Examples Of Individualism In Anthem

Identity, Individualism, and the Human Spirit

Ayn Rand wrote Anthem two decades after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Rand was greatly influenced by her youth living in the Communist Soviet Union. The USSR originated from the idea that Communism would help the people by collectivizing. Such principles assumed that everyone serves each other according to his ability, then everyone in the society will mutually benefit. In Russia, the rise of Communism was bloody and went along with totalitarian policies in the name of socialism. Ayn Rand explores the flaws of collectivism in Anthem.

Anthem is a social commentary denouncing the social basis of communism and group theory. Rand speculates that the individual should be kept in the highest regard, and

Every human being exists to serve only one master: “WE”. Every hour of the day is scheduled, and no time is given for the individual person (why would you give time to something that supposedly does not exist?). Equality 7-2521 questions his society and himself in the book, in the beginning he is unsettled by the fact that he is not like his brothers, and in the end he completely renounces his society and brothers, taking up Rand’s egoism. “And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which will not die, should we all perish in battle. The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory. The sacred word: EGO.” (Rand,

One where man would not even be able to choose his occupation. Men are regulated down to when they can have sex, “And each of the men have one of the women assigned to them by the Council of Eugenics. Children are born each winter, but women never see their children and children never know their parents. Twice have we been to the Palace of Mating, but it is an ugly and shameful matter, of which we do not like to think” (Rand, 41), to when they can smile or be happy. In this society, men do not have long life spans (men who reach the age of 45 are called “Ancient Ones”), because of the destruction of manuscripts of the “Unmentionable Times”, which presumably are manuscripts from our time. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the monologue of Equality 7-2521, who resides in a City. The reader is not aware of where this City is located geographically. However, the City is obviously part of some larger government, ruled by the World Council, who determines what is good and right for the citizens to be exposed to. The government of the Council has existed since the Great Rebirth, where “many men fought on one side and only few on the other. These few were the Evil Ones and they were conquered. Then great fires raged over the land. And in these fires the Evil Ones and all the things made by the Evil Ones were burned. And the fire which is called the Dawn of the Great