anthem analysis essays

Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” Book Analysis Essay

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Introduction

Gaining equality through the injustice of government, the motivational success of individuality and freedom, the collectivist model, government overreach and control that limits innovation, works cited.

An excellent introduction to Ayn Rand’s theory of human nature is the book Anthem . Her moral and political philosophies are fundamentally based on the topic and fundamental struggle of the novella—the individual versus the collective—which appears in all of her works. In the undetermined future, where freedom and individual rights have been eradicated, the events of Anthem take place. Despite being centered on the antiutopian model of the narration, the author strives to show the first step for the person to obtain individuality. Collectivism results in the elimination of individuality as a concept. The current paper is devoted to supporting the author’s idea regarding the negative impact of collectivism on personality formation.

Supporting the ideology of the author and the situation depicted in the novel, Maoism in China can be mentioned. The essence of Maoism is to combine classical communist ideas with Great Han chauvinism and Chinese centrism. The Chinese Communists managed to overcome the heavy legacy of Maoism, leading the country out of the impasse (Jones and Smith). The situation with Equality 7-2521 is similar when the living conditions of people are meager, and any attempts to express individuality are punished. The collectivism of all countries has always been reflected in history and consists in the fact that people have their values and traditions peculiar to the collective of each country – its people. The author writes: “We are one in all and all in one” (Rand 3). The enslavement of the individual to the collective, regardless of the group’s race, class, or state affiliation, is what Ayn Rand refers to as “collectivism.” In such circumstances, a person is not seen as an independent being with an existence of their own but rather as a member of a group whose primary function is to meet that group’s requirements.

The ruling class in Equality 7-2521 tries to instill an “ant colony” attitude where people replicate the self-sacrificing lives of insects for the greater welfare of the collective. The goal of the government is to eradicate all notions of uniqueness from human nature and, with it, all aspects of active personal existence. Each individual is identified by a broad collectivist principle, such as equality, internationalism, or solidarity, rather than by their own unique name. The reason that each person has a number associated with their collectivist identity is also explained by this endeavor to eradicate all aspects of individuality. No one is exceptional or distinctive because the state believes that individuality is illusory; instead, people are interchangeable components of a larger whole.

In her writings, Ayn Rand presents people who must weigh crucial options and occasionally decide between life and death situations. The most prominent example is Equality 7-2521; however, she is not the only character in the story to undertake questionable decisions. He could opt not to ponder the Unspeakable Word, but he does. He does not want to submit to the Council’s demands; therefore, he wants to keep the tunnel’s existence and his experiments a secret. Out of all the people in society, he chooses International 4-8818 and the Golden One for his close friends. Instead of surrendering his brightness and life to the Councils, he decides to flee into the woods.

To morally criticize the people for failing to maintain their own minds and spirits would be a disaster. They are not wicked, but the authoritarianism of the government has made them timid. Councils that demand slavish submission are wicked. The heroic characters instead pose the fascinating question of how they are able to maintain their own ideas in the face of such tremendous pressure to comply. The author states: “No… We are one…alone…and only… and we love you who are one… alone.. and only” (Rand 76). The aim of Ayn Rand is to extol the rare people who, against all conventional norms and teachings, are aware that their thoughts are precious and should not be ceded to authority.

One person cannot go against the whole system existing in the novel. Despite understanding how distrustful the system is for the people, the only thing such generous people can do is find others who share their position and escape, as shown in the novel. History has various examples of such an escapement of genius people being tortured by totalitarian governments. For example, many world-famous writers and poets, such as Brodsky and Nabokov, left Russia due to the USSR government’s persecution (Guzeva, 2019). As a result, the cultural heritage of the country is depleted. These people found the strength to escape being led by their identity as well as the main characters of the novel.

