Anthem

By Ayn Rand

ANTHEM is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age. Technological advancement is now carefully planned and the concept of individuality has been eliminated. Equality 7-2521, writing by candlelight in a tunnel under the earth, tells the story of his life up to that point. He exclusively uses plural pronoun(s) ("we", "our", "they") to refer to himself and others. He was raised like all children in his society, away from his parents in collective homes. Later, he realized that he was born with a "curse", that makes him learn quickly and ask many questions. He excelled at the Science of Things and dreamed of becoming a Scholar. However, a Council of Vocations assigns all people to their Life Mandate, and he was assigned to be a Street Sweeper. He accepts his street sweeping assignment as penance for his "Transgression of Preference" in secretly desiring to be a Scholar. He finds an entrance to a tunnel in their assigned work area. Despite his friend's protests that any exploration unauthorized by a Council is forbidden, Equality enters the tunnel and finds that it contains metal tracks. He realizes that the tunnel is from the Unmentionable Times of the distant past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wisehouse Classics
• Release date: Dec 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9789176371473

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) wrote the bestselling novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) and founded the philosophy known as objectivism. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Rand taught herself to read at the age of six and soon resolved to become a professional writer. In 1926, she left Communist Russia to pursue a screenwriting career in Hollywood, and she published her first novel ten years later. With her next book, the dystopian novella Anthem (1938), she introduced the theme that she would devote the rest of her life to pursuing: the inevitable triumph of the individual over the collective. 

Book preview

TWELVE

PART ONE

IT IS A SIN TO WRITE THIS. IT IS A SIN TO THINK WORDS NO OTHERS THINK and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!

But this is not the only sin upon us. We have committed a greater crime, and for this crime there is no name. What punishment awaits us if it be discovered we know not, for no such crime has come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it.

It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air. Nothing moves in this tunnel save our hand on the paper. We are alone here under the earth. It is a fearful word, alone. The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this is the great transgression and the root of all evil. But we have broken many laws. And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to see only two legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us the shadow of our one head.

The walls are cracked and water runs upon them in thin threads without sound, black and glistening as blood. We stole the candle from the larder of the Home of the Street Sweepers. We shall be sentenced to ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention if it be discovered. But this matters not. It matters only that the light is precious and we should not waste it to write when we need it for that work which is our crime. Nothing matters save the work, our secret, our evil, our precious work. Still, we must also write, for—may the Council have mercy upon us! —we wish to speak for once to no ears but our own.

Our name is EQUALITY 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all men wear on their left wrists with their names upon it. We are twenty-one years old. We are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall. Ever have the Teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and frowned and said: There is evil in your bones, EQUALITY 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers. But we cannot change our bones nor our body.

We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear, that we know and do not resist.

We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike. Over the portals of the Palace of the World Council, there are words cut in the marble, which we repeat to ourselves whenever we are

"We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever."

We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps us not.

These words were cut long ago. There is green mould in the grooves of the letters and yellow streaks on the marble, which come from more years than men could count. And these words are the truth, for they are written on the Palace of the World Council, and the World Council is the body of all truth. Thus has it been ever since the Great Rebirth, and farther back than that no memory can reach.

But we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to three years in the Palace of Corrective Detention. It is only the Old Ones who whisper about it in the evenings, in the Home of the Useless. They whisper many strange things, of the towers which rose to the sky, in those Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons which moved without horses, and of the lights which burned without flame. But those times were evil. And those times passed away, when men saw the Great Truth which is this: that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together.

All men are good and wise. It is only we, EQUALITY 7-2521, we alone who were born with a curse. For we are not like our brothers. And as we look back upon our life, we see that it has ever been thus and that it has brought us step by step to our last, supreme transgression, our crime of crimes hidden here under the ground.

We remember the Home of the Infants where we lived till we were five years old, together with all the children of the City who had been born in the same year. The sleeping halls there were white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds. We were just like all our brothers then, save for the one transgression: we fought with our brothers. There are few offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers, at any age and for any cause whatsoever. The Council of the Home told us so, and of all the children of that year, we were locked in the cellar most often.

