Trapped in a cage, helpless forever, and never exploring out of its boundaries. Getting up each day knowing you must obey all laws that seemed so unfair. Equality and Liberty the two main characters in the book Anthem, go through turmoil because their path chosen by others was not what they had hoped to do. (Not allowed to explore who they really are is a sin for it is thinking of “I” and not your brothers.) The book Anthem is similar to the Adam and Eve story in the beginning of the bible. God told them what they could do and what they could not. In Anthem Ayn Rand writes about the disobedience of two young people that strive for freedom that resembles the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.
Equality and Eve are the first to become curious about the way of the so called “sin." Their curiosity leads them into much trouble with the laws that their rulers set upon them. Equality’s curiosity takes him into a tunnel left from the Unmentionable Times. Equality immediately becomes infatuated with the missing pieces of their collective Society.
‘Unmentionable times.’ But our hand which followed
the track, as we crawled, clung to the iron as if it
would not leave, as if the skin of our hand were thirsty
and begging of the metal some secret fluid beating in
it’s coldness. (Rand 33)
This story compared to Eve’s is very similar. Eve instantly becomes curious of the forbidden fruit when Adam told her what God said about it. “But you must not eat from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil for when you eat it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Her curiosities lead her over to the tree one day to look at the tree. While looking at the tree of Good and Evil, a strange serpent started to talk to her about the tree that barred bad fruit. She had never seen the creature in the forest before. The serpent tricked the girl into eating the luscious fruit. The serpent told Eve that if she was to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree it would give her power like God. Eve, being so gullible, took and ate from the forbidden tree. She than told Adam of the news and he also ate from the Tree of Good and Evil.
Adam, Eve, Equality, and Liberty all created sin that was against their lifestyles. (From the cold metal track that urged Equality to go on, to the deceiving serpent that told Eve a lie.) “We have committed a greater crime, and for this there is no name. ...for no such crime has come in the memory of men...” (p.1)
These four also had different reasons for committing their transgression. Adam and Eve's intentions for eating the fruit were not to be sinful or to hurt God. The deceiving from the serpent, Adam and Eve ate the fruit not knowing what was happening. Adam and Eve were just acting like normal human beings when they ate the apple. Every person is going to make mistakes and surely God knew that person was not perfect. In contrast Equality and Liberty were trying to find what was missing from their society. Equality strove to find the one word that was deep inside him hiding. “The words of the evil ones... The words of the Unmentionable Times... What are the words which we have lost.” (p.36)? His striving ends when Equality finds and reads from the old manuscripts from the Unmentionable Times.
Adam and Eve, Equality and Liberty all have disobeyed laws of the world they were living in resulting the punishment which they knew was soon to come. Because of Equality’s frustration of the stubborn people in his world, he ran into the Uncharted Forest knowing if he did not it could cost him his life.
It mattered not where we went we knew
that men would not follow us, for they
never enter the uncharted forest. (Rand 76)
Liberty who too sinned by falling in love with a man followed him into the dark and thick forest. Their escape came to an end when they saw an awkward house left from the Unmentionable Times. Their punishment was not as harsh as Adam and Eve’s because Equality and Liberty liked it there and did not have any body telling them were to go. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden which was their source of food. They could relax and play with the animals and eat the fruit from the many trees of their land. When they were kicked out they had to find their food and find their shelter.
Their sins lead to something important to all of their lives. Equality and Liberty found the missing pieces in their collective society. Adam and Eve learned that they should not test their God by disobeying the laws that he set. Although Adam and Eve were kicked out they finally learned to survive and provide themselves with their own needs. The best came to all four of these young individuals, and they would grow up to become stronger people. Stronger people in their own new society which they had strove to find.
Rand was a Russian born American author who pioneered the philosophy of objectivism. Anthem is a futuristic science fiction novella. Man is in a dark ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Rand was a Russian born American author who pioneered the philosophy of objectivism. Anthem is a futuristic science fiction novella. Man is in a dark ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.