This society’s leaders are not concerned with science or the truth. They must exert control over citizens’ thoughts in order to keep control over society. The repression of free thought is necessary for the conquest and maintenance of authoritarian authority. Therefore, freedom of speech, which includes freedom of thinking and expression, is outlawed forever by real-world tyrants, whether they be fascists, National Socialist, or communists. Although the dictators themselves are not particularly intelligent, they instinctively know that the mind is their adversary. In order to block any potential mind development, the government limits the freedom of speech: “… we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to three years in the Palace of Corrective Detention” (Rand 4). Dictators understand that the rational mind is their most formidable enemy since intellectuals are only interested in the truth and not the arbitrary orders of power-hungry tyrants.

The intellect can find no refuge, no example like the United States to which one may travel in order to acquire an independent existence, if the entire planet is a worldwide dictatorship, as in Anthem, and if freedom does not exist anywhere on earth. The author demonstrates how the mind will be suppressed everywhere in such a situation. There will not be any innovative or creative thinking, scientific research, technical advancements, or industrial growth.

The currently existing example of such a situation is in North Korea. Due to the totalitarian regime established on the country’s territory, the government controls all the income and outcome informational flows. In 2019 Kim Jong Un expressed regret regarding the technological situation in the country (Williams, 2020). The innovative developments are entirely controlled, limiting the multicultural information exchange bounding the research and production. Such limitations allow the government to make the nation easily controllable because people have no other option for how free life can be.

The ability of illicit passion for enlightening and elevating is seen in Rand’s Anthem . In an undetermined future time and place when freedom and individual rights have been eradicated, the plot of Anthem is set. Equality 7-2521, the protagonist, is a bright young man who aspires to be a scientist but is forced to work as a street sweeper by a dictatorship that is afraid of his intellectual independence. The core of the anthem is the battle of Equality 7-2521 to think, live, and love on his terms and in opposition to the cruel regime. Ayn Rand uses her character’s struggle to defend people’s freedom to live their own lives and issues a warning about modern society’s unrelenting shift toward collectivism.

Guzeva, Alexandra. “ 7 Most Famous Russian Writers Who Migrated Abroad .” Russia Beyond, Web.

Rand, Ayn. Anthem . Signet, 1961.

Smith, Lamar and Jones, Martin. “ The Strategy of the Mind: Maoism and Culture War in the West .” Military Strategy Magazine, Web.

Williams, Martin. “ Technology Be a Silver Bullet for the North Korean Economy? ” 38North, Web.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Ayn Rand's Anthem . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Anthem: Introduction

Anthem: plot summary, anthem: detailed summary & analysis, anthem: themes, anthem: quotes, anthem: characters, anthem: symbols, anthem: theme wheel, brief biography of ayn rand.

Historical Context of Anthem

Other books related to anthem.

• Full Title: Anthem
• When Written: 1937
• Where Written: New York, New York
• When Published: 1938
• Literary Period: Science Fiction
• Genre: Novella, Parable
• Setting: Unspecified collectivist dystopia, likely in the near future
• Climax: Equality 7-2521’s empowering discovery of the word “I.”
• Antagonist: Collectivism, as represented by the World Council of Scholars
• Point of View: First-person narration by Equality 7-2521

Extra Credit for Anthem

Rhymes with “Mine” Befitting her self-centered philosophy, Ayn Rand’s oft-mispronounced first name is correctly pronounced as rhyming with “mine.”

Politics as Usual. Rand’s objectivist philosophies have been a major influence for American conservatives with an interest in smaller government, particularly the recent Tea Party movement.

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Themes and Analysis

By ayn rand.

'Anthem' is a novella stylishly written with many themes and symbols that make it as relevant today as it was decades ago. It is an interesting work by the controversial Ayn Rand.

Article written by Onyekachi Osuji

B.A. in Public Administration and certified in Creative Writing (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

Anthem is a novella that showcased its author’s creativity as well as philosophy. Ayn Rand being a controversial and beloved figure herself did not fail to elicit the same feelings in her readers.

Anthem by Ayn Rand is a controversial book because of its major theme of individualism. However, it has many other underlying themes that readers and critics can appreciate without controversy themes such as the power of language, idealism, and disillusionment, among other themes.