When we were

Reviews for Anthem

[ikeman100 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short SF book about the strangulation of man by the state. Since she left the Soviet Union in 1926, to come to the US, she has experience in this area. Readers of Classic SF will say they have read this theme by others who did it better. Published in 1938 she did it before many of the others.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A little parable about a very collectivist society. Even the word "I" is banned. It is a very flat characterisation, and unbelievable, and banal.

[melydia_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dystopia stories fascinate me because they say so much more about the social issues of the author's own era than the future. Here we have a collectivist society, where the good of the many outweighs the desires of the one. Our hero is a street sweeper, so designated because when it was his turn for a job, what was needed most was another street sweeper. He dreams of being a scholar, but is shot down for thinking himself better than others by rising above his station. When this was written in the late 1930s, collectivism was a popular idea, though in its extreme eventually contributed to the rise of fanatical nationalist groups such as the Nazi party. This particular story is not an especially memorable tale, since it is just about a misfit in a repressed society who eventually escapes, sees the light, finds the truth, etc. Hurray for individualism. Sometimes I wonder if Rand's vision of a dystopian future is so popularly maligned because she preached not just cultural individualism, but economic individualism as well. This book in particular emphasizes the importance of every man working in his own interest rather than for the nebulously-defined public good, though she tends to gloss over the drudgery of factory work and those jobs that don't provide a living wage. Sadly, not everyone has the option of doing the job he wants, or even the job that might serve as a stepping stone to the job he wants. If they did, the world would have a whole lot more artists and a whole lot fewer waiters.That said, I find Rand's writings interesting because they represent such a different way of thinking from the norm. Yes, they are preachy, but I don't find them offensive. After all, the biggest tenet of the philosophy put forth here is the right to choose one's own path, rather than allowing it to be dictated by another. I can see why that would be an appealing idea, even if in many cases it is woefully unrealistic. After all, we aren't all lucky enough to inherit copper mines or train companies.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.

Actually, I have already read Anthem, ages ago, when I was in my sophomore year of high school, so long, apparently, that the yellow of my highlighting is scarcely discernible. At the time, I loathed it, as I did much of my required reading. Now that I'm older and better educated, I have a much better understanding of what Ayn Rand was up to. Though heavy-handed, there is a lot that is interesting in Ayn Rand's brief philosophical work.

Readers unfamiliar with Ayn Rand should know some things before they launch into Anthem. One thing that would be helpful to know is that she's crazy. Her ideas are incredibly radical. She believes in the power of the individual and has loathing for anything that compels a person to do anything. As such, she very much does not approve of collectivism, and that is what she is challenging in Anthem. Though written in story format, Anthem is a thinly veiled philosophical and political tract. This was just a way for her to tell you her opinions, which she will do via her character.

The dystopian society depicted in Anthem is a fascinating one, and I really wish that she had done justice to it. This story would have benefited greatly from more pages and less of the dreaded opinion hammer. In the world of Anthem, men live in the collective, raised to be entirely equal. They go from the Home of the Infants to the Home of the Students to the Home of their designated employment to the Home of the Useless. This is the life of all men. There is no individual, only the collective.

To accomplish this sense of the group, the story is told in first person plural, a very unusual storytelling method, also seen earlier in Dystopian August in What's Left of Me. In essence, this means that the main character, Equality 7-2521 refers to himself as we, because there is only the we. All his life, Equality 7-2521 has not fit in properly, because he is too clever, too curious, too tall and too aware of his superiority. As such, he is forced into a menial profession. His desire for learning cannot be quenched, though, and he finds ways to sneak around and gather knowledge, quickly surpassing the Scholars of his community.

Along the way, he becomes attracted to a woman, something entirely forbidden. He even has the audacity to speak with her and to call her by an individual name (The Golden One). Through all of his rebellion, however, his ultimate goal is to gain acceptance from his community. He wants to show them what he has discovered and to improve their lives. He just wants to be one of them, and, if not admired himself, have his invention admired.

As I said, this could be a powerful tale about the importance of language and individualism. Rand could have made her point more strongly had she shown the reader the truth of it, rather than telling us, from her lordly perch, what we should believe, a rather ironic issue. Her tale about the importance of learning for oneself and not being told what to do is trying to set the reader's opinions.

