2013 Anthem Winning Essay

2013 ANTHEM WINNING ESSAY

FIRST PLACE Elizabeth Anderson, R L Paschal High School, Fort Worth, TX

Equality understands that his invention will benefit mankind greatly; however, this was not his main motivation in conducting his experiments, and it is not the primary source of the great joy he experiences. Discuss.

In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, all men are bound to one another by a collectivist, all- encompassing world government that bans individualism in every form, silencing the unique through indoctrination, torture, and even execution, in the name of uniformity and brotherly love. The retrogression of the society portrayed in Anthem is manifested especially in one particular organization throughout the book, the Home of Scholars. The Home of Scholars is responsible for making discoveries in the natural sciences and improving society technologically, and only in the Home of Scholars are questions on any subject allowed. However, the development of new scientific discoveries by the Scholars is subject to a long bureaucratic process that prevents new innovations from being produced and bars new information from being made known. The protagonist of Anthem , a young man named Equality 7-2521, enjoys pondering “the Science of Things” and questioning the way the world works, and his greatest ambition is to be accepted into the Home of Scholars so that he might observe the world around him and be free to learn and discover. Unfortunately, the Council of Vocations instead sentences him to a life of sweeping streets, which he believes is his punishment for being more curious than his brothers. While working one day, Equality discovers an underground tunnel built by men in the Unspeakable Times. This hidden tunnel becomes his sanctuary, for it is the only place in which he can spend time alone and unobserved. Equality uses his time of solitude to study (among other things) the phenomenon of electricity, a phenomenon that he has observed but for which the Home of Scholars has no explanation. Over the course of two years, Equality conducts experiments in all of his spare time until he discovers a method of harnessing the power of electricity for use in an electric light bulb. Despite his initial thought that he has committed a great crime in working alone and finding a secret that is unknown to other men, he is overjoyed and enthralled by his invention. Although Equality 7-2521 is aware that his discovery of the electric light will significantly benefit his fellow men, since the electric light is brighter and more practical than the candle, this awareness is not his primary incentive in toiling secretly in his forbidden place to study the science of electricity, nor is it his source of jubilation upon completing the rediscovery and invention of the light. On the contrary, his motivation arises from his wishes to both become a Scholar and create something with his own hands, but he finds eventually that his only real desire is the latter of these. Equality is rejected and scorned by the Home of Scholars, but he becomes the only true Scholar that his society has seen in ages. His joy is the satisfaction he feels as a result of having brought forth light from

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within himself and unto himself, rather than “ourselves.” Initially, Equality attempts to reconcile his desire to create and learn with the intention of serving his brothers, which society has instilled in him. “We shall put before [the Home of Scholars] the greatest gift ever offered to men. We shall tell them the truth . . . We shall join our hands to theirs, and we shall work together, with the power of the sky, for the glory of mankind.” (73-74) In this statement, Equality recognizes the implications of his discovery; he knows that the electric light will bring mankind a step forward. However, Equality realizes that neither helping mankind nor entering the Home of Scholars is his motivation in discovering electricity. Equality merely uses these objectives as façades behind which to conceal his thirst for knowledge and creativity. The love of his brothers that society has instilled in him does not exist. “We have lied to ourselves,” he writes. “We have not built this box for the good of our brothers.” (85) In the following statement, he even places collectivist ideals below his own self-sufficiency and his newly created light: “[This glass box] is above all our brothers to us, and its truth above their truth.” (85) Equality additionally begins to see the scholars as frauds and calls them all “thrice- damned fools” in his rage after they insist on the destruction of his light. (83) Throughout his trials and setbacks in his experiments and with the Scholars, Equality begins to understand that his intellect and curiosity are not curses—they are the traits he possesses which set him apart and mark him as a kind of god among men. This realization is Equality’s first leap toward self-discovery and independence, and his growing awareness of his personal identity, not his love of mankind, drives him forward as he experiments in secret and faces adversity from his society. Equality’s true motivation is to learn and create independently in order to liberate himself from his brothers. “[T]his wire is a part of our body, as a vein torn from us, glowing with our blood. Are we proud of this thread of metal, or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these two?” (66) Equality takes great pride in both the finished invention and his own skill equally, for the light is now a part of him. In discovering electricity, he has discovered himself, and he realizes that he cannot go back to a communal way of life that pays no regard to his individual identity. “We have torn ourselves from the truth which is our brother men, and there is no road back for us, and no redemption,” he writes. “We know these things, but we do not care.” (85) In daring to create his electric light, Equality has purposefully distanced himself from his brothers, but of his actions he is unashamed and unconcerned. “We made it. We created it. We brought it forth from the night of the ages. We alone. Our hands, our mind. Ours alone and only.” (63)This statement is an expression of pure exhilaration—Equality is reeling from the recognition that for the first time in his life he has autonomously created something purposeful for his own sake and for its own sake. The source of Equality’s joy is the satisfaction of having achieved true independence and liberty from his brothers by learning what has been concealed from them. Equality has found happiness from creating his light. He has unearthed happiness not only through experimenting on his own and finally producing a working model, but through his entire journey. His process of breaking the chains between himself and the

mindless human mass is achieved through distinguishing himself from the others by verifying his genius in the form of his invention. And through the entire series of events, even though Equality has not known it, he has not been driven by a longing to assist his kin, or even a longing to join the ranks of the Scholars. His only motive in experimenting and building has been to attain an identity and to free his soul from the prison of collectivism.