Unlike during the Unmentionable Times, when men created “towers [that] rose to the sky,” it is an affliction to be born with powerful intellectual capacity and ambition in Ayn Rand’s apocalyptic, nameless society in Anthem. Collectivism is ostensibly the moral guidepost for humanity, and any perceived threat to the inflexible, authoritarian regime is met with severe punishment. The attack on mankind’s free will and reason is most evident in the cold marble engraving in the Palace of the World Council: “We are one in all and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (6). Societal norms force homogeneity and sacrifice among all people. Laws and rules are crafted to prevent advancement and preserve relentless …show more content…
Equality possesses gifts despised by the government: intellectual and psychological strength.
He aspires to work at the Home of Scholars, where there is some perceived semblance of education and discovery (9). However, knowing Equality possesses talent, the Council of Vocations, in a sinister move, assigns him the role of Street Sweeper (10). By placing
Equality in abeyance, the Council attempts to crush his spirit and prevent him from acquiring knowledge, thereby preserving their hegemon. Equality believes he is being punished for his skills, but he accepts his fate pursuant to societal pressure for servitude, save for his “cursed wish to know” (12).
Equality’s desire to learn survives the drudgery. While working one day, he discovers a tunnel from the Unmentionable Times (14). The tunnel becomes his sanctum for knowledge and self-discovery. For three hours each evening, in solitude (a transgression), he pursues his love of scientific experimentation and reflection. The more knowledge he gains, the greater his thirst for knowledge becomes, not for anything or anyone other than for the sake of