The Giver/ Anthem essay

A world with no worries, no pain, no choices, little emotion, no color, and no war, sounds pretty good don’t you think? A world that is perfect. Where everything and everyone is equal and everyone has a assignment in the community and does it. That is the world Jonas lived in from the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. The community Jonas lives in strives for equality and perfection. Another book called Anthem by Ayn Rand is also about people striving for perfection and equality. Individuals are anonymous, they have no identity, no name, no independence, and no values. The book takes place in the future that went back to the ways of the dark ages. They also are assigned jobs in the community and everything they do is for mankind never for himself. Humans strive for equality and perfection even though nature shows we are not meant to be the same or perfect.

In the Giver they grow up being taught that they are all equal and they all have the same privileges but if someone is even a little different they can't point it out. “Always better less rude, to talk about things that are the same.” (Lowry 38). They can’t even talk about their differences because it’s a bad thing to be different in their community. If you break the rules more than two times they release you which is to say they kill you in a nice way and in a way that nobody else understands. So if they are too different they will also be released. The Anthem is a little different they are taught that everything is for mankind. “What is not done collectively cannot be good,” (Rand 73). They don't even know the words “I” or “mine”. They would get in trouble for asking too many questions and you couldn’t be smarter than anyone else. “What is not thought of all men cannot be true.” (Rand 73) Everyone has to believe in the same thing or they can’t move forward in their world. It took them over fifty years to accept the candle because not all men would agree. Those staying in the dark ages are helping the committee stay in charge of them.

In both books they have a committee or a council which is basically the leaders of the community but the community cannot be equal if there are people that are above everybody else. The leaders have power over everyone. They are the ones that assign the jobs and keep the people in order. You get your job, you go to the training, then you do your job or you face the punishments. They say that their worlds are perfect and they teach that they are equal but maybe they just say that to make them think that so they can stay in charge.

We as people aren’t meant to be the same that is why we have our freedoms and rights. We have the opportunity to learn to grow to change to improve to be the best we can. If we have a job we don’t like we can get a new one. If we live in a place we don’t like we can move. If we want more education we can go back to school. When we are satisfied with things as they are we can allow things to remain the same. In these books they took that away from the people. Once Jonas finds out what everyone is missing out on he escapes and puts his life on the line to give them what they never had. Equality is not so perfect if it prevents anyone from being any better than the worst of us. Knowing this Jonas runs away from the life of equality. It is the same in the other book, once he creates better technology and they won't accept it he runs away and finds out more. Once he finds out all that he is missing he wants to go back to help those that are still held back and in the dark.

In writing these books the authors did an excellent job showing that we are not meant to be treated equal. By writing books where everyone is made to be equal and treated equal a reader can see what a bad idea it would be to take equality to that extreme. We are not the same so we should not be treated the same. We aren’t the same physically, mentally, emotionally, or socially. So we should not be treated as a group but be treated as an individual. Clearly the books show how bad it is to treat different people the same or try to make them the same. Though the books did not go to this extreme it would clearly be wrong to not treat someone who had a disease because that would be giving them special treatment or because you had to treat them for the disease you have to treat everyone for the disease even though not everyone has the disease. When you think about it and look at it you can see why the authors wrote these books. I doubt anyone can read either of these books and come to the conclusion that equality means making everyone the same. By writing these books the authors have guided us to think about equality and what it really means.

In conclusion, we strive for equality and perfection even though nature shows we are not meant to be and never will be the same or perfect. Even if we are taught to be the same or treated the same we will never be the same. We are individuals our own person not a group so we should be treated as an individual. We are equal in some ways we have equal freedoms and rights but we are not the same person and we are definitely not perfect. We can make our own decisions and learn from our mistakes and that is what makes us who we are.

Works Cited

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1993. Print.

Rand, Ayn. Anthem.Student Edition. New York: Penguin Group, 1961. Print.