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When I read the Anthem book, it was depressed just to see the main character live like this. This book can be compared to slavery. All the things that the people did in this is book can be similar to slavery. If I was one of these the people in this book, my attitude would be depression. Not only slavery, the people who were over the people discourage them. The people were telling the main character to be the same as the other person. In the book, many people were not able to get things quicker like other people. The people wanted the students at their school to be the same. If a person is different from the person, they have commited a sin. At the end of the book things would get better. The books begins about a young man name Equality 7-2521. …show more content…
While Equality 7- 2521 was at the place, he was asked the question the people wanted to know where have Equality 7-2521 been. Equality 7-2521 didn’t asked the question and was beaten inside the Stone Room. He was asked the questioned again, but still didn’t tell them. Equality 7-2521 escaped the Palace of Corrective Detention due to poor locks and no guards. After he escaped, Equality 7-2521 went to the World Council of Scholars to let them see his work. When the people in the meeting saw Equality 7-2521’s inventions, they were displeased of it. They wanted to destroy it, but Equality 7-2521 didn’t let them by punching the windowpane and leap out of the window. Equality 7-2521 was in the forest all alone, until The Golden One came. When The Golden One came, both of them live in the forest together, until they finally saw a house on the mountains. They have finally decided to go walk up to the mountains to view the house which was the perfect house to live in. At the end of the story, Equality 7-2521 and The Golden One changed their life by changing their names to Prometheus and Gaea, started saying the word “I” instead of “We”, and letting Equality 7-2521’s people have freedom by moving them in the area that they live
Anthem is a book full to the brim of symbolism. Some of it is clear to see and others you have to really pay attention to capture. Anthem is not a hard book to understand, but it can still be difficult to grasp the full meaning of it. The meaning of which is elusive at points, slipping between your fingers and resting on the pages in plain view. Unity, we, I, Ego, it all plays a major part in this book along with the symbolism of things.
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 book Anthem is a book that can be perceived many various ways. To me, Anthem is about an outstandingly smart young man, named Equality 7-2521
The natural desire of Equality 7-2521 is knowledge who is born with a curse of uniqueness. He abides within the walls of a collectivist society. The citizens of this society prioritize the good of society over the welfare of the individual. In the beginning of the novel, Equality confesses that “[He] have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so” (Anthem 17). Equality is asking for forgiveness and proves this by quoting “[I] strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike” (Anthem 19). Through Equality’s journey of self-discovery, he gradually starts changing his mind on how he perceives of how critical the Council truly is. He begins rebelling without a care and denounces
“‘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.
In Anthem there are so many rules and controls, yet there is one that truly rises above it all. And that word is “I”. There is no “I” only “We”, for the great “We” is what they follow. And they are one not individual, they are one. And poor Equality can’t seem to understand that the rules are rules, but in a way he’s making his own rules. And he is mistreated for his looks and appearance and dosen’t seem really one with his brothers. And he’s curious and most don’t even question life, and he notices the little things, “Yet as we stand at night in the great hall, removing our garments for sleep, we look upon our brothers and we wonder. The heads of our brothers are bowed. The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they look one another in the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched, and their muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and wished to shrink out of sight. And a word steals into our mind, as we look upon our brothers, and that word is fear.”(Rand 46). He has a wanting to learn and build his knowledge, but the rules don’t permit his decisions.
In Anthem the leaders not only enslaved the bodies of their people, but they also destroyed their minds and had seek to accomplish a tyrannical end. The leaders of Equality 7-251?s community took control of the bodies and mind of the citizens, by completely brainwashing them from the day that they were born. The people didn?t try to fight back nor escape because they didn?t know that the way they were living is wrong or that there was any other way to live. By making it a sin to be an individual they didn?t have to worry about those who were smart, figure out the truth.
Equality 7-2521 discovers the word “I”. For the first time, he can express his identity as an individual in language. He is now using his freedom. He just doesn’t know about but also lives it. It's interesting to note how quickly he moves from "I" to "my" – from talking about himself and his actions to talking about his possessions. The switch from “we” to “I” opened up a whole new life for him. It was such a big deal for Equality.
In Anthem, the narrator, Prometheus, lives in a community in which all of the children born that year live in the same house until they turn fifteen. Then they are assigned a job and live with the people that share that occupation. This keeps the people from having an emotional attachment to someone like they would have with a family. Totalitarian rulers often control the thoughts and beliefs of people as well. The citizens of the community are forbidden to question or explore things that are unknown to other citizens.
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.
Prometheus writes: “The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.” (Chapter 3) Why does he think that the secrets of this earth are not for all men to see? If he thinks this, why does he decide to show his glass box to the World Council of Scholars? How do these issues relate to the theme of the novel?
Anthem, by Ayn Rand, is a very unique novel. It encircles individualism and makes the reader think of how people can conform to society and do as they are told without knowing the consequences and results of their decisions. Also, it teaches the importance of self expression and the freedom that comes along with being your own person and having the power to choose what path to take in life. Figurative language is used often in this book and in a variety of quotes that have great importance to the theme, plot, and conflict of the novel.
Equality has discovered something all by himself and he’s the only one that knows it. Equality would help create a new idea of the period of invention and discovery but only if it was accepted by the Council. (Pg 53 Rand)“We put a piece of copper and a piece of zinc into a jar of brine, we touched a wire to them, and there under our fingers, was a miracle which had never occurred before, a new miracle and a new power.”
Anthem and Fahrenheit 451 both hit a very similar theme. The theme in Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and Anthem, by Ayn Rand can be connected to a universal theme, Equality has limits. Both books support this theme by supporting an idea of a utopia, and both failed in its own way.
Reading a book can make the reader easily compare other books to that singular book. The book Anthem has such great specific details, there's no wonder why movies and poems relate to Anthem so well.