Tuesday, November 15, 2016
"Anthem" And Self A Fishbowl Reflection?
Based upon our hybrid Fishbowl discussion concerning Anthem, what
are you thinking now? Did your peers raise any issues that are
important? What is essential regarding the novel? Please respond during
and after the fishbowl discussion when it occurs. Due by Wed., Nov. 16th
at 2:30p.m.
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18 comments:
During the fishbowl activity they brought up the idea that the main idea of the book is freeing the mind which I hadn’t really thought about during this reading. It made me think about how tough their society is and how they don’t get a chance to relax or, free their minds. Another thing that was brought up that I found interesting was that the human race will always try and better themselves. Even will rules or boundaries in place there will always be someone will try and better their society. This made me think about how no matter how far we go in life there will always be more room to grow or improve upon yourself.
I thought it was interesting how they talked about how they compared their society to our society. In their society creativity and individualism is frowned upon and even punishable, while today it is encouraged. A lot of things have changed, so the ideas of the text would change because there are different influences (such as a recent political election). If the text happened today, they rulers would have a hard time keeping everyone under control, with new technology and everyone is connected with one another. No matter what the circumstances are or amount of barriers broken, people will always find each other and improve on themselves and society.
During the discussion they talked about freeing the minds, I never really thought about it this way because I always thought about just getting freedom. I never thought about how their minds could still be enslaved even if their bodies were free. They also brought up the thought how maybe he was not just brave but it stead just rebellious, I never also never thought about this I always just thought about Equality being brave. When they talked about the human race, they brought up how love will always find away. I never looked at this theme because I always thought about freedom and it does make sense because no matter what Liberty and Equality find each other in the end. Even if it was forbidden before.
They said a few things that really got me thinking, like "the names could be different, and the plot could be different." If Ayn Rand was born somewhere other than Russia, she would have had a completely different plot, because she seems to be writing about her own story of escaping Russia into the free world. Or "We'll always find new things." this made me think of the martian, progress is inevitable, but every new beginning comes form some other beginnings end. Like when people moved to the new world of mars, the old world was destroyed.
Based on Anthem and the fish blow, I am thinking that compared to our society and in Anthem the society is very unwilling to be them selves.The author could have made new discoveries in the story. The example of the human race in the book is Equality because of the fact of trying progress and move beyond the situation the society, also his attempts to share the new discoveries with other people. His goals where to make things better, also to let other people discover who they are. In the book it showed it was not good to show who are really are and wanted to do. The government chose your life and your life style and that was the end of the story. And if you got caught trying to be yourself, you would be punished.
The question "If the writers were writing today what would be different about this or his work?" was interesting because there has been a very big advancement in technology, so could change the idea of electricity. They brought up ideas that instead of Equality discovering electricity, he could discover a phone or a more advanced piece of technology. "What might be some other good titles for this?" was another question that raised issues that are important because some of the titles they cam up with were "ego", "Breaking Free", "Spark", and "Gifted." I thought all of these were good title. I liked spark because it could be interpreted as spark as in electricity, or spark as in lead to something.
The main idea is freeing the mind of how the society processes things. The council is controlling their lives and blocking out individuality represented by equality. It is a sin to be smarter, or different than your peers/ this is different than today’s society. Equality stood out from the crowd by his actions. If the writers were writing today it would be different because a lot of different things have happened that he may have not have expected. What the author went through would change what was socially acceptable. The discovery in the book would change. It would be different when he chose his name. No matter what boundaries are put in place the human race tries to break them and push the limits. The rules are always going to find a way to be broken no matter what is put into place. When rules are put into place it stops the process of creations and other things. The human race will always try to progress and find a way to better their society. Some other good titles could be “ego”. It isn’t brought up in the book but is a big part to equality’s personality. “Equality” this was how the society was based on as well as the main character. Every person is expected to follow the society because they felt that people would follow those rules. We can assume that the reason people don't rebel against the council is because they are scared of the punishments.
They raised an interesting questions "what would the book be like in the society that we are in today?" Some other interesting comments were “There will always be someone different that wants to push the limits of society.” “The soviet union influenced her writing.” Equality breaking free from society is essential in this novel.
My peers said that the main ideas in Anthem were the freeing of the mind, and individualism. I completely agree with everything that they stated because the people in Anthem had no freedom whatsoever and they could not be themselves. No matter what boundaries are put in place people always want to break them, they want to push the limit. When rules are put in place the progress of things are slowed down and the process stops. When you are in a society where noting changes and everything is the same, people want to break out of it and experience new places. A new title for the book could be "Ego" because it is a big idea throughout the book, "equality" could also be a good title for this book because that is what the Society is thriving for. they want everyone to be the same and no man to be a little different than the other with their thoughts, looks, and what they do. Every person wanted to break free and not follow the society but they were all too scared to leave and be their own person. Why did Rand present the society the way she did? The people are scared of what has happened in the forbidden times so they are too afraid to leave the society.
They thought that the main idea of the text is freeing the mind. The society in “Anthem” is very different than ours because we encourage expressing ourselves instead of limiting it. When he left that community he was much more happy than when he was in it. Things that are socially acceptable when the book was written would be different now so that would change in the book. Our inventions are more advanced now than when the book was written.Equality could’ve picked a different name. The human race is always going to try to push all the limits. All rules are eventually going to be broken. Also the human race will never stop inventing things and coming up with more and new ideas. The text says that sometimes it is hard to show your ideas though. It is not a good thing to contain the human spirit. The book concludes that eventually everyone progresses and finds themselves. The reader assumes that even though people are expected to follow the society they always find their own way of direction.