Individualism

Anthem strongly portrays that true power lies in the individual and that the individual is the paramount end to every value, as opposed to being the means to an end. It actively portrays collectivism as a burden that subdues and eventually destroys humans, that individuals should only be responsible to others only by choice and through their consent.

Equality 7-2521 was unhappy and struggled to utilize his intellect productively because of the dictatorial collectivism of the state that repressed the individual. He only realized his potential when he began to detach himself from the collective and look and think like an individual. The individual as the ultimate being and center of all values, and the independence of the individual in the political, economic, and social dynamics of every society is the major theme Rand was preaching through Anthem .

The Danger of Collectivism

Closely related to the theme of Individualism is the Danger of Collectivism. In Anthem , not only was Collectivism portrayed as subduing individualism, but it was also portrayed as a bane to humanity and a hindrance to development, progress, and productivity.

In Anthem , the society lost all advanced technologies and regressed to the dark ages, citizens were unhappy and lived in fear, the instituted departments and agencies of government were unproductive. For instance, the greatest invention from the Council of Scholars was the invention of candles, the council also dismissed innovative ideas if they were not shared by the majority, the Home of Clerks was so unproductive that they spent an entire year copying just one manuscript, and in the event of Equality 7-2521’s rebellion at the meeting of the World Council of Scholars, they could not act proactively as the only consensus they could reach was to present the matter to a higher authority.

Also, there was the danger of torture and the ultimate punishment of death on individuals that do not conform to the rest of the society and those that dare to express any form of individualism.

The Power of Language

The power of language is a very meaningful theme in Anthem by Ayn Rand. Language is seen as so powerful in society that in order to keep some people from getting certain notions, the people obliterate certain words from use and punish offenders with the ultimate punishment of death.

Also, their appreciation of the power of language makes the people burn all books as a way to end a civilization because with the destruction of their words, records and writings, there would be no way to pass on the ideas of the individualists regarded as an evil to the next generations.

They cut off the tongue of the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word before his public execution to prevent him from saying words that challenged their ideologies to the hearing of the public.

Then, words that embody the collective ideology of the state are boldly engraved in strategic places across the city for citizens to see, children are thought those words from childhood, and the citizens are made to recite them in social gatherings at bedtime. These are all ways through which the dictatorial authorities use the power of language to keep the citizens in line.

The willingness to suffer and die for a cause one believes in is a theme in Anthem . First, we see martyrdom in the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word as he willing dies for saying the Unspeakable Word and shows no concern for his bodily suffering as he burns at the pyre. The Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word spends his dying moment silently choosing an intellectual heir for his cause rather than showing any sign of regret for his death.

The protagonist, Equality 7-2521 did not mind dying physically if it meant his invention would live on and serve the rest of the citizens. He only conceived to escape the prospect of death at the hands of the councils when he realized that his even with his death, his invention would also be destroyed.

Ideals and Disillusionment

One of the more subtle themes in Anthem by Ayn Rand is that sometimes, especially in our youth, we have high hopes in humanity and expect that they will appreciate things the same way we do. But then experience and reality teach us otherwise and we become disillusioned.

We see ideals and disillusionment at play in Equality 7-2521’s expectation that his invention would be gladly welcomed by his society and for it, all his transgressions against the law were pardoned. Unfortunately, he is disillusioned by their reaction to his invention and loses all hope in the redemption and progress of his society.