The other aspect I find rather upsetting is the role of the female character, Liberty 5-3000. She too sees something wrong in the society, as evidenced by her fearless, sharp eyes. However, the reader does not get to learn anything about her besides that and her attraction to Equality 7-2521. While he is inventing things, she continues to do her work. He thinks of her as The Golden One (which refers to her lovely appearance), while she thinks of him as The Unconquered (which speaks to his powerful spirit and intelligence). Even worse, when they learn about people having names just for themselves, he gives himself a name he finds fitting...and then he chooses one for her. Let her pick her own goddamn name. The patriarchal attitude inherent in this made me so incredibly angry, especially when coming from a powerful woman.

For anyone interested in reading dystopias, Anthem is certainly worth perusing, especially since it's so brief. Were Ayn Rand still alive, I bet she would have some choice things to say about No Child Left Behind; imagining this really amuses me.

[jesssika-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I think. I am. I will.

This book is about rediscovering individualism. It's about a future possibly where people are deprived of names, independence, and values. It is a very short but good read.

[carlosmcrey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have this notion that the similarities between Ayn Rand and H.P. Lovecraft merit a closer look, and so I was kind of excited, when I was about two chapters in, to discover that Anthem was first published in 1937, the last year that the Old Gent dwelt within the confines of Euclidean space. Because, and I cannot stress this enough, this novella starts off very much in the Poe/Lovecraft mode of the first-person Gothic tale, with our narrator confessing to his terrible crimes in writing. He's even writing by the light of a stolen candle, and it's hard to get more Gothic than that. And then we learn--more shades of Lovecraft--that the confession is connected to the protagonist's discovery of a subterranean space belonging to a lost civilization about which dark things are muttered.

The setting also has something of the feel of Lovecraft's Dreamlands, since the setting is a city of no later than medieval technology run according to traditions interpreted by a council of elders. (Though no mention is made regarding prohibitions on feline homicide.) So, here we have all the makings of a strong Gothic tale: the society with its arbitrary laws and customs, the daring (if off-kilter) protagonist, the discovery of the lost civilization, the quest for forbidden knowledge. I wish I could say that the story lives up to that early promise, but it doesn't, and since most people won't read this for its Gothic qualities, I'll try not to dwell too much on that.

The first chapter is actually solid enough. There are a few flaws in the world building, but nothing to really ruin the plausibility. In the second chapter, when the main character falls in love with a beautiful lady, we learn that men and women are not allowed to have sexual thoughts except for once a year when they have sex in order to reproduce. This society doesn't have powerful libido-suppressants or brainwave modulators or anything like that at it's disposal. It basically tries to suppress the human sexual drive through disapproval, a strategy with the same long-term prospects as stopping a locust swarm with a large umbrella. (Even Lovecraft, who liked sex way less than Rand did, would only have attempted such a thing with a society of aliens or transdimensional beings or something along those lines.)

Soon, the protagonist discovers electricity--through a plot contrivance that is, frankly, amateurish--and realizes that electricity and lightning ('The power of the sky') are the same thing. Soon, he is experimenting with electricity and, having recreated a light bulb, declaring: "The power of the sky can be made to do men's bidding. There are no limits to its secrets and its might, and it can be made to grant us anything if we but choose to ask." That's not the only instance of an increasingly mad scientist tone that the protagonist takes on.

Having figured out the principles of the funny glass spheres in the cave and the protagonist reinvents the light bulb. He gets excited about showing it to the elders, reasoning that never had such an invention been offered to men. And I realize that maybe he means the people of his current civilization, but the way it's written, I just wanted to point out the whole cave full of batteries and light bulbs and how he's taking credit for someone else's invention.

This peaks in the climax of the novel, when he shows the light bulb to the elders, and they say it will have to be destroyed, and he runs out, yelling, "You fools! You thrice-damned fools!"

That's also pretty much where the story leaves off being interesting. He runs away to surprisingly unpopulated woods, his lady friend joins him, he makes a bow and arrow (though there's no reason to believe he would have any training in how to do this), they find a conveniently abandoned and well preserved house where he learns (because she's a woman and not up for learning on her own, or something) about the past, and then he engages in a long and tedious rant which is either the kind of thing you're into (if you like Rand's politics/philosophy) or should just be skipped over.

