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Rules And Controls In Anthem, By Ayn Rand

Decent Essays

The book Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, is about a man named Equality who lives in a state with a communist-like government who developed numerous rules and controls which than Equality realizes are wrong and breaks them for freedom and starts a new life with a woman named Liberty who than start a new family and make a new society as the city in Anthem is controlled by a communist-like government and has made numerous rules and controls. They exist because the rules prevent the people from having freedom and prevent individuality from happening because in the book, the people don't know anything about individuality and they don't have any freedom of their own. The main purpose of these rules and controls is to make all the people equal and …show more content…

“From the day them men are born to up to 5 years old, they live at the Home of Infants where the kids are put in a cellar. When at 5 years old, the children are sent to the Home of then Students where they stay there for 10 years and learn about the history, lifestyle and symbolism of the city and continue to learn at age 15 (Rand 20-21),” this shows that the lifestyle of the people is being controlled and that they don’t live their separate lives individually and they can’t have their own lives set for themselves. At the Home of the Students, they say an anthem which says, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen”, this is wrong because each person is something and that mankind is not all. It is true that exist for our brothers but we also exist for other reasons like existing for purpose in life and for our home and friends (Rand 21). This explains that the government has too many rule and controls due as said earlier, the lifestyle of men is being controlled, the people are saying an anthem which Equality knows is wrong and the people of Anthem can’t talk of a certain past or beyond

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