Analysis of Key Moments

• Equality 7-2521 is in a secret tunnel as he recounts he has transgressed against the rules of his society
• He talks about his life experiences leading to the moment in the tunnel: he was a brilliant student that loved science but was assigned to be a street sweeper by the authorities; he becomes friends with another street sweeper and together they find a secret tunnel, he sneaks out to the secret tunnel to do scientific experiments with scraps he picks up from the streets.
• He meets a girl he is attracted to and believes the attraction is mutual. The girl’s name is Liberty 5-300 but he calls her The Golden One
• He speaks with Liberty 5-3000 and she tells him she calls him The Unconquered and not Equality 7-2521
• Equality 7-2521’s experiments yield results and he invents electricity
• He gets carried away with his experiments and does not keep time to sneak in unnoticed, therefore his absence is discovered by the authorities.
• He is lashed and asked to account for his absence but refuses to give his secret away
• Equality 7-2521 sneaks out of prison, carries his invention, and goes to the meeting of the World Council of Scholars to present it to them
• The World Council of Scholars is horrified by his invention and by his impetus to act alone and threaten to destroy his invention and punish him
• Equality escapes with his invention into the Uncharted Forest
• A few days later, he finds Liberty 5-3000 who has followed him into the Uncharted Forest
• They consummate their love and plan to begin a new civilization of their own

Style, Tone, and Figurative Language

The writing style of Anthem is one of the things about the novella that recommends it. It is written in the first person narrative and in a unique language structure where “I” does not exist in the lexicon and “We”, “our” and “us” are the only first person pronouns in use. At first, this is confusing as a reader wonders why a single person refers to himself or herself as “we” but going further into the story, the reason is understood.

The most used figurative language in the novella are metaphors and similes, everything is described in relation to rudimentary elements of nature. We see sentences like “slowly as a flush of blood, a red flame trembled in the wire. Then the wire glowed”. We also see a description of an electric bulb as “globes with metal cobwebs inside”.

In line with the setting of Anthem , Rand adeptly captured the language of people in the dark ages.

Analysis of Symbols

The citizens’ names are symbols of the collectivism of their society. People do not bear individual names of their choosing, rather they are named after communist concepts such as Unanimity, Solidarity, Equality, etc.

Equality and Liberty in choosing names for themselves are also symbols of their rebellion against the system. And the second new name they adopt symbolizes total freedom from the dictates of the collectivist authorities they were once under.

The Uncharted Forest

The Uncharted Forest symbolizes the unknown and the endless possibilities in exploring the unknown. People often have a strong fear of the unknown which is why the citizens in Anthem fear the Uncharted Forest.

It also symbolizes the untapped resources that waste away as a result of people’s lack of courage to leave their comfort zone. Another symbolism of the Uncharted Forest is a place of rebirth and a new civilization with novel ideologies that are not popularly accepted.

Light symbolizes freedom, innovation, foresight, and development in Anthem by Ayn Rand. The light of the candle invented by the Council of Scholars is inferior to the light of the electric bulb invented by Equality 7-2521, showing that the power of Equality’s mind, his foresight, and the power of his individual mind are superior to that of the council. The candlelight does not illuminate effectively and can be easily blown off by the wind, showing how unsustainable their development is.

Colors symbolize the quality of variety and spice in the citizens’ lives. The cities have only dull colors like black, white, and grey which symbolize how monotonous and drab their lives are. When Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 escape into the Uncharted Forest, they are introduced to brighter colors of dresses like red, blue, green, etc symbolizing that their livers in the Uncharted Forest have spice and variety.

Manuscripts and Books

This symbolizes legacies that can be passed down to future generations. The authorities of the City are careful about manuscripts and the ideas they contain in order to stop the idea of individuality, they destroy all books containing the word and rewrite their own manuscripts to suit their narrative.

Palace of Corrective Detention

This symbolizes both physical and mental bondage. It reveals that mental bondage subjugates people even more than physical bondage. The citizens’ minds have been so shackled by the idea of the Palace of Corrective Detention that the authorities see no need to reinforce the physical structure of the place because they have no resistance from the citizens.

What does the Uncharted Forest symbolize in Anthem ?

The Uncharted Forest in Anthem symbolizes the unknown and the endless possibilities in it. Just like the unknown, majority of people are afraid of the Uncharted Forest and it takes courage to venture into it just as it took Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000

What are the symbols in Anthem ?

Some of the symbols in Anthem are names, colors, light, the Uncharted Forest, manuscripts, and books. Names symbolize the impersonal and collective society of the citizens; colors symbolize the quality of their lives; light symbolizes foresight, innovation, and development; the Uncharted Forest symbolizes the limitless possibilities of the unknown, and manuscripts symbolize legacies that carry a civilization from one generation to the next.

