Compare and Contrast Essay: The Road vs. Anthem

📌Category: Anthem, Books
📌Words: 637
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 16 April 2022

The Road and Anthem are both books that were written to introduce readers to a new theory about the apocalypse. The books were written by two different authors with totally different viewpoints making the books quite different from each other. Anthem and The Road have dystopian societies, but Anthem has a selfless society while The Road has a selfish society. 

Anthem has a selfless society because individualism is banned while The Road has a selfish society because food is scarce. In Anthem, civilization has turned its back on individualism because they believe that it is unfair for one person to be doing better than the other and this community prefers to be organized and traditional. Equality shows that individualism is banned by stating “We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike” (Rand 19). The author illustrates that the society is organized and traditional when Equality makes something new and presents it to the council but they turn it down because “It would bring ruin to the department of candles. The candle is a great boon to mankind, as approved by all men. Therefore it cannot be destroyed by the whim of one” (Rand 73) This shows that Anthem’s population reacts to the apocalypse by making sure nothing is unfair and by being organized and traditional. The Road has a very different grasp on individualism because collectivism could get you killed in this society. Individualism is a big practice in The Road because of how scarce food is. This is shown when the dad and the son find people trapped in a basement and they ask for help but the dad does not help. When the son and dad have a conversation about it, the son says “They’re going to eat them aren’t they. yes. and we couldn’t help because then they’d eat us too” (McCarthy 127). This conversation proves that you can’t trust people in this society and that they don’t care about collectivism and could turn their back on you at any moment. This illustrates that The Road’s community is all about individualism while Anthem’s community is all about collectivism. 

Both books show a main character living in a dystopian world where the main character turns their back on society because they disagree with the society's beliefs. In Anthem individualism is banned and the society lives similar lifestyles. The main character Equality is curious and learns about the world and realizes that this is wrong. The author shows that Equality realizes this is wrong when he leaves and starts living in the forest. Equality realizes that “I owe nothing to my brother, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none of them to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor my soul theirs to covert” (Rand 96). This reveals that he realizes he can be his own person thereby turning his back against the apocalyptic society. In The Road people are cannibals because there is little food but the man promises that he will never be like that and raises his son to not be a cannibal. The author shows that the dad will not become a cannibal when the dad is talking with the son and the son asks if they are bad or good guys. The dad made sure his son knew that “We’re still the good guys and we will always be” (McCarthy 77). This shows that the dad disapproves of the society and therefore turns his back against it. 

In conclusion, both of the books have the same way of showing their theme but they have different themes based on their opinion. If you read these two books side to side you can see the two different points of view that the author is trying to convey. For Anthem it's don’t always help other people while for The Road it's do whatever you can to survive whether it's depending on other people or not. This proves that books can have the same way of conveying themes and messages but have totally different themes or messages.

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