Prometheus In Ayn Rand's Anthem
The Purpose of a True Egoist
In today's world, the word "ego" is looked upon as a negative attribute. If one were to look up "ego" online, a very common definition that they would find is conceit, or self-importance. For some reason, the world has accepted synonyms such as these to mean the same as ego. The term can also be defined as "the 'I' or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought (Dictionary.com)." One can tell by this that egoism is not always a negative trait, and those with that in their personality are not always a bad influence on the direction of the world. This is shown by the character Prometheus in Ayn Rand's novella Anthem, …show more content…
All of this leads to a few discussion points: what specifically defines Prometheus as an egoist, what that means and why it can be a good thing-or even possibly a bad thing-to …show more content…
Though often discouraged in today's society, a little selfish thinking can really promote a lot of growth towards a certain goal in someone's life. With Prometheus, the more that he began to go down into his subway tunnel/lab, the more he began to think for himself and the more he began to discover how things around him in nature worked. He also began to realize how the setup of his society was actually holding back their people from making certain key discoveries that could advance their technological state tremendously. It was almost as if the people living in Prometheus' own home were being controlled by the government, left in a position where they could not advance without some independent thinking (which was, of course, illegal). It was almost as if the people in that area were slaves to the leaders of their city. The speaker of "The Soul of an Individualist" starts to discuss how a person that lives to serve others can be most easily compared to a slave. A slave is someone who lived to do physical work for his master; and someone who believes that every thought in their mind should be of and for others are just the same: slaves to mankind in spirit. Prometheus does not agree with this current setup, and his egoism helps him to begin to see the error of the government's
In today's world, the word "ego" is looked upon as a negative attribute. If one were to look up "ego" online, a very common definition that they would find is conceit, or self-importance. For some reason, the world has accepted synonyms such as these to mean the same as ego. The term can also be defined as "the 'I' or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought (Dictionary.com)." One can tell by this that egoism is not always a negative trait, and those with that in their personality are not always a bad influence on the direction of the world. This is shown by the character Prometheus in Ayn Rand's novella Anthem, …show more content…
All of this leads to a few discussion points: what specifically defines Prometheus as an egoist, what that means and why it can be a good thing-or even possibly a bad thing-to …show more content…
Though often discouraged in today's society, a little selfish thinking can really promote a lot of growth towards a certain goal in someone's life. With Prometheus, the more that he began to go down into his subway tunnel/lab, the more he began to think for himself and the more he began to discover how things around him in nature worked. He also began to realize how the setup of his society was actually holding back their people from making certain key discoveries that could advance their technological state tremendously. It was almost as if the people living in Prometheus' own home were being controlled by the government, left in a position where they could not advance without some independent thinking (which was, of course, illegal). It was almost as if the people in that area were slaves to the leaders of their city. The speaker of "The Soul of an Individualist" starts to discuss how a person that lives to serve others can be most easily compared to a slave. A slave is someone who lived to do physical work for his master; and someone who believes that every thought in their mind should be of and for others are just the same: slaves to mankind in spirit. Prometheus does not agree with this current setup, and his egoism helps him to begin to see the error of the government's