Saturday, February 7, 2015

Risk Taking Researcher - Jorge Ribeiro

Jorge Ribeiro

Risk Taking Researcher

Anthem

Ayn Rand

Part 1 and 2



As I read this diverse book, I started to question its theme and plot, I found it kind of interesting and at the same time confusing for many reasons, but to first talk about what is confusing, there is first need to understand the plot. Due to this, I researched on the book, and it stated that Anthem is a dystopian fiction, where it takes place on some unspecified future date, where mankind entered another dark age, and so therefore the concept of individuality has been eliminated. As I read this first part I kind of understood why the characters refer to themselves as we. It is weird that instead of saying I, the characters of the book say we. This may be connected to the removal of individuality, because they don't refer to themselves as individuals, but yes as groups. Also these pronouns used can be referred to the person itself and others, since they are no longer individuals.




Know that we know about why the characters in Anthem use pronouns when they talk about themselves, lets move on to the name. The main character of the book Anthem is Equality 7-2521. After searching on her name, my theory was incorrect, what I thought is that each name was a faction, which for example is Equality, and therefore the number would be their sort of id. But I was wrong, because after a quick research, Equality 7-2521 has unique characteristics. The name relates back to the idea of not being a individual, because what it seems, is that society thinks that only your name makes you unique, which means that instead of having a common name like John, they have a name like Union 5-3992 or International 4-8818, which makes them a non unique person taht is not allowed to follow his or her's own path, like Equality's leaders don't want anyone to stand out, the leaders want equality, and all the same.







After doing more research, I couldn't find the answer to the one question that still pertained, which clearly is demonstrated on the image above, I could not find if the characters were all the same physically, because if they were physically all the same, then there would be many more topics to talk about.



"Anthem (novella)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_%28novella%29>.


"In Anthem, What Are Some of Equality 7-2521's Characteristics (with Examples)? - Homework Help - ENotes.com." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2015. <http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-some-characteristics-equality-7-2521-there-84435>.


4 comments:

  1. Jorge,
    Great post! Your research really helped me have some deeper information on the book and it will definitely help me later. I understand that the names given are to make the people feel as a group, maybe it's kind of like a team's name. There's different ones, like equality and internationals among with others. As you said, it's a way to make others feel included. About your last question, I don't think it would be possible for everyone to be the same, for example, there's a girl he has a crush on and if they were all the same, he wouldn't be able to recognize her. Why do you think happened to the world for it to end up so strict and closed-minded?
    Great Post,
    Martu

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jorge,

    Good post. You analyzed and researched about the book really well.

    In the beginning, you state that the book is a dystopian place based on the research that you made. But my question is, do you think it is a dystopian world or an utopian world? The reason I ask this is because everyone can see things differently, and the book has some events that can be used to consider the book an utopian place. In the book, the authorities wants to remove anything that causes harm. Right off the bat, this is actually something from an utopian place, since people want to remove what is bad. Furthermore, the authorities thought that this would be a good idea, as it would make everyone be treated equally, showing another piece of evidence that this book is an utopian society. Now, there are still some big flaws about this theory. The flaw is that the authorities are only thinking of an utopian city for themselves and their imagination, and not the imagination of other people, making it a dystopian place, but an utopian place for the authorities.

    Still, I continue to ask if you still think the book is a dystopia as there are some parts that show it is an utopia. But, like any other person, everyone sees the book differently, and I wanted to see what you thought this book was about before researching.

    Daniel

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jorge i agree with you. I also think that the people in this distopia are manipulated into shunning all their emotions. I also thought this book was such a doozy because of all the people say we instead of I it sounds like smeagol tried to write a book. Going forward the book also presents a topic of population and in this distopia they freely burn people at the stake even if they do the slightest thing wrong, This leading to a conclusion that they at least need to have an average sized group if they want to be able to do death penalties.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jorge i agree with you. I also think that the people in this distopia are manipulated into shunning all their emotions. I also thought this book was such a doozy because of all the people say we instead of I it sounds like smeagol tried to write a book. Going forward the book also presents a topic of population and in this distopia they freely burn people at the stake even if they do the slightest thing wrong, This leading to a conclusion that they at least need to have an average sized group if they want to be able to do death penalties.

    ReplyDelete