Adam Nelson

5 Windsor Road

adamjnelson1@yahoo.com

Bow High School, 32 White Rock Road

“Equality comes to the sudden realization that ‘To be free, you must be free of your brothers’ Explain what Equality means by this, citing examples from Anthem.”

Grade 9

Mrs. Aubin & Mrs. Joy

Adam Nelson
Mrs. Aubin and Ms. Joy
Humanities, Period #1&2
December 6, 2012
Anthem
In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality comes to the sudden realization that to be free, you must be free of your brothers it is an important action. This is good because he can finally be his individual self. It is also good in another way because maybe other members of his society will think like he does. It is very important that Equality realizes that he must be free of his brothers to be free. Equality finds out that being free means you have to be by yourself and you have should be by yourself in life if you want to be free. An example of this from the book Anthem, is on pages 93-94 when he is alone and this solution all comes to him. He says “My hands…My spirit…My sky…My forest…This Earth is mine.” During that sort of enlightenment he stops thinking of everyone else in his unknown dystopia and starts to think like he should and thinks about the things in his life concerning him. On page 96 Equality says, “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them.” This is significant because he understands that they do not act as a team anymore as he breaks free to be successful. Finally on page 101, Equality states to himself, “And I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time.” This is also significant because he is not looking back after this and he is becoming his own man. Before he never even said the word “I” because it was banned in his society, but although all of these ideas are pouring onto him at once be disregards what anybody else says and listens to himself and trusts his own instincts. This also shows why Equality is so much stronger than all of the other people in the system. He is the first to question why things are like the way they are. He and everyone else around him is a shining individual and they are all stuck there having to put up with