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Ignorance in Anthem and Animal Farm

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The phrase, “ignorance is bliss,” implies that sometimes not having knowledge about something distressful, can be better than knowing and stressing about it. Bliss means to have great joy, and and it is explored in, "Anthem," ignorance does not always ensure a person to bliss. In, "Anthem," the people of Equality’s society are often scared and melancholy. They have have no knowledge of why they aren’t allowed to love who they want to love, why they can’t do the jobs they want to do, and why they aren’t allowed to ask questions. However, they obey the government because they are ignorant to what life would be like without these laws. Everyone in this society has been raised ignorant of their government’s form of corruption; their subjugation of individuals. These people fail to realize this, and their lives are miserable because of it. For example, in the text it says, “Yet our brothers are not like us. All is not well with our brothers. They are Fraternity 2-5503, a quiet boy with wise, kind eyes, who cry suddenly without reason, in the midst of day or night, and their body shakes with sobs they cannot explain. They are Solidarity 9-6347, who are a bright youth, without fear in the day; but they scream in their sleep, and they scream: 'Help us! Help us! Help us!' into the night, in a voice which chills our bones, but the doctors cannot cure Solidarity 9-6347,” (Rand 47). Solidarity 9-6347 and Fraternity 2-5503 are both people, who have unexplainable outbursts and sobbing. They don’t know why they cry or are miserable, but they are. Compared to Equality who is, “glad to be living,” (Rand 47) since he has been enlightened with the fortune of love, they seem to be disconsolate. Rand communicates the idea that life is simply better when you are not ignorant or oblivious. A life where everyone is ignorant, is a life that no one wants to live. This is especially true in the book, "Animal Farm." Since the pigs of the f

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