What is Anthem all about?

Anthem by Ayn Rand is an argument in favor of individualism over collectivism. It is a novella about a young man who makes an invention on his own in a totalitarian society where people are not allowed to think or act alone. His invention lands him in trouble with the authorities, forcing him to escape for his life.

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About Onyekachi Osuji

Onyekachi was already an adult when she discovered the rich artistry in the storytelling craft of her people—the native Igbo tribe of Africa. This connection to her roots has inspired her to become a Literature enthusiast with an interest in the stories of Igbo origin and books from writers of diverse backgrounds. She writes stories of her own and works on Literary Analysis in various genres.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Anthem — Summary of Anthem by Ayn Rand

Summary of Anthem by Ayn Rand

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

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• Anthem: Summary: Chapter 1
• Anthem: Novel Summary: Chapter 2
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Anthem: Theme Analysis

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MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style

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Legal documents are notoriously difficult to understand, even for lawyers. This raises the question: Why are these documents written in a style that makes them so impenetrable?

MIT cognitive scientists believe they have uncovered the answer to that question. Just as “magic spells” use special rhymes and archaic terms to signal their power, the convoluted language of legalese acts to convey a sense of authority, they conclude.

In a study appearing this week in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the researchers found that even non-lawyers use this type of language when asked to write laws.

“People seem to understand that there’s an implicit rule that this is how laws should sound, and they write them that way,” says Edward Gibson, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences and the senior author of the study.

Eric Martinez PhD ’24 is the lead author of the study. Francis Mollica, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, is also an author of the paper .

Casting a legal spell

Gibson’s research group has been studying the unique characteristics of legalese since 2020, when Martinez came to MIT after earning a law degree from Harvard Law School. In a 2022 study , Gibson, Martinez, and Mollica analyzed legal contracts totaling about 3.5 million words, comparing them with other types of writing, including movie scripts, newspaper articles, and academic papers.

That analysis revealed that legal documents frequently have long definitions inserted in the middle of sentences — a feature known as “center-embedding.” Linguists have previously found that this kind of structure can make text much more difficult to understand.

“Legalese somehow has developed this tendency to put structures inside other structures, in a way which is not typical of human languages,” Gibson says.

In a follow-up study published in 2023, the researchers found that legalese also makes documents more difficult for lawyers to understand. Lawyers tended to prefer plain English versions of documents, and they rated those versions to be just as enforceable as traditional legal documents.

“Lawyers also find legalese to be unwieldy and complicated,” Gibson says. “Lawyers don’t like it, laypeople don’t like it, so the point of this current paper was to try and figure out why they write documents this way.”

The researchers had a couple of hypotheses for why legalese is so prevalent. One was the “copy and edit hypothesis,” which suggests that legal documents begin with a simple premise, and then additional information and definitions are inserted into already existing sentences, creating complex center-embedded clauses.

“We thought it was plausible that what happens is you start with an initial draft that’s simple, and then later you think of all these other conditions that you want to include. And the idea is that once you’ve started, it’s much easier to center-embed that into the existing provision,” says Martinez, who is now a fellow and instructor at the University of Chicago Law School.

However, the findings ended up pointing toward a different hypothesis, the so-called “magic spell hypothesis.” Just as magic spells are written with a distinctive style that sets them apart from everyday language, the convoluted style of legal language appears to signal a special kind of authority, the researchers say.

“In English culture, if you want to write something that’s a magic spell, people know that the way to do that is you put a lot of old-fashioned rhymes in there. We think maybe center-embedding is signaling legalese in the same way,” Gibson says.

In this study, the researchers asked about 200 non-lawyers (native speakers of English living in the United States, who were recruited through a crowdsourcing site called Prolific), to write two types of texts. In the first task, people were told to write laws prohibiting crimes such as drunk driving, burglary, arson, and drug trafficking. In the second task, they were asked to write stories about those crimes.

