Anthem: Independence and Freedom as a Natural State
In today’s world, it is expected of citizens to strive for great success. In relation to the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality has the same desire of a current man. Equality wants himself, his peers, and his whole society to be productive. On the other hand, Equality’s society is afraid of change. Equality and Equality’s society have very different opinions when it comes to morality.
Morality to me means, “Knowing the difference between what is ethically good/right or bad/wrong.” One of the areas in which Equality felt his society could progress was science. Page 23 and 24 in Anthem, Equality states, “we could ask questions of these, for they do not forbid questions.” This quote shows that Equality believes that asking questions and learning about the Earth will be positive for his society. The author may of included this quote because it implies how even though his society is very restricted on what they can do or say, asking questions is something they never made a law against. In today’s society, one might experience something like this when one thinks about how we have freedom of speech but should restrain ourselves from saying certain things to certain people in certain places.
Equality’s desire to learn helped him discover a tunnel from the Unmentionable times. The tunnel becomes his secret place to learn new things. The more he knew, the more he wanted to learn. Eventually, Equality discovers electric light. He then realizes for the first time that he seizes greater wisdom than the Scholars, then Equality decides he should present his creation and wants to show the Scholars: “Fear nothing, our brothers. There is a great power in these wires, but this power is tamed. It is yours. We give it to you”. Not unexpectedly, the council is unforgiving toward Equality. They accuse him of breaking the law and call for the destruction of his invention. The author may of put this quote in to reveal how it was not a common thing for someone to present a new invention, especially from a street sweeper like Equality. One may see this in today’s society when one sees previous members of the US Army homeless on the streets. This is shocking because they have risked their lives to fight for our country and freedom and when they return home they have nothing so they have no other choice but to live alone on the streets.
Ultimately it becomes clear that his motivation is to attain an individual identity and we see this for the first time when Equality substitutes the word “WE” for the word “I,” the Unspeakable Word, “I love you”. From this, we see that Equality is quickly realizing all the things he missed out on while he reluctantly followed his society's laws. The author may of included this quote because Equality realizes the significance of individuality and how limited his knowledge and vocabulary have been all these years. One may see something like this in real life when one is limited on things they are allowed to do in public. For example, in public parents will tell kids to not jump around and avoid touching everything in a store at home one is open to do more things and have fewer restrictions.
Equality 7-2521 symbolizes the power of an individual over a collective and oppressive society. In defying the rules by his peers and his ultimate decision to leave society Equality experiences freedom from oppression. Throughout the novel, his struggles against the collective rule run along to the oppressive societies of today’s world and put forth the idea that independence and freedom are natural states of being for all mankind.
Works Cited
- Rand, Ayn. Anthem. Signet, 1995.
