Anthem by Ayn Rand

1124 Words5 Pages
The leaders in the collectivist society have not only enslaved the brotherhood’s bodies to take full control, but have also destroyed their minds to an indescribable extent. In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, the dystopian government has clearly brainwashed the society. To create the destruction of the minds of its people, the over-ruling government has designed a schedule for every person which they must follow for the rest of their lives. When born, members of the society go to the Home of the Infants. After the age of five, they go to the Home of the Students. At age fifteen, they are prescribed a life job by the Council of Vocations. At the age of forty, they are sent to the Home of the Useless and are expected to die. If they reach the age of forty-five, they are sent to the Home of Ancient Useless. Age is claimed as the correct way to die. Leaders have established a set of rules which every brother is forced to abide by; if disobeyed, they are called transgressors of preference. They must then serve their assigned time in the Palace of Corrective Detention. Among the rules includes is that it is a sin to write or think alone. Equality informs the audience in the very beginning of the story, “it is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down on a paper no others are to see. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone (Rand 17). Members of the society are deprived of their freedom of speech. They must write and think together because they exist only as a brotherhood, not as individuals. Additionally, they cannot wish to be assigned a job other than the one that has been decided by the Council of Vocations. The teachers in the Home of Students warned, “ ‘dare not choose in your minds the work you would like to do when you leave the Home of the Students. You shall do that which the
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