Essay on the Anthem by Ayn Rand

Imagine living in a society where everything and everyone is brought up to live, think, act, and be the same. Imagine not having a real name and never knowing that real love exists and that you are an individual with your own physical features and your own way of thinking. You would even have your future picked out for you, and rather than being able to do what you love and reach your full potential, you have your entire career assigned to you and you are bound to it. When the council threatens to destroy the invention that Equality 7-2521 had presented to them, many things about the society soon became evident to him.

After spending an abundant amount of time alone with his own thoughts in the tunnel, it becomes evident that Equality 7-2521 has found individuality in his solitude. The duration of time Equality spent alone in the tunnel, was time spent alone in his own thoughts. Once the Council realizes that Equality had written down his OWN thoughts and discovered that he for once was not thinking like everyone else but like his own self, it came to his attention that his society purposely did not want for individuals to realize that they had distinct thoughts, especially not Equality 7-2521. The council did not want him to realize that he was more brilliant and had more potential than the rest. This is all because the society is intimidated that someone like Equality could come along and make manifest all the hidden secrets from the Unmentionable Times and ruin the way of life they had worked so hard to established for all the people.

The fact that all his life, the society had been teaching him that he is a part of one whole and that he is supposed to be like his brothers and sisters and no different, is a significant reason to him finally understanding why the Council did not receive his invention like he had envisioned. They were in shock that a street sweeper was even approaching them, let alone trying to share an idea with them. It was deemed unacceptable and therefore they dismissed the value and potential of the invention Equality presented to them. In addition to that, they did not want for Equality to be different and outstanding from the rest of the street sweepers and his brothers and sisters, and that's exactly what the discovery of the light bulb was doing to Equality 7-2521, it was setting him apart from the rest and that was not okay with the Council.

When Equality discovered the light bulb which he called "the power of the sky" he thought that when he presented his discovery to the Council that they would be thrilled and he would achieve his dream of being part of the World Council of Scholars and that they could utilize his invention to advance their society. However, it was not until the reaction of the Council was analyzed by Equality, that he realized that the Council was hiding things from the entire society. This in turn, making the entire society oblivious to the potential that they