Interestingly (and getting back to the way the story collides into Gothic archetypes), the story ends at a familiar premise: the hero in an ancient, isolated structure believing himself safe and the rightful lord of the property wherein he dwells. In a Gothic text, that tends to be where things start to go wrong

There are some other elements, minor absurdities which wouldn't stand out so much if the rest of the work was actually engaging. One thread is how certain words--such as I, she, he, and ego--have been forbidden, but it's kind of half-assed, and if you're interested in how a regime might manipulate language to make the wrong kind of thoughts impossible, stick to Orwell's 1984. (Rand may have experienced totalitarianism up close, but her understanding of it does not match Orwell's.)

Really, the main problem is that at this point in her career, the need to deliver a polemic has started to take over whatever gifts Rand has as a writer. At least a pulp stylist like Lovecraft could have made this entertaining, though the moral message would likely have been much more ambiguous. I do wonder what Ayn Rand's version of "Herbert West - Reanimator" would have been like, though.

A note on scoring: I oscillated between 2 and 3 stars for this. That lest section, though brief compared to the filibuster ending of Atlas Shrugged, is painfully dull, but right up until that point, I was entertained enough to be leaning towards 3 stars. I thought about downgrading, but since it's so eminently skippable, I decided I shouldn't penalize the novel for it.

[librarycatnip · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is on of Ayn Rand's shorter works that encapsulates her ideas about objectivism. I read both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in high school and found them troublingly off-putting. Anthem was no different in that respect. While I sympathize with Rand's emphasis on the importance of individuality, I have trouble with the idea that differences between human beings can and should be used as justification for unequal treatment. Condemning people to street sweeping because they are "less good" in some way than other human beings is no better than condemning people to street sweeping because they do not fit with the dominant culture's idea of "good" people, which is one of the great evils put forth by this novella. I don't think that individual differentiation should be erased by any means, but neither do I think that constructing a social system based on some perception of inherent goodness is an act of justice. Inherent goodness is a relative concept that changes with context and according to the views of the dominant majority. I think there is a middle road to be had here, one that respects individuality and skills without using that respect as an excuse for allowing the suffering of groups deemed less valuable in some way.

I understand Rand's background coming out of the communist Soviet Union, but I don't think that socialism is the social ill that she paints it as in her works. Socialized medicine seems a very good idea to me, for instance. There is no reason that anyone in this country should not be getting the medical care that they need.

[kell1732 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For years I have been meaning to read this book and I finally did over the summer. After I was done with it, I wondered why I hadn’t read this book in the first place. I blamed it on the fact that I tend to be more of a fantasy reader than a science fiction reader. However, I am now finding a place in my heart for this genre.I was pretty disturbed by this book. Not only was the government in this book “recruiting” young geniuses to fight their wars for them, but they were turning it into a game. Since every training exercise was a game many of the children would forget the fact they were training for war, which gave me the creeps. War, in this future world, is a game to the people who are being forced to fight it.This book really made me think about the prevalence of war based video games today. Now, I’m not against these games but I did find it interesting to compare what these children were doing during training to what my friends do in their own living rooms. There were some eerie similarities between the two, like the planning and strategy that sometimes goes in to playing them.While there were some parts that were a little slow, the book was totally worth the read. It really makes the reader look more critically at how our society views war today and even video games. I give this book a 4/5 and I recommend it to most everyone. This book is proof that the science fiction genre can have literary value despite what critics of the genre may say.

[kilgor_trout_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Anthem was a bit of a disappointment to me. It felt like she used the generic utopia story as a vehicle to shove anti-communist jargon down my throat. I can respect any philosophical idea in any book, but subtlety is a tool that talented authors have at their discretion. I haven't given up on Rand yet, this is the only book of hers I've read.

[alera_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Man is individual, unique. It is the mind that makes each person different from another. When the mind is twisted, warped, centered on the 'we' as opposed to the 'I' something gets lost. That is what Anthem is about. It's about the heart of man, the spark of the individual. It's about how one life means more than the betterment of the whole. That's not to say one should choose their life over the whole, but merely that they should have a choice because it is their life. The last two chapters are the declaration, the anthem, of what it is to simply be.

