Alice O’Connor, who is also known as Ayn Rand, is a Russian-born philosopher who moved to the United States when she was 21. She is famous for her philosophy known as objectivism which she describes as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” She writes about this philosophy in her most famous books: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Anthem.
Anthem is a dystopian novella written in 1937. The story features a society in which every person lives almost the same life as a group. Every house is the same, “mating pairs” are chosen by a council, jobs are chosen by a council, and each person is not his/her own person. Many readers may immediately think of the book The Giver by Lois Lowry as the society in Anthem.
There are many rules and laws that each citizen must follow. One of the worst ways one can sin is by the transgression of preference. Each person within society is not allowed to differ from another person. Each person must think and act in the same way, and it is against the rules to prefer one thing or person over another. One very noticeable difference that readers notice about Anthem as opposed to other books is that the word “I” is not except in the last two chapters. None of the citizens in this society know the word “I.” It is considered forbidden, and the use of the forbidden word is punishable by death. The novella is written in first person and every time the narrator refers to himself he says “we” even when only describing one person.
The main character is named Equality 7-2521. The book is written in the first person as a diary of his journey through self-discovery. Equality realizes that he is different from his brothers within society; he is smarter and curious and he wants to discover what the world offers. He wishes for a job in the House of Scholars so he can study and invent things. Instead, he is assigned a job as a street sweeper, where he discovers a secret tunnel underground. He decides this tunnel is his, and he spends every minute he can in his tunnel and ends up discovering light. When he presents the light that he has illegally discovered, the council does not react in the way that Equality was expecting and his life changes forever.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a book to read fairly quickly. It is an interesting plot and is unique. It is also a great book to analyze and will make the reader think even after finishing the book.
Read more about objectivism: https://www.atlassociety.org/post/what-is-objectivism
