While I normally do not like science fiction novels I did find myself enjoying Ayn Rand’s Anthem. I liked the idea of the character overcoming the standards of society and becoming an individual. From the beginning Equality 7-2521 knew he was different. He was tall, smarter than most, and lashed at more often then the other people of his society because he was different. He had questions that needed answers and because it was a crime to ask them he choose to answer them himself. It was in the spring that he discovered the tunnel which would become his hiding place where he would learn more than he could ever imagine. Did I mention it was in the spring? As we learned in Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, spring is often used to represent rebirth. Spring is the season in which Equality 7-2521 begins to break away from society and the prison that he had occupied for far too long. Throughout the book we see the slow transition of someone who was just another “thing” turn into an individual with thoughts of their own.
I was wondering why the author named the book Anthem and I began to think more about the word. An anthem is usually a song about patriotism and freedom. The National Anthem for the United States talks about it being the “land of the free.” Perhaps it was titled Anthem because Equality 7-2521 became free at the end and entered the “land of the free” a.k.a. the Unchartered Forest. Just a thought.
I would also like to talk about some comparisons between Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In both of these futuristic novels there were unmentionable times that people could not remember or chose to never speak about. In Bradbury’s novel firefighters used to put out fires rather than start them. People used to read books, magazines, and other works of literature before it became a crime. In Rand’s novel it was a crime to ask questions about the “unmentionable times” and for someone to go out alone to answer these questions was an even greater crime. In both novels the characters are reprimanded for their crimes, yet they continue their search for what they feel is right. Both novels have characters that rebel and search for what is right. Another comparison is that in the end of both novels there is hope for the future. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Montag and the other “book people” go to the city to look for survivors after the bombing. They hope to reprint the works that they have memorized in their heads and bring back books to the world. In Anthem Equality 7-2521, later renamed Prometheus, and his life partner/lover/wife Gaea restart their life in the Unchartered Forest. They speak about how one day they will rally enough followers and fight “…for the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor” (Rand 104). A final comparison between the two novels, which was mentioned in class, is that society was stripped. In Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 society was stripped of knowledge because the literature was burned. Most spent their time in front of their “family” where they rotten away like Mildred did. Stripping society of knowledge kept ideas such as rebellion out of their minds. In Rand’s Anthem people were stripped of their language. They could not say “I love you” because they didn’t know the word love just like they didn’t know many other words. It was a way of repressing society because their language was so simple that they could not verbally rebel.
There were many good quotes that I could have picked. Pages ninety-five through ninety-seven have many quotes about individualism and freedom:
“I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom” (Rand 95).
I chose this quote because it speaks of how freedom is worth more than money can buy. It should not be thrown away because it is something so precious and it should, as Rand puts it, be heavily guarded. In many countries freedom is limited, so those who have it should be very grateful. I read a brief biography on Ayn Rand on her website www.aynrand.org. Born in Russia she witnessed two revolutions (Kerensky and Bolshevik) and lived in a country where communism ruled the nation. In communist nations there is a lack of individual rights, so the word freedom is almost nonexistent. Knowing the author’s background can bring a better understanding to the novel and of course the quotes found in it. In this quote we can assume that Ayn Rand treasured her freedom when she moved to America because it was something that she didn’t have in the Soviet Union. Freedom is something that I truly value because without it happiness would not be possible.
Overall I liked Anthem, however I must admit that I had expected a different ending. I thought that Equality 7-2521 would go into the forest and find others like himself, similar to what had happened in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I liked how, at the end of the book, Equality 7-2521 found out what the sacred word was: EGO. According to dictionary.com ego is “The ‘I’ or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from the objects of its thought.” I believe that the word Ego was the final step in the breaking away from society and its standards. If the title of the book had been Ego then the plot would have been a give-away.
In the beginning I was slightly confused because Equality 7-2521 would say “we” and I wondered if there was a group of people who were exactly alike physically and mentally. Now I know that it was used to show the transition of Equality 7-2521 becoming an individual. There wasn’t much that I didn’t dislike about this book. As previously stated I don’t usually enjoy scifi books, but the idea of breaking away from society and becoming an individual was very interesting.
