To kill a mocking bird
...person can make it to adult hood and still have some doubts about the society, the conditioning dose not stop. When Equality ventures off on his own and returns late he is questioned. When asked where he was, he refuses to tell and is imeadtly taken and whipped until he answers. When he still refuses he is put in a cell. This conditioning makes is that people never doubt their society, and why would they. They see what happens to people that do. When someone speaks “The forbidden word”, “ego” they are put to death in front of a crowd. Nobody would think of questioning the ways of their government. There is absolutely no free choice in anthem. Through the life of a person in Anthem’s society, they make almost no choices. Everything they do is planned for them. They always have to wear the same thing everyday. There are no other clothes they could wear if they wanted to. How much schooling they get is also out of their hands. A council chooses whether they are to work or study further. If they are to work, a person cannot even choose their job, a council does that as well. Equality was given the job of street sweeper. Equality had every minute of his day mapped out for him. He would go one place for a couple hours, go to lunch, go somewhere else, go to another place, then another and finally go to bed, only to repeat it again the next day. He could not socialize with others unless they were fellow street sweepers. All people lived the same way. On one day each year people were chosen to go somewhere and they would be given a partner to have sex with for the soul sake of reproduction. They did not get to choose their partners or even choose to go. They had to do everything whenever they were told. There was no free choice of any kind. The egalitarian government in Anthem is to blame for the society being so far behind technologically. In the book people are assigned jobs randomly to supposedly keep the society equal. But assigning people jobs randomly makes it so they cannot use their gifts. Equality, the main character, was of only mediocre intelligence but managed to discover more things in 2 weeks than years of scientists had. When the ‘scientists’ were discovering candles, Equality was discovering electricity. Had the government let people study any field, instead of assigning them jobs, the society would be far more advanced. People gifted in science probably would not go into that field, but instead do some kind of physical labor. The citizens are also very afraid of the unknown which holds back technology aswell. The people are too scared to venture into the forest that surrounds their city. Being scared of the unknown, people are very reluctant to accept new things, even something like electricity. When Equality shows the scholars electricity they are scared, they don’t accept it. This invention that could revolutionize their society, they don’t except because it was made by one man, ‘away from his brothers.’ People are not born this way, the society conditions them. People are stripped of their freedom in Anthem through mental and physical conditioning. From the day they are born the people in the book are taught that individuality is wrong and that true equality is right. They are put into uniforms to show them that they are no different than anyone else. Children can watch as people that are physically different, tall, short, fat, thin, are teased and called “evil” because of it. And if somehow a person can make it to adult hood and still have some doubts about the society, the conditioning dose not stop. When Equality ventures off on his own and returns late he is questioned. When asked where he was, he refuses to tell and is imeadtly taken and whipped until he answers. When he still refuses he is put in a cell. This conditioning makes is that people never doubt their society, and why would they. They see what happens to people that do. When someone speaks “The forbidden word”, “ego” they are put to death in front of a crowd. Nobody would think of questioning the ways of their government. There is absolutely no free choice in anthem. Through the life of a person in Anthem’s society, they make almost no choices. Everything they do is planned for them. They always have to wear the same thing everyday. There are no other clothes they could wear if they wanted to. How much schooling they get is also out of their hands. A council chooses whether they are to work or study further. If they are to work, a person cannot even choose their job, a council does that as well. Equality was given the job of street sweeper. Equality had every minute of his day mapped out for him. He would go one place for a couple hours, go to lunch, go somewhere else, go to another place, then another and finally go to bed, only to repeat it again the next day. He could not socialize with others unless they were fellow street sweepers. All people lived the same way. On one day each year people were chosen to go somewhere and they would be given a partner to have sex with for the soul sake of reproduction. They did not get to choose their partners or even choose to go. They had to do everything whenever they were told. There was no free choice of any kind. The egalitarian government in Anthem is to blame for the society being so far behind technologically. In the book people are assigned jobs randomly to supposedly keep the society equal. But assigning people jobs randomly makes it so they cannot use their gifts. Equality, the main character, was of only mediocre intelligence but managed to discover more things in 2 weeks than years of scientists had. When the ‘scientists’ were discovering candles, Equality was discovering electricity. Had the government let people study any field, instead of assigning them jobs, ...