To test the copy and edit hypothesis, half of the participants were asked to add additional information after they wrote their initial law or story. The researchers found that all of the subjects wrote laws with center-embedded clauses, regardless of whether they wrote the law all at once or were told to write a draft and then add to it later. And, when they wrote stories related to those laws, they wrote in much plainer English, regardless of whether they had to add information later.

“When writing laws, they did a lot of center-embedding regardless of whether or not they had to edit it or write it from scratch. And in that narrative text, they did not use center-embedding in either case,” Martinez says.

In another set of experiments, about 80 participants were asked to write laws, as well as descriptions that would explain those laws to visitors from another country. In these experiments, participants again used center-embedding for their laws, but not for the descriptions of those laws.

The origins of legalese

Gibson’s lab is now investigating the origins of center-embedding in legal documents. Early American laws were based on British law, so the researchers plan to analyze British laws to see if they feature the same kind of grammatical construction. And going back much farther, they plan to analyze whether center-embedding is found in the Hammurabi Code, the earliest known set of laws, which dates to around 1750 BC.

“There may be just a stylistic way of writing from back then, and if it was seen as successful, people would use that style in other languages,” Gibson says. “I would guess that it’s an accidental property of how the laws were written the first time, but we don’t know that yet.”

The researchers hope that their work, which has identified specific aspects of legal language that make it more difficult to understand, will motivate lawmakers to try to make laws more comprehensible. Efforts to write legal documents in plainer language date to at least the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon declared that federal regulations should be written in “layman’s terms.” However, legal language has changed very little since that time.

“We have learned only very recently what it is that makes legal language so complicated, and therefore I am optimistic about being able to change it,” Gibson says. 

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by Ayn Rand

Anthem summary and analysis of chapter one.

Always speaking from a first-person plural point of view, the narrator introduces himself as Equality 7-2521 . He explains that the act of keeping a secret journal without the permission of the Council of Vocations is against the law and a sin because his thoughts are not shared, but personal. However, he has committed an even greater crime. He is writing alone in a tunnel with a stolen candle, although the laws require that no one can ever be alone, and he describes himself as twenty-one years old and six feet tall. His height has made him stand out from his peers, hinting at his evil tendency to think unlike others in spite of the efforts of the World Council to unite all men and reject individuality. The Council's creed of unity has been written on their palace since the Great Rebirth ended the selfish Unmentionable Times, the study of which is forbidden and will also send Equality 7-2521 to the Palace of Corrective Detention.

Equality 7-2521 recalls the life that led him to his worst crime, beginning with his early years in the Home of Infants. The narrative switches temporal registers, and we learn of this childhood -- one spent largely in a sleeping hall of one hundred beds, one peppered with fights with other children and frequent chastisement. From the ages of five to fifteen, Equality 7-2521 lives at the Home of the Students and there recites a creed every night with the other students before going to bed. The creed declares that the individual is nothing when compared to the group and the State.

Equality 7-2521 does not enjoy his schooling because he is too intelligent for the subject matter and thus stands out from his classmates. He tries unsuccessfully to act like the slow-witted Union 5-3992 and is often punished for his differences. However, he believes in the Teachers because they have been appointed by the just and powerful Council, and he feels guilty because he wants a specific job after the end of his schooling, although he should accept the wisdom of the Council of Vocations.

He has always preferred science and, to the Teachers' dismay, asks too many questions about the subject. The Council of Scholars states that the world is flat and at the center of the galaxy, and the schools teach how to bleed men to cure them; Equality 7-2521 wants to know more and dares to wish for a work assignment to the Home of the Scholars. The Home of the Scholars is the source of all inventions, such as glass and the candle, the latter of which had only been discovered a hundred years ago, and Equality 7-2521 wants to join their investigations. When the Council of Vocations announces their assigned vocations, Equality 7-2521 hopes to be made a Scholar even more than a Leader, an honorable profession which leads to election to the City, State, and World Councils. Instead, he is given the profession of Street Sweeper, and he decides to atone for his sin of desire by proudly working his new job.

