Anthem, a book by Ayn Rand, is the diary of a young man who lives in a future where all individualism is lost. Everyone is alike and nobody defies the will of the dictators. Everybody is afraid of the council and they do not revolt due to peer pressure, for no one else defies the council. If one wants to do something, they will not succeed because no one else will follow his or her cause.

Smoking, drugs, shoplifting and gang violence usually involve peer pressure. Statistics state that “over 50% of teenagers have committed crimes that were influenced by peer pressure.” In Anthem, the main character, Equality 7-2521, breaks free from all the pressures of his fellow men and becomes an individual. He does this by working on his experiments and finding out about the past by reading books. From the books he finds out that everyone was an individual in the Unmentionable Times and he strives to become one too.

One thing was in his way though. Equality was held back by “the weak and dull witted”, yet he still finds a way to break free and become his own person. He was undeterred from his goals and nothing could stop him, not even the will of the dictators of Anthem’s society. I believe that if every teenager has Equality as a role model, they will not succumb to negative peer pressure and they will become individuals who think for themselves.