The Halo Versus the Horns

Kyle Slaugh Slaugh

Ms. Wheatley 1

Period 5

29 January 2007

The Halo Versus The Horns

Good versus evil, isn’t that how it always work? Of course, it is normally found in superhero movies, but what about a plain everyday sense? Sure, there’s cops and robbers, fireman and the fire, and so on, but what if he was just a normal human being like you. One being driven by curiosity, I believe, could change the world. In Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem, there are different concepts of morality, each motivate both the leaders of society, and Equality and Liberty.

Anthem has different concepts of morality. The leaders of the city tell people that speaking out is “base and evil” (pg 17). They believe that happiness can only be obtained by serving your brothers. They say no one may walk astray, for man has no purpose, but to serve their brothers. This comes into contradiction to what Equality and Liberty believe. Equality and Liberty believe that “the worship of the word ‘We’” (pg 102) has “whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission” (pg 102). These two individuals discovered the power of the word “I”, which made them come to the discovery of everyman’s individual freedom. Equality and Liberty knew something was wrong with the society. They discovered electricity along with a law they broke that has no punishment, which could possibly be death. When they figured this out, they ran, created their own society of “good,” that will spread across the world and grow larger and larger everyday. Both of these concepts of morality meet, break away, and create their own society of what they think is good or evil.

There are different concepts of morality that motivate the leaders of the city. The leaders of the city teach others “we are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever.” (Pg 19). This motivates the leaders of the city to keep on going with there society. They teach this to make others believe that the only purpose of man and the only way to happiness, is by serving their brothers. This makes the leaders of the city more powerful, for they make the people believe what they want them to believe. The people