Collectivism In Ayn Rand's Anthem Equality

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In the novel Anthem Equality had many struggles to free himself from his society full of collectivism. Equality was punished for hiding in the tunnel alone, and when he told the Council Of Home he was not going to tell them where he was. “We will not tell you.” The oldest did not question us further and said, and their voice was bored: “Take our brother Equality to the palace of Detention lash them until they tell.”(Rand 22). Equality struggled with the punishment for showing individualism and not collectivism how the society demanded “They tore our clothes from our body, they threw us down upon our knees and they tied our hands to the iron post. The first blow of felt as if our spine had been cut in two. The second blow stopped the first, …show more content…
Equality was trying to come up with ideas to free himself from collectivism to make him different and unique from the others within his society. The Home of Scholars has made this impossible for anyone to be different. “ Many men in the Homes of Scholars have had new strange ideas.., but when the majority of their brother Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men must”.(Rand 48). In the novel the Anthem Equality had many struggles to free himself from collectivism. Equality was faced with a challenge when he was trying to tell the world council scholars about his light invention in order to free himself from collectivism. They reject him out of anger and fear. “How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers? And if the council has decreed that you be a Street Sweeper, how dared you think that you could be to men than in street sweeping… ,How dared you gutter cleaner to hold yourself as one alone and with the thoughts of one and not manny”.(Rand 63). In the novel Anthem Equality had many struggles to free himself from collectivism that he had to overcome in order for him to become an
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