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Individuality In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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Anthem Contest Essay Within the dystopian setting of Ayn Rand’s Anthem, the human spirit is enslaved and oppressed. Living under a totalitarian dictatorship, all people are obligated to live unselfishly. Beneath this collectivist regime, everyone lives a life of servitude and dependence on one another. There is no individuality, no identity, no sense of self, no word “I”. Taking its place is the word “WE”, emphasizing the collective body that encompasses all. In order for the State to maintain control over its subordinates, it has meticulously brainwashed all to believe that it is wrong to be different, to have a preference, to be superior, and to think or act independently from the collective. With these rules as the moral doctrine, each person is …show more content…
These virtues provide individuals with guidelines and reasons that they base their actions on. Since birth, all people of the Anthem society have been brought up to believe in collectivist values. In the Soul of an Individualist, Ayn Rand states that humans must survive “by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others” (A). This leaves each man with a choice of being either the creative first handler or the parasitic second handler. The Anthem society disregards this fact and tries to reprogram everyone to be servants that feed off each other. On top of that, they made rules that forbid people to think and act independently, making solitude “the great transgression and the root of all evil” (17). Little do they realize that this course of action results in a doomed society lacking in the necessary innovation to grow. Solitude is when an individual is in the best environment to think creatively without the influence and limitations that others put on them. When Equality decides to start spending time away from society, he begins to grow and develop beyond his

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