Anthem

What did you think of the book overall?

• Did not like it

  • The characters were one dimensional

  • Lacked development of thematic elements

  • I agreed with the moral

    • Against collectivism, utilitarianism, and communism

    • Like reading Nietzsche without the eloquence and wit

Thoughts on Rand’s anti-collectivist morals?

• Sees it failing under every circumstance

• I agree with her conjecture

Preface

• Anti-collectivism

  • Lead to what happens in the book

    • There are already remnants of it around

  • Those who advocate for it and other utilitarian goals are concealing their true motive

• Meant to counteract the criticism against her ideals

Equality 7-2521

• Ayn Rand’s prophetㅡthink the prisoner from Plato’s “Allegory of the Den”

  • Often there are strings drawn between the events and that of Jesus and Moses in the Genesis

  • Yet instead of God, he worships himself

• Discovers the lightbulb

  • Specific symbol: light

[I]f this should lighten the toil of men . . . then it is a great evil, for men have no cause to exist save in toiling for other men

• Furthers the notion of him being a prophet and bringing enlightenment upon the people

  • When discovered he feels the need to share it for the greater good of mankind

• His discovery of his own refection

  • Finalizes his break with society

[W]e wonder, for the first time in our life, what we look like.

• He realizes his own pride and vanity

  • Ideal attributes as seen by Rand

• “Prometheus”

  • Will bring light to earthㅡnot only literally with the lightbulb, but metaphorically with the philosophy of individualism

  • Help those also fighting for individuality

    • Rand’s overall goal

• Romatcisted characteristics

  • Rand overlooked any flaws in this character to make him ideal

The Setting

• Based off of Soviet Russian

  • An exaggeration of the collectivism caused by its communism

  • References to Russia removed, making it a more object cautionary tale

But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate.

• Unmentionable times

  • Shows how society forgot its own greatness

• “Allegory of the Den”

  • Rand claims that her novel does not have a “traditional plot” when in reality it is a derivative of “Allegory of the Den”

Imagery

• Rand uses imagery to promote her values

  • Using positively connotated words with what she values to be good and the opposite with what she opposes

    • Equality and Liberty are described as “strong” and “vibrant”

    • Whereas the evil council is described as “featureless” and “soft

      • Shapelessness is a motif throughout the novella

        • Meant as the antithesis of individuality

        • Hence is it meant to represent the bad things

Individuality

• In this collective narrative, individuality is looked down upon

  • With the equality hated for being tall and international for having “laughter in his eye”

  • The use of the collective “we”

There was no pain in their eyes and no knowledge of the agony of their body. There was only joy in them, and pride, a pride holier than it is fit for human pride to be.

• The greatest freedom

  • When the man speaks the unspoken word, “I”, he burned on the stake, yet he is unafraid

    • Showing how the uplifting power of discovering self-identity and individuality

I am. I think. I will.

Many men in the Homes of the Scholars have had strange new ideas in the past . . . but when the majority of their brother Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men must.

• Collectivism leads men to compromise their ideals and values

  • Removing the ability from individual achievement: the source of all great change

    • The reason why that society is stuck in the dark

      • The many are holding society back, not the individuals

• When Equality is exiled

  • Demonstrates that individuality is greater than the one’s role in society

Golden One

• Seen as different from the rest

  • The pinnacle of all good

  • Hence must be worshipped as Equality implies

• Relationship

  • The City Palace of Mating is viewed as bad in the novella

    • They arrange marriage ridding choice and love

    • The opposite of what Rand values and the love between the Golden One and Equality

• Anti-Feminist symbol

  • Shallow

  • Only in the plot to act as an object for Equality’s adoration

• “Gaea”

  • A vessel for Equality’s children

    • Very degrading