As a Street Sweeper, Equality 7-2521 lives by a strict daily schedule, and, before their daily visits to the City Theatre to watch plays about work and duty, the Street Sweepers meet with other men at a Social Meeting in the City Hall, where the Leaders give speeches and the men sing hymns about equality and collectivism. Equality 7-2521 lives in this manner for four years, knowing that at age forty, he will be sent to the retirement Home of the Useless as an Old One or, if he lives past forty-five, an Ancient One. He works in a three-person brigade with Union 5-3992 and International 4-8818 , the latter of whom is too full of laughter and thus was assigned to the Street Sweepers instead of the Artists. International 4-8818 is the friend of Equality 7-2521, although they are by law not allowed to admit it.

Two years prior to the writing of his journal, Equality 7-2521 is working beside International 4-8818 because Union 5-3992 is sick with convulsions, and the two discover the iron grill entrance to a tunnel among the weeds next to the City Theatre. Equality 7-2521 decides to explore it, although International 4-8818 opts to stay because he suspects that it is against the law. As Equality 7-2521 investigates the darkness, he realizes that the tunnel must be from the technologically advanced Unmentionable Times. He knows that the Unmentionable Times were horrible, but he still wishes to know more about them.

When Equality 7-2521 returns to the surface, International 4-8818 asks him to report their discovery to the City Council for a reward, but Equality 7-2521 insists on keeping it for himself, knowing that International 4-8818 will not betray his friend (which, after all, would likely earn Equality 7-2521 a death sentence). Afterward, Equality 7-2521 begins to sneak away to the tunnel instead of watching the plays at the City Theatre. With stolen objects and other local materials, he conducts experiments at night, and, with the help of stolen manuscripts, he learns many new things and feels no regret for his curiosity and his transgressions of the law.

Anthem 's setting is that of an unclearly defined dystopian society which exists after what Equality 7-2521 calls the Great Rebirth and the end of the Unmentionable Times, an era that appears to be our own. The first paragraph establishes the sinister nature of the society, as the narrator castigates himself for breaking the law by daring to keep a journal. The mention of a Council of Vocations that controls when man can and cannot write also immediately indicates the oppression and jurisdiction over thought in Equality 7-2521's world. Throughout the first chapter, Equality 7-2521 offers no specifics of location that might place him in a particular continent or region, lending a universal feel to the dangers of his society, a sense that is further emphasized by the presence of a "World Council". At the same time, Rand's story has a clear connection to the contemporary political situation, as she wrote the novel partly as a parable to warn about the dangers of Russian Communism and the collectivist philosophy which many major thinkers had at one point in time believed to be a boon for human society.

Although Equality 7-2521 himself expresses guilt rather than awareness of the injustices of his government, he consistently receives punishment from his society for his exceptional qualities, which range from his above-average height of six feet to his intelligence and curiosity regarding the sciences. Because he cannot conform and because he dares to think as an individual rather than as one of the crowd, the Council of Vocations takes away his freedom of choice and makes him a Street Sweeper rather than a Scholar (or, for that matter, any position in which he might make full use of his abilities). The House of Street Sweepers appears to act as a repository for two categories of men -- those such as Union 5-3992 who are too weak or dull for any other job, and those such as Equality 7-2521 and International 4-8818 who are too talented to risk having a more powerful niche in society.

Equality 7-2521 shows only a nascent awareness of his ill treatment at the hands of his collectivist community, indicating that society has successfully enforced conformity in the mental as well as the physical and governmental spheres. As in many dystopian novels of the period -- such as 1984 -- and as in the Soviet Union itself, language becomes a major vehicle through which the society enforces mental compliance. In particular, although Equality 7-2521 narrates Anthem from a first-person point of view, he uses the unorthodox first-person plural form "we" rather than the singular "I." Rand suggests that the collectivist use of language represents an entire viewpoint which is ironically more sinful than all of Equality 7-2521's purported crimes. In addition, Rand names the various Councils in a manner reminiscent of the Councils and Ministries of the Soviet Union.

