Directions: Please read and review part I, pages 18-37. Next, compose a blog response using at least one of the questions below as a guide and 2-3 direct quotations in your response. Remember to read each other’s comments and have a discussion. I look forward to your responses.
- Explain the book's title and why Ayn Rand chose it.
- What were Ayn Rand's "villains"? Explain.
- In what is Equality writing? (i.e., what format is he writing?)
- What is Equality's curse?
- What is ironic about the Social Meeting?
- Why are friends forbidden?
- Describe the government and institutions where Equality lives.
Suhani Karki
ReplyDelete9/28/18
In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, friends are forbidden. Friends are banned because it is the Transgression of Preference. In the book Anthem, it is taught to kids that it is a high crime to love anybody better than others because everyone has to love everyone equally. “The great Transgression of Preference, to love any among men better than others, since we must love all men and all men are our friends…(pg. 30)” Equality knows that he should not prefer one over another, but he still feels that way: "But we know. We know, when we look into each other's eyes...(Pg. 30)
Equalities curse is that he over thinks. In the Home of the Students, it is a transgression to be curious. “We know not why our curse makes us seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it…(pg. 24)” Equality frequently overthought, that he got lashed for being too curious. Since Equality was very curious, Learning for him was too easy while he was in the Home of the Students. "This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick...(pg. 23)"
Yasmiin Ali
DeleteI choose to write about Equality's curse as well. He over thinks a lot about situations which is a sin in that society.
Yasmiin Ali
ReplyDeleteEquality curse is that he thinks too much. In the Home of the Students, your not allowed to be curious or have thoughts. “ We were born with a curse. It has always driven to us to thoughts which are forbidden,”(page 18). Equality always over thinks about things. When he gets his job from the council that he is a “Street Sweeper” he realizes that he was caught thinking/ having thoughts. “We knew we have been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it,”(page 26).
Suhani Karki
DeleteYes Yasmiin I think you point out an excellent point! I love how you added when Equality got his job from the council. I didn't see that point of view of the "Street Sweeper" until you pointed it out! Great connection!
Celia Hoffman
ReplyDeleteEquality's curse is being too intelligent. When Equality was in school, he was smarter than all of his classmates and he tells us "This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick." He was always dumbing himself down to be less different than his classmates, "We looked up to Union 5-3992". The Teachers also started to notice his intelligence and forbade his questions. The Council suppressed Equality by making him a street sweeper because I think they knew he was to intelligent and would start asking questions they didn’t want asked.
Dowol Lee-
ReplyDeleteEquality's curse is being too smart for his time. Equality is more knowledgable than his classmates. In this world, it is a sin to be smarter than anyone else. "This is a great sin, to be born with a head, which is too quick" they didn't want someone smarter than anyone else. They want to stay conformed
Anthony Dimuzio
ReplyDeleteFriends are forbidden in the book anthem because it is a crime to like somebody more than others. This is not allowed because if you have friends you will like them more than other people and you will talk to your friends and not others and that is not being equal to everybody.
Michael DiCenzo
ReplyDeleteIn the book "Anthem" by Ayn Rand I think the villains in the book are the government because they control everything like there dictators. they control what people do, like they cant be alone because you can have thoughts when your alone and they also control what you do.
Jacob Moore
DeleteI would have to agree that the government is the villain because they control everyone and everything.
Griffin Littlewood
ReplyDeleteEquality's curse is that he is smarter than his brothers you see this throughout the part of the book we have read.''We are one in all and all in one''. This here represents how it is unacceptable to be better than others.''Old Ones who whisper about it in the evenings, stay in the home of the useless''. This quote explains how they treated their seniors and how they thought of them as useless.
Friends are forbidden because they would bring out emotion. In this place they do not like emotion because it makes it so that they do not have power over you. If they don't have power the place cannot run and will fail.
ReplyDeleteNick Entner
DeleteI agree because if you had friends and family you could be maybe revolt against the government
DeleteShruthi Saravanan
ReplyDeleteEquality’s curse is his difference from others. “It is not good to be different from our brothers (21)”. He is not the same as his brothers in the eyes of the people there and due to the main aspect in this place is similarity this difference is seen as a curse that has been put on the boy. “Equality 7-2521, we alone who were born with a curse (20)”. One of his differences was his extended amount of intelligence even if he tried to be like his brothers he still ended up being smarter. Though the Teachers didn’t like this at all, them and many others such as Leaders didn’t like how Equality 7-2521 physical features were even more. He was 6 feet tall which was taller and more different compared to his brothers who were shorter, though in this case, they could not even try to change him because this was his bones and body itself doing this. This was another reason they referenced this as Equality 7-2521 having a curse because some of the outcomes that the “curse” caused couldn’t be changed by anyone, they were permanent.
