Ayn Rand

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Recommended: Structural elements in Ayn Rand Anthem

We as people must look after ourselves and live for ourselves or we will become caught in our problems and become the people we were helping. Ayn Rand, in her novel, Anthem warns us of “Moochers”, people who demand, expect, or need support from others or the government. Rand supports her claim by creating a society in her book Anthem, where the people depend on their “Brothers”, the word “I” is not known by anyone, a job is appointed to you by a council, electricity is not known of, and no man can be smarter than the others in their profession. The author’s purpose is to show that a society with people depending on others takes away individualism and results in low evolution and zero change. The author writes in a formal tone for readers. Rand also states “we, as a society, must fulfil our own self-interest”. I agree with Rand, that neither a society, nor the people in it should have the responsibility to show concern for their fellow man. I also agree with Rand that societies of “Moochers” result in low evolution and zero change. However I somewhat disagree with her ideas of “Moochers”, some of them don’t want to be moochers, they just fell down and need help back up.
In Rand’s story “Anthem” she displays a society in which the people and the civilians are “Moochers”, and depend greatly on each other and have jobs appointed to themselves. They have no choice of what to do with their lives and no freedom. You may not be more intelligent than your fellow brothers. They also live by the quote “We are one in all and all in one/ There are no men but only the great WE, / One, indivisible and forever” (19). In this society people do not have names and they do not know about the word “I”, the only words they use for themselves is...

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...inferior and even think the sun revolves around the planet.
Ayn Rand in the novel Anthem warns us that “moochers”, who demand, expect or need support from others or the government will take away individualism, and result in slow evolution and zero change in the society. In the book Rand shows this by creating a society in which everyone has a job appointed to them, and many inventions are only made by the “Society of Scholars”, however most of their inventions are rejected so it’s not harder for other societies. Her point is to show that we as a society must not become “Moochers” and we must look after ourselves. I completely agree with Rand, we as a society must be our own people and we must look after ourselves or else we will get held back on our own problems, and become the people we were helping.

Works Cited

Rand, Ayn. Anthem. New York: Dutton, 1995. Print.

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