Because of the brainwashing that characterizes the world of Anthem , the conflict in the novel has a dual nature. In one sense, Equality 7-2521 is an innovator in an emerging conflict with the stagnant status quo of his society, as he begins to defy the authorities by exploring the tunnel and by keeping it for himself so that he might conduct experiments underground; this conflict appears in turn poised to become more significant as the novel continues. At the same time, Equality 7-2521 is in conflict with himself, as his individualist nature collides with the culture of compliance that has raised him for over twenty years. The antagonist is in both cases an aspect of collectivism, but Equality 7-2521 faces physical obstacles in the first case and mental ones in the second case. Interestingly, the conventions of good and evil are reversed not only in the societal definitions of sin but also in the portrayal of black and white. Whereas white is normally the color of innocence and purity, here it appears most prominently in the oppressive sleeping halls, while black is associated with the freedom of the dark tunnel.

Rand thus far presents Equality 7-2521 as the only truly outstanding individual in his city, but International 4-8818 serves as an example of a worthy man who does not quite have the qualities necessary to engage in a struggle with the oppression of collectivism. As Equality 7-2521's foil, he shares some of the protagonist's creativity and skill, but whereas Equality 7-2521 has a serious nature and prefers the sciences, International 4-8818 has "laughter in his eyes" and apparently has some skill as an artist. Both have suffered because the Council of Vocations deemed them too capable for their true vocations, but International 4-8818 is afraid of punishment and refuses to explore the tunnel with Equality 7-2521. Nevertheless, his loyalty and ability to maintain a friendship in defiance of the law make him a valuable, if not entirely admirable, character.

Anthem Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Anthem is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is a typical day like in Equality’s life?

A typical day in Equality's life consists of waking up in a communal sleeping hall, eating breakfast with his fellow street sweepers, performing his assigned job during the day, and attending government-mandated classes and leisure activities in...

You write "in" . Are you referring to a specific chapter or the book as a whole?

How does equality 7-2521 demonstrate his rejection of his society in

In what? Are you referring to a specific section of the novel?

Study Guide for Anthem

Anthem study guide contains a biography of Ayn Rand, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Anthem
• Anthem Summary
• Character List

Essays for Anthem

Anthem literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Anthem by Ayn Rand.

• The Merit of Ipseity
• Ayn Rand in Context
• Family Sway
• The Evolution of Equality: A Self-Liberated Character
• A Curious Aspect of Progress: Inquiry vs. Oppression in 'Anthem'

Lesson Plan for Anthem

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Anthem
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Anthem Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Anthem

• Introduction

TOP STORIES

News and analysis from the day’s top stories., trump campaign co-opts beyoncé’s ‘freedom,’ the harris campaign’s anthem.

By Clarissa-Jan Lim

Since launching her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris has used Beyoncé’s “Freedom” as a soundtrack to her candidacy — with the artist’s permission . On Tuesday, a Donald Trump campaign spokesperson appeared to co-opt the song, using it in a video of the former president deplaning in Michigan for a campaign event.

“Touchdown in Michigan!!” Steven Cheung wrote in the post on X. He also tagged Trump, who recently returned to the platform .

The Trump campaign has used songs without artists’ permission over the years. Several musicians or their estates have asked Trump to stop using their songs at his rallies, and some have threatened legal action.

The GOP campaign spokesperson’s use of a song that Harris had established as her anthem of sorts is somewhat ironic. Trump recently accused the Democratic nominee of stealing his proposal to end taxes on tips, a policy she floated earlier this month and one he initially put forward in June. (Though neither candidate has released their full plan, many economists have criticized the idea, saying it would result in workers pressuring customers to tip more and encourage Americans to declare more of their income as tips .)

Cheung’s video may prompt legal action from Beyoncé, who is known to be protective over the rights to her music . The singer has not commented publicly on the video. When reached for comment by The Hill , Cheung responded: “Freedom, freedom!”

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for MSNBC Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.