My thoughts are---"Why did Equality change from others? How would the point of view and/or the characters in the book be different now from back then? When Equality found electricity why didn't he share it with every one? Why didn't he change his town instead of run in to the forbidden forest?"---My peers rose an issues and that is why are we doing the things we did for years and not change any thing? If we change for the better then we can live better and not worry about certain things.
The ideas that the fishbowl discussion brought up were making me realize more about the text. Some things that I realized was how people couldn’t use the word I because it puts themselves above others. The idea that was brought up the most was equality, the book presents a society where no one can be greater or have more importance than another. There is a difference between how we view our society now and how the society is view in the book. The book is kind of centered around how people are breaking rules or trying to find new or better ways to do things, while in the book there is the society that tries to restrict people from finding themselves or other things. Our society is very different from the book people we are more about how to break rules such as the ones in Anthem and advance to make ourselves and our society better.
the story anthem by Ayn Rand, the setting is a society where everything is the same with not a lot of change. In this society change is a sin, this portraying how different society is now compared to how it was in this time period. Today we all think that we are equal but really we all know that there is something different about everyone but that’s okay. Some important issues that my peers are raising are how he being Equality was not supposed to be on his own inventing things or even doing science experiments at all. But I think it helped to benefit their society because it gave them light and today that is something we take so for granite. Another important thing my peers listed in their small group was how people get bored easily when you stuck in a society humanly you're going to want to break out of that shell and do what you want to do. Some things that are essential is how everyone in that sort of frozen in time place wanted to make the world s[in forward and move on to new things and try new things and maybe even break the rules so that you can experience and find who you really are. People all think they need to obey what the council says and follow their rules, but for example when Equality stepped outside of the lines he invented amazing things.
Within Equality’s society, it is a sin for anyone to be better than their brothers in any way. This is shown in many situations through the book, including when Equality’s teachers say he has evil in his bones because he is taller, or when everyone is only taught to say “we” when referencing oneself. This might seem egotistic and that might be how Ayn Rand meant for it to be. As it says on Rand’s website, she believes people should embrace themselves and the pursuit of their own happiness. This idea is suppressed by the society of Anthem. Towards the end of the book, Equality breaks away from this smothering of freedom to discover the wonder of benefit for just himself and no other.
It’s a sin to be smarter or different than anyone else/ you have to talk in the third person and also have to be the exact same. Was Equality brave? He didn’t really care about what he was doing wrong because he was happy. A lot of things that he didn’t expect happened. A lot of things that happened when the book was made is way different than now. The discovery of electricity could’ve changed how they lived back then. There’s a lot of different meanings for words that are different than the meanings for words are now. There are a lot of technological leaps that they can go through but the council doesn’t like the thought of change. Love always gets to people no matter what. Rules will always be broken. The humans have “restarted” and Equality is making all of those leaps in finding stuff. Since Equality wasn’t allowed to be alone he couldn't share his ideas. He was trying to make the society better than itself.When people get bored of something they try manipulating it and Equality kind of got bored of life in that society so he broke the rules and that had him discover things nobody else has. Every single person wanted to do their own thing and break free but were also scared of what the council would do.
the main ideas of the text is that equality is being different when he knew society stated that it was a sin. If the writers wrote this today, there would be more things from this era left from the unmentionable times, and he could have discovered something even more interesting that a simple light, and Equality's name would have been different,because of how many names there are today, and how each one has many different meanings.what the text says about human race is that people shouldn't be unique and men shouldn't admire women, and women shouldn't admire men. The text says that equality wants to make things while he isn't supposed to, because of the rules and laws. The important conclusions in the text were that you shouldn't close up your soul and you should be unique and be independent. when you are in a society that doesn't change, people will get bored and eventually try to break free of it. some other good titles for the book could be "Ego" because it is a forbidden word. "Equality" could be a good title because that is the goal of the society. "I" could be a good title because it is a word that was not known to the society until the end. Annother good title could be "Transgression" or "Sin" because that is what equality says he is doing in the whole story.We can assume that the reason why the people of society aren't revolting against the councils is because they were afraid of what the council would do to them if they broke the laws.
Anthem’s main idea is going against society and what everyone else says. Today, point of views have changed and we praise individualism. Technology and culture has also changed, so Equality might have found a computer or cell phone, and the plot might have been different because there are many similar stories that have been written since Anthem. Humankind is rebellious and there will always be someone that wants to break the mold, in turn creating a new mold that another person would break. Humans are social and collaborate, and mostly want the best for themselves and what they see as the best for the rest of humankind. We will always crave to make inventions and society better, more efficient. This book may be symbolic of Rand leaving the Soviet Union and discovering what it is like to go against everything you have ever known, or of how children need to break free of restraints and find their own way through life. The citizens may all want to break the rules and do their own thing but they are scared of what the Council would do to them and what would happen.
Does the writer assume? What are you assuming? First off, I assume that Rand's motives for writing this book may have been influenced by her Russian background, as she was born into the Russian empire soon before it became the Soviet Union, and the USSR was a very controlling environment to grow up in, so maybe she saw a potential for a society like the one in Anthem where most other's wouldn't especially not in America. It clearly wasn't just a work for the sake of fiction, but there was a strong message on the role the individual has in society and how a society without the individual thriving would progress (or not).
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