Anthem

At first when one sits down with the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, it is most likely that just like myself, they will be helplessly confused. The novel begins with the lines "It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see... And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws." This coupled with the use of the pronoun “we” instead of “I” will confuse at first, but will make sense as one gets farther into the story, and the rules and laws of the world the main character, Equality 7-2521, lives in.

A major part of the story is the social structuring and how everything is run. Society in this novel has reverted to the Stone Age, with the latest technology being that of candles, and along with the technological revert came a complete change in the society’s structure. People no longer have any control over their lives. They cannot choose how much schooling they receive, as in further schooling beyond others in colleges and graduate schools, and they can’t even choose their profession. Equality is a prime example of this. He always wanted to be a scientist in the Home of the Scholars. Instead he was chosen to be a street sweeper, and spends his life simply sweeping streets with a broom, at least until he discovered electricity in the old sewers under the city.

Another big thing is the use of the pronoun “we”. In the world Equality lives in, there is no “I”, only a collective “we”. One would never refer to him self as “I”, only “we”. After Equality discovers “I” In the house on the mountainside after his escape that he recognizes it as the concept that oppressed his society. He describes it in the following way:

“The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.”

He also tells how “we” should only be spoken by self-choice, not because they have to or be burned at the stake in front of the entire city. “I” was forbidden, and it was out of the minds of the people. It bound them together and kept them all equal, but at the same time it kept them from expressing themselves in any way and it kept them from being free and happy.

As a whole, I really liked Anthem. I liked it so much that I didn’t want to stop and finished it in one sitting. I enjoyed the plot and really liked the character of Equality and how he came to be Prometheus at the end of the novel.