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Equality In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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In the beginning of the book, Equality is in a tunnel writing,“It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air….We are alone here under the earth”(17). The author uses the words “dark”, “still” and “alone” to establish a serious tone. We can infer that Equality is scared by the way he is hiding in the dark alone. The flame of the candle stands small and still, rather than being bright and lively. The flame helps embody the sense of fear. The stillness helps set the scene, right now Equality is tense and scared that someone might come down, catch him, and punish him. We know this because he also says “What punishment awaits us if it were to be discovered we know not...”(17). Despite the picture painted of him throughout the …show more content…
“But we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to three years in the palace of Corrective Detention”(19). In this quote we can see how strict the government is by the word never. Never is used to show that the government absolutely banned any activity referencing the “times.” The government takes this so seriously that they built a specific center for crimes related to this topic. The citizens are sent to a place for corrective detention for 3 years if they talk of that time period.The government publicizes the punishment as a way to keep people in order. A punishment of 3 years not only prevents the people from prying, it also scares them into not sharing or coming up with more ideas. The person who went to this jail, has now been instilled with fear. Going back to the Quote, “times” holds importance as well because it reveals that the past doesn't even have a name, no name makes it harder to talk about and leaves no room for unwanted questions. A name causes people to get curious and ask questions, it encourages people to think. So to bury the past, the government refrained from giving it a name. All in all, government fixes their own fear by placing fear in

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