Anthem Essay

Submitted By gioatwood
Words: 879
Pages: 4
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Giovanna Atwood
Henderson
Honors English 1
18 March 2014 In Ayn Rand's novella Anthem, Prometheus and all of the men are tied together through a collectivist, panoptic government that bans non parielness in every form, thus leading Prometheus to believe those who have not deviated from this totalitarian society do not deserve to observe the bewildering wonders of the world because of their collectivistic views. Prometheus desires to show the glass box to the World Council to ignite the cognition about the acceptance of himself into the Home of the Scholars, but also to spark a revolutionary metamorphosis within the science realm and to work against society. Curious Prometheus believes that the secrets of the earth should only belong to those that seek them out, but in their authoritarianistic society and tyrannical government and council, they oppress Prometheus' glass box and ideas of technological advancements because he discovered it individually. If you desire to become a philomathic individual within this society you will be subjugated through various physical and sinister punishment because of their type of government; but even though Prometheus has been castigated and lashed, he still desires to work against this totalitarian society. These issues correlate to the themes of the novel by holding a parley about individualism and collectivism, and the extreme differences between the two while introducing Rand's objectivistic philosophy. In chapter three, the Council of the Scholars is proven to be incorrect in their philosophy that "...we know all the things which exist and therefore the things which are not known by all do not exist," in which Prometheus presents his discovery of electricity because of his pursuit of intellect and how "...secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them" (Rand, 72). Prometheus believes that the secrets the world contains will never be discovered if you continue to conform to fascistic societies and that you are entitled to claim knowledge for yourself instead of distributing your work to people as a whole. The society Rand depicts demonstrates that people should reap the benefits of the efforts from others because the brothers share everything and throughout this novella, you can begin to observe Prometheus' progression to believe in meritocracy, where people should only receive to what they can give. Rand demonstrates that we have the right to a sole possession of knowledge that we aspired to aggregate and that's how she announces how it should be. Prometheus begins to develop his own views on the world and how governments operate when he makes his daily escapes into his underground scientific retreat. Prometheus maturates his individualist views which shows his ideas of becoming rationally selfish; which indubitably contradicts the society he was ultimately raised in. These issues of philosophy are portrayed through the actions of the Council and the actions of Prometheus. The Council believes “…to hold yourself as one alone… with the thoughts of one and not of many” is an infringement, where Prometheus utterly contravenes and acts as one and takes care of himself (Rand, 72). Because of these disagreements and the government’s way of herding sheep, or taking care of its citizens, technological advancements are slim to none. If a scientific fact is not known by all, it does not exist in this haughty society. Prometheus is not trying to become a monopolist, but he is trying to make advancements in the technological and scientific realm, where with these
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