johann Faust, Prometheus sells his life for wisdom. Unlike Faust, however, Prometheus is expelled from his society but gains his freedom of individuality and his freedom of knowledge and the ability to understand. In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea sin against society to become singular and understanding much like Adam and Eve’s sin against God when they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge to gain wisdom; as a result, they can be compared to each other by there desire for learning and by their damnation.
Throughout his life Equality faces many difficult challenges in order to find his individualism especially since he lived in a society where having even the slightest individual thought was a crime. However, he manages to use his talent of curiosity to reach his goals and finds his identity as an individual when he reaches the forest where the secrets to the unmentionable times were hidden away. This is where his journey ends and his life starts with free will by first renaming himself and his
...Emerged in Nigeria." Boko Haram: How a Militant Islamist Group Emerged in Nigeria. Accessed May 26, 2014. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4232/boko-haram-nigeria.
He wants to have an individual society where everyone is equal and no one has to think for the better of them or their brothers. They do not have to say “we” when they are talking about themselves. They can use “I.” For the word “we” must never be spoken, save by one’s choice and as a second
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the persecution of Christians has taken place in northern Nigeria. In the poverty-stricken nation, tension between Muslims and Christians runs high. The discrimination against Christians in the North along with violent attacks at the hands of the infamous Boko Haram violates several international laws and has led to the interference of the International Criminal Court and United States. Although the violence began in recent years, the conflict has been rising for centuries.
...at shocked me through all these articles is how there weren’t a single positive story about Nigeria. I had to get to the third page before I found something that was “kind of positive” about Nigeria. These definitely illustrate what the speaker was saying about single stories. Also 8 out of 10 stories where related to Boko haram. Therefore it won’t be a surprise for me to hear that people believe that Boko haram is the daily cup of tea. I didn’t really found anything that was directly related to the chapter because most of the stories were about BOKO haram crisis. The only thing that I found related to the chapter was how the Biafra war that has opposed the three major’s ethnics groups: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausas is still reflecting on the actual Nigerian crisis. In the north were these crisis are occurring, only certain ethnic groups or religious groups are attacked.
To most of us, they say they can spot success at first glance. Generally by the car one drives or how one is dressed. Some might see it by how healthy or how happy one feels. Merriam Webster's Dictionary states that success is “the fact of getting wealth, respect, or fame.” If one where to adopt this definition of success, one might go on to living a life of materialism. This mindset is deceitful and will only reward you with short term happiness, like a drug addict searching for a quick fix. For one to be ultimately successful, one must be able to overcome hardships and possess qualities like integrity, pride and patience which no amount of money in the world could buy. These qualities will make anyone strive in most, if not all the difficult obstacles one must face in life.
Bok Haram was founded in 2001, with the purpose of establishing a pure Islamic state, ruled by Sharia Law. Its goal is to put a stop to Western Culture in Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. Boko Haram is known for attacking Christians and bombing churches, violent riots, attacking schools and police stations, kidnapping western tourists. The current known leaders are: Abubakar Shekau, Dan Hajia, Abba, Abatcha Flatari, Momodu Bama and Mohammed Yusuf. They have also been linked with Al Qaeda and Ansaru. Boko Haram uses child soldiers some as young as twelve years old, which is a crime against humanity. On November 13 2013, United States of America declared Boko Haram a terrorist organisation. The terrorist group mainly attacks schools teaching English and Western education, they burn the school with the students inside or only kill the teacher
Social media, despite the fact that it is relatively new to the world, has strong ties into everyday life. Millions of people log on everyday to update their status, tweet about events, and stay connected with friends and family. It may sound like the perfect tool to stay in touch with distant people and make new connections, and it is great, but it is not perfect by any means. Social media can have serious negative effects on its users. Some of these side effects can include lack of face-to-face interaction, weakened family connections, addiction, and depression to list a few. First the positive effects of social media will be addressed; then the negative effects will be discussed as well as why they should be concerning.
Social institutions are an important element in the structure of human societies. They provide a structure for behavior in a particular part of social life. The five major social institutions in large societies are family, education, religion, politics, and economics. While each institution does deal with a different aspect of life, they are interrelated and intersect often in the course of daily life. For example, for schools to be able to exist they rely on funding from the government. This is an intersection between politics and education. Social institutions affect individual lives through other aspects of society such as culture, socialization, social stratification, and deviance. This paper will focus on the social institution of education, and how it affects individual lives through socialization, deviance, and social stratification.
...ns something when it imitates nature and delivers facts of history or culture. Art is the exploration of what it is to be alive, to be human and struggling to understand one’s role within society and identity in general. By stretching the limits of what is acceptable, the artist questions preconceived ideas of what is ugly and beautiful, important and unimportant. These ideas in art and society are influenced by the emergence of new technologies that expand human understanding. Since technology improves and human understanding is bolstered by these theories (both philosophical and scientific), then art will always have a place. The artist’s place is to criticize and express the tendencies and attitudes of himself and of society. Even if those feelings are marginalized, their expression makes the audience aware of them, and begs them to ask questions of themselves.
To me, art used to be the physical evidence of the marvels of human imagination and ability. It used to mean something that not only was appealing to the eye, but it had the immense power of giving rise to the purest of emotions in those lucky enough to be its witness. Being responsible for the conception of feelings through objects seemed the hardest, yet the noblest job. Artists were definitely people to be admired. Art made us reconsider, analyze, and change.
Art is everywhere whether one likes it or not, and can be appreciated in the smallest of ways. It’s absolutely necessary for the growth of a society and its people. It’s mainly used for businesses today to either raise people’s opinions of their company or sell a product. For example if you go to the marketplace and you pick up a gallon of milk the first thing you may see on that gallon is a picture of a cow or the same milk being poured into a glass in a way that captures the eye and makes you think “wow that looks great!” This is the most common use for visual art today and often makes people “miss the point” of what it truly means (Why Art Matters, 1). Advertisement is one of the biggest fields in then visual arts and shapes the way we see a product as well as the choices we make on such judgment. This is where the illusion comes in making the visual arts, a potentially harmful thing. The illusion of it comes from what’s true and what’s made up or “altered truth”. A company could make their product seem way better than it really is essentially tricking people into buying it. One example is when you go to a fast food restaurant and you see signs of perfect looking sandwiches when in reality they don’t look like that. Most people don’t see any illusion but when they do it’s hard for them to see the other side of things, the ones that aren’t “stretching the truth”. People today tend to see that kind of advertisement as normal. In fact, it kind of helps with things like morale by making things seem much more worth it and just all around nicer. So there for the arts are the very “soul” of a successful business.