Noles
10-05-2008, 10:45 AM
My final draft, Anthem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(novella)) essay. The prompt was: Why do you think the people in the book (Anthem) have such a short life expectancy. Feel free to comment :)
Anthem
When was the last time you thought about how old you were going to be before you die? How would you react to someone telling you that your average life expectancy was only to about forty years old? Throughout many different parts of the world, life expectancy rates vary. Many countries have an extremely high life expectancy well into the seventies and eighties, while others, such as in Anthem had a society that could barely reach forty-five. In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 the main character, lives in a society that has never had much change. Everyone's life is predetermined for them, and the amount of years they're used to living is nothing to be proud about. There are many different factors that could determine a persons' life expectancy, unfortunately the causes in Anthem were a little extreme.
One of the many reasons is their work, and lack of exercise and free time. Their breaks are limited, and they do nothing but their assigned job all day. The average day for them was like a nightmare; it included getting up, doing their job, eating, and repeating the process all over again. To have a healthy lifestyle you need to do more than just constant work. The only thing close to 'free time' they got was when they were eating, attending social meetings, and watching plays in the city theater. The meals only last about 30 minutes, the social meetings usually just consisted of nothing more than lectures explaining and reminding of city rules, the theater was more like a brainwash machine if anything else. Doing too much of anything will make you ill or overworked, and this is exactly what's happening to the people in Anthem.
The leaders of the city and how it's run is another one of the contributing factors to the astonishing life expectancy. None of the citizens have much freedom at all, if any; they cannot enjoy the freedom of speech, press, assembly, mobility, and religion. Not having any of these things makes everyone almost exactly alike, and this obviously is a factor of their sorrow as well. When you don't have a joy in living life, people tend to not want to. Furthermore, not only were the leaders strict of what they do, they were also old and any change that actually was made took years to accomplish. A prime example; "it took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the Candle, and to decide on the number needed". (Rand, 74)
The personal problems in the citizens' life played the most critical in them dying so early. First of all, people would commit suicide if they could not fit in with everyone else (especially if they figured out what was missing). Execution was also given to the people who found out what the unspeakable word was, and spread it around to others. Finally, men not suited for the job that was given to them usually died in work related accidents. Just like when the Council gave Equality his job; "this was the only thing that moved, for the lips of the oldest did not move when they said Street Sweeper". (Rand, 26) What if Equality wasn't as smart as he was? If he was dumb like the rest of them he could of easily injured himself with the machinery used for the cleaning.
In conclusion, you can see easily now why the life span was so short. From corrupt leaders, to simple things such as work-related accidents. Their society in general really took a toll on how well they lived their life, and how long it was they lived it.
Anthem
When was the last time you thought about how old you were going to be before you die? How would you react to someone telling you that your average life expectancy was only to about forty years old? Throughout many different parts of the world, life expectancy rates vary. Many countries have an extremely high life expectancy well into the seventies and eighties, while others, such as in Anthem had a society that could barely reach forty-five. In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 the main character, lives in a society that has never had much change. Everyone's life is predetermined for them, and the amount of years they're used to living is nothing to be proud about. There are many different factors that could determine a persons' life expectancy, unfortunately the causes in Anthem were a little extreme.
One of the many reasons is their work, and lack of exercise and free time. Their breaks are limited, and they do nothing but their assigned job all day. The average day for them was like a nightmare; it included getting up, doing their job, eating, and repeating the process all over again. To have a healthy lifestyle you need to do more than just constant work. The only thing close to 'free time' they got was when they were eating, attending social meetings, and watching plays in the city theater. The meals only last about 30 minutes, the social meetings usually just consisted of nothing more than lectures explaining and reminding of city rules, the theater was more like a brainwash machine if anything else. Doing too much of anything will make you ill or overworked, and this is exactly what's happening to the people in Anthem.
The leaders of the city and how it's run is another one of the contributing factors to the astonishing life expectancy. None of the citizens have much freedom at all, if any; they cannot enjoy the freedom of speech, press, assembly, mobility, and religion. Not having any of these things makes everyone almost exactly alike, and this obviously is a factor of their sorrow as well. When you don't have a joy in living life, people tend to not want to. Furthermore, not only were the leaders strict of what they do, they were also old and any change that actually was made took years to accomplish. A prime example; "it took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the Candle, and to decide on the number needed". (Rand, 74)
The personal problems in the citizens' life played the most critical in them dying so early. First of all, people would commit suicide if they could not fit in with everyone else (especially if they figured out what was missing). Execution was also given to the people who found out what the unspeakable word was, and spread it around to others. Finally, men not suited for the job that was given to them usually died in work related accidents. Just like when the Council gave Equality his job; "this was the only thing that moved, for the lips of the oldest did not move when they said Street Sweeper". (Rand, 26) What if Equality wasn't as smart as he was? If he was dumb like the rest of them he could of easily injured himself with the machinery used for the cleaning.
In conclusion, you can see easily now why the life span was so short. From corrupt leaders, to simple things such as work-related accidents. Their society in general really took a toll on how well they lived their life, and how long it was they lived it.