Anthem

1. Anthem By Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

3. About the Author • Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905. • At age six she taught herself to read and decided to make fiction writing her career at age nine.

4. About the Author At the University of Petrograd, Rand studied philosophy and history. When introduced to American history, she immediately took America as her model of what a nation of free men and women could be. Eventually, Rand obtained permission to leave Soviet Russia for the United States. She spent six months with relatives in Chicago and then worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for much of her adult life.

5. About the Author During her career as a screenwriter, Rand began writing novels. Between writing chapters of The Fountainhead, Rand worked on the “anti-collectivist novella Anthem” (1937).

6. Plot Summary • Anthem is a work of dystopian fiction (dystopian is a word with Greek roots that refers to a society opposite of a utopia). • It takes place in a future world in which society is governed by “collectivism”(a system similar to communism). The community has many rules with strict consequences and virtually no freedoms.

7. Collectivism vs. Individualism • In Collectivism the individual . . . • is owned by the group • has no right to a private existence • has no right to lead his own life, pursue his own happiness, or use his own property • exists only as part of the group

8. Collectivism vs. Individualism • In Individualism the individual . . . • has rights • will not run anyone else’s life, nor let anyone run theirs • will not rule or be ruled • will not be a master nor a slave • will not sacrifice themselves to anyone, nor sacrifice anyone to themselves

9. Plot Summary • In Anthem, technological advancement is limited by government (known as The Council). The society of Anthem lives in a dark age in which technology like electricity has disappeared. • Men and women are assigned jobs at birth and reproduction is managed by the state. • The concept of individuality has been eliminated. • All individual names have been made numbers preceded by words “Equality” and “Union.”

10. Key Literary Terms • Theme: The central or dominant idea behind the story; the most important aspect that emerges from how the book treats the subject • Point of View: The position or vantage point from which the events of a story seem to come and are presented to the reader • Setting: When and where the short story, play, or novel takes place • Narrator: The one who tells the story • Motif: A recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event

11. Motifs • A motif is a recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event. The following motifs are present in Anthem. • The use of darkness and light • The presence of ignorance and knowledge • The idea of transgression and damnation

12. Motifs (cont’d) • Fear • Fear in Anthem characterizes those social lepers who do not have enough sense of themselves to understand that each individual is the center of his or her universe. • Naming • In the society in Anthem, naming is a form of identifying one’s possessions as one’s own. For this reason, Equality 7-2521 names the Golden One on two separate occasions, names himself, and searches relentlessly for the word “I.” • Shapelessness • Like fear, shapelessness in Anthem connotes evil because it illustrates a lack of willingness or ability to believe in something and to stand behind it.

13. The Council

14. Who is the hero of Anthem? The hero is somebody who is fearless, one who will stand up for the self, not the society. The hero is searching for his own identity. The closest thing to a climax in the book is when the hero discovers the word- I.

15. To Know, before you read… • The novel is written using the word “We” because people were not allowed to use the word “I”, they were a collective society & not an individual one • The novel is written in the future and people can barely remember/know what life was like (life as society now). Imagine that everything has been wiped out & society is starting from scratch even though it is the future

16. Intro Activity 1 Read the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and answer the following questions: • What kind of “night” could suppress an individual? What other language in the poem suggests the theme of oppression? • Sum up the message of the poem in one sentence. • How does the message compare to messages in the works of ancient literature we have read?

17. Key Facts • type of work · Novella • genre · Anti-Utopian (The world presented is the world as it should NOT be.) • time and place written · The United States, 1937 • narrator · Equality 7-2521 writes the journal of the events as they transpire over the course of several months. • point of view · Equality 7-2521 speaks in the first person (plural) He will refer to himself as “we” instead of “I.” • tone · Equality 7-2521 records his thoughts and actions in a straightforward manner, with no trace of irony. • tense · Present, with some past-tense narration

18. Key Facts • setting (time) · Sometime in the distant future, after the collapse of the social order because of the common acceptance of collectivist values • setting (place) · An unidentified city; much of the first half of Anthem is narrated from a tunnel underground where Equality 7-2521 is hiding, and the second half is narrated from a forest where he has taken refuge from a society that hates him. • protagonist · Equality 7-2521 • symbols · Light; the forest; manuscripts

19. Equality 7-2521’s New Name • Equality 7-2521 • The Unconquered • Prometheus • In Greek mythology, Prometheus surpassed all in cunning and deceit. He held no awe for the gods, and he ridiculed Zeus. Prometheus was the creator of man. He stole fire from heaven and gave it to his human creations.

20. Liberty 5-3000’s New Name • Liberty 5-3000 • The Golden One • Gaea • In Greek mythology, Gaea is known as Earth or Mother Earth. She is considered the primeval divinity of earth, one of the primal elements who first emerged at the dawn of creation, along with air, sea, and sky. She was the great mother of all.