Jacob Moore
ReplyDeleteIn the book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, I think the character Equalitys curse is that he is too smart. The people didnt like him because he learned too quickly ‘’this is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick’’pg21. Because Equality is smarter than everyone in his class, he tries to fit in by copying a less intelligent person ‘’I looked upon union 5-3992, who was a pale boy with only half a brain. pg21
Xingyun Pan
ReplyDelete“We are all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE. One, indivisible and forever.”(p.19) The whole book is using the second person (we and you). This is the Equality writing because it is writing in we instead of I, he or she.
“We must love all men and all men are our friends.”(p30) Friends are forbidden because you can’t love anyone more than the others. That is a sin. People must give the same amount of love to everyone.
Dylan Brenner
ReplyDeleteIn the book “Anthem” Equality’s curse is that he is too smart. Equality learned extremely quickly, “It was that the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick” (21). This explains, that it was a sin to be smarter than someone, they wanted everyone to be equal, they didn’t want anyone to stand out. Equality was so smart that he had to try to not understand what the teacher was teaching, “We tried to forget our lessons, but we always remembered. We tried to not understand what the teachers taught, but we always understood it before the teachers had spoken” (21).
Evan Lin
ReplyDeleteIn Anthem, Equality is writing in the first person. While reflecting on his time in the Home of the Students, Equality wrote that "we, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those years in the Home of the Students."(21) When talking about his job, he says that "we Street Sweepers work in brigades of three"(29). In the second quote, Equality uses the pronoun "we" the way it was intended to be used, while in the first quote he uses "we" even though he is the only noun in the sentence.
Sean Curtis
ReplyDeleteEqualities curse is that he is to smart and it is making people suspicious. In this world they wanted everyone to be equal and a rule was you could not be smarter than other people. this doesn't work out for Equality because he is smarter than everyone and tries to keep forgetting so he wont get in trouble. We tried to forget our lessons, but we always remembered. We tried to not understand what the teachers taught, but we always understood it before the teachers had spoken” (21). his line showed how he tried to not understand what his teachers taught but always understood before it was spoken.
Olivia Dionisio
ReplyDeleteI chose the question, "Why are friends forbidden?". Friends are forbidden because in this community everyone needs to be equal. Having friends or best friends would not be acceptable because that means you are liking one more person over another which isn't equal.
Luke Newton
ReplyDeleteWhat is ironic about the social meeting is that it's not very social. In social meetings people are supposed to talk and no one spoke to each other. In social meetings you are also supposed to have fun and no one was having fun.
Hanna Saad
ReplyDeleteThe part I were Equality lives. He lives in places similar to orphanages describe in movies. They have barely any free time and they can not communicate together. The government id basically follow the laws and don't do anything illegal.
Jillian Boyer
ReplyDeleteI think that Ayn Rand called this book Anthem to be ironic, and to be sarcastic. Anthem means a joyous celebration of community, and the story shows the exact opposite of that. The villains in her story were from the reader’s perspective, the government, but from Equality's perspective his own intelligence. Equality is writing from 1st person, but it appears he is writing from 2nd person because he believes he is the same entity as everyone else, so he says we and us. Equality's curse is being more intelligent than the others, which will probably become his strength later on in the story.
Myalee R.
ReplyDeleteEquality's curse is that he's more human then everyone else. He has his own thoughts, he's smart, he desires things. In the world that he lives in, it's basically a curse to be human.
Xingyun Pan
ReplyDeleteI think the designer DNA is an amazing technology that human controlled. It has a lot of benefits, but there will be also a lots of problems if we started to use this extensively. In my opinions, the benefits of Designer DNA isn’t worth the risks. With the development of science and technology, robots started replace some jobs for humans. If everyone is using the Designer DNA in the future, what’s the difference between us and robots?
My first impression of “Anthem” is the world inside there is lifeless, just like a world of robots. The government is the main control center,. They tried to control their people by making people “equal” to each other.