Anthem 2

Chapter Two (Question Two) American Society today and the society in Anthem are very different and so are the things they value. One thing that the council in Anthem values is fear. The council stays in power because most of the citizens fear what will happen if they don’t follow the rules. What makes Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 different is that they both value freedom or not having fear. Equality 7-2521 says of Liberty 5-3000, “Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.” (39). Equality 7-2521 says about the rest of society, “There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the air of the streets. Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and none dare to speak it.” (46). Equality 7-2521 talks to Liberty 5-3000 and she says, “Your eyes,” they said, “are not like the eyes of any among men.” (44). I think that Liberty sees that Equality 7-2521 fears nothing like and she likes him for that. This is the same reason why Equality 7-2521 likes her. Another thing that the society in Anthem values is collaboration. Everyone lives for their brothers, and that is the purpose of their life. The entire society allows the council to decide how their lives will be spent. The society runs smoothly as long as each person takes their assigned job without complaining. If the citizens in Anthem objected to the occupation chosen for them then the society would fall apart. People would refuse to work. Everyone would do things that they enjoyed but were not productive for the City and the Council. There is no room for freedom in the Anthem society. I think that the unspeakable word is “me” because nobody ever talks about themselves. They must refer to themselves as “we” to prevent the idea of individualism. They also do not have names, preventing people from having individual identities. Their names also are things that the council wants them to do or be, such as