Sunday, October 12, 2014

Illustrious Artist- Round 1- Mari H.

Anthem by Ayn Rand
Part 1 & 2
Illustrious Artist
Mariana Hopp

      I chose this image because I think it represents really well the way the narrator talks about himself. The way he refers to himself is always as the following: we, us, our, etc. This caught my attention because it is unusual to have someone talk about themselves in plural. From what I've heard, and also noticed in the book, the society is influenced to call themselves by the plural and to think that there isn't any individual self, and that they are all the same person.
      I feel like this image represents that because one person is said to be more than itself, the whole community, but actually at the end it is all just one single individual. The men at the bottom represent the way they call themselves as a plural, but then we see the hand at the top and the way everyone has their hands up in the air joining together into just that one hand.

image link

7 comments:

  1. Hi Mari,

    I agree with what you said in your post. It is indeed strange to read a book in which the narrator refers to himself as 'we', however I believe that you're missing a very important concept in your post, that one being that Equality 7-2125 is currently living in a dystopian socialist society. Socialism is a form of government where everything belongs to anyone, basically, thus why everyone lives in the same place and works to provide resources to the society. Those that are somewhat superior to the others when you talk about physical traits, receive harder jobs that demand more of them, like we see in Equality 7-2521's situation.

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  2. Dear Mari,
    I really liked this image, because it shows in a symbolic way what the book talks about. I found it very curious how apparently the people that live in the society not only use individualism, but they don't know about it. They believe that they should all be the same, and one cant know more than the other one, because it is considered illegal and wrong. This makes me realizing how the two ideas of difference vs. sameness are so balanced. Being different is good because people can live how we do today, but it can cause terrible things. It is the difference of people who have caused things such as wars, where someone doesn't agree with how the others are, or events like the slavery and The Spanish Expulsion. These terrible events were caused by how people couldn't accept what others were like, or what they believed. In my opinion, that is why sameness can be argued to be such a good idea. What are your thoughts on this?
    Thanks,
    Lucas T.

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  4. Mari, I think your picture represents that really well! It also caught my attention too, that they were using that kind of language. It made me think, what if I was in their situation? Would I like it or not? Honestly, I think I would hate talking in that kind of way. But if I didn't know better, it probably wouldn't bother me. What if we all talked in that kind of way? Or lived in a society similar to the one in Anthem. How do you think you would feel?

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    Replies
    1. Lexi,

      Thank you for your comment. I feel like you questions were great because they really helped me push my thinking forward into putting myself into their shoes. I agree with you. I would not like it at all to talk that way, but that is only if I had all the knowledge I have today. Otherwise, I wouldn't think that there was really a different word I could use to describe myself. If we lived in a society like the one in Anthem, would not appreciate it because I would feel limited, and held back. I wouldn't be able to do things we normally would do here, now. The lifestyle would be totally at odds to what we experience now. Drastically, our lives would change.

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  5. Mari,

    Interesting image... Something I noticed about your post is how you center more on what the image is symbolizing. I'm not sure why, but I can relate "don't judge a book by its cover" quote with how you can understand an image. Now, I understand how you thought the picture said that there is no "I" and always a "we". The author (*she*), gave the message of how she strongly thought that all men should act like one. However, I see this image as a symbol of battleship and union. Something about just men being there gave me an idea of war. I saw how some men had weapons and if they all stick together, they would live their glory. In my opinion, the giant fist represented how all men would win if they acted like one. Moreover, the idea of all men touching the fist showed how they *were* all the fist.

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  6. Hey Mari, I love your image. It completely goes with the book since in the book it says how you can't even think about someone in specific and that all of us are all unite. I can see this in that since all the men are working together to form one hand itself. I also love the way this symbolizes work and it shows exactly what the book is trying to say, you need everyone to work in different things to work together. This can be seen in the book because every job needs another job branch to work. For example, Leaders cannot work without other people, because if not, who would they lead?

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