[uselessbeauty · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Orwellian but much shorter and less wordy.

[lyncollett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this slim novel fascinating. It is a tour-de-force against collectivism in all its forms, and from all ends of the political and religious spectrum, placing one man at the centre of his own life and teaching him to value himself. Yet, from a modern perspective, particularly looking back over the capitalist me-first 1980s, I see shadows, pitfalls and darkness in Equality 7-2521's enlightenment. His enthusiasm for the discovery of "I" is all-consuming and it is difficult to see how it would be possible for everyone to live at this extreme without generating huge amounts of conflict. It is also intriguing that in describing his vision of his new world and the people who will share it with him, he does not seem to contemplate the possibility that each of these individuals in whom he intends to generate this same sense of self-discovery and self-importance (in the non-perjorative sense) may disagree with his vision of how man shall live. The role of the Golden One also intrigued me as, even in their enlightenment, she seems subservient - Equality 7-2521 names her, rather than allowing her to discover for herself the ideas he has encountered and name herself. This surprised me, given the author is a woman. Of course, to explore the implications of a world inhabited by individualists would be a whole other novel and from that perspective, such a discussion would detract from the central message of Rand's novel, diluting the message and creating too much ambiguity. If the purpose is to expose the dystopian end-results of the increasing trend for collectivist thinking in the 1930s (both fascist and communist), an in-depth and thoughtful exploration of whether it is possible for all people to live at the extreme opposite end of individualism is not the way to do it, and to illustrate her point and create a powerful novel, Rand had to occupy the extremes. I am certainly keen now to explore Rand's other works to see how these ideas continued and developed.The parallels between this and other dystopian novels by Rand's contemporaries are of course inescapable and yet she brings a fresh voice to the discussions, choosing to characterise the collectivists as having retreated from the advances of industrialised life rather than creating an even more modern and stylised future filled with technology and science.Her prose is engaging and absorbing. The use of language is clever and yet, like all good writing, much of the workings are hidden, creating the intended effect in the reader but leaving them to unpick later how she did it. The use of grammar captured perfectly the dehumanising power of collectivism and the idea that you can be both within a group and utterly alone at the same time. The novel is well-paced and tightly written - every sentence advancing the story or the ideas within it. "Anthem" is a thoroughly absorbing and entertaining way to spend an afternoon and yet will leave you thinking for many years.

[lhazel_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having the freedom of choice is something that people of this country rarely realize is a privilege. Ayn Rand’s descriptions of a futuristic society in which people have no choice in their lives truly puts this privilege of ours into perspective. In her novel Anthem, Rand gives readers a quick but thoughtful glance at life without this free choice. Throughout the novel the reader follows the main characters journey, Equality 7-2521. Right off the bat the reader is thrown into a world in which we find that writing is illegal; being alone itself is breaking the law and the moral code of the world. Equality 7-2521 lives in a world in which not only is personal thought is forbidden, but the idea of the individual is unheard of. The terms ‘we’ and ‘they’ are all Equality 7-2521 know to describe himself and others. A general grouping of people in the “World State” is all they must think of, in one unit, one entity- the brotherhood. In this distant future described, Rand shows the reader a place in which our world has gone from technological advancements to an entire regression in how the world is run; back to the most ancient of times. The world is run by great leaders of the “World State”, and otherwise unquestioned by those who follow its society. There is no daring dream of difference or discovery by any, as far as the reader can tell. That is everyone except Equality 7-2521. His unearthing of enjoyment and pleasure through science and experimenting is what becomes the powerful key to this rapid paced novel.The differences between our world today and that of Rand’s world in the novel are dramatic. With her distant voice in this first person point of view tale, Rand’s model of a future dystopia is something that leaves the reader with goose bumps in the end. With the message of never forgetting to be the unique person that makes us all individuals in this world, and embracing the choice that one has to do so, it is one of the stories that may need to be read twice in order to understand its full picture. Quick but powerful, this novel truly strikes a chord in me to read more of Rand’s work.

[carter_who · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Ayn Rand book I've ever read. I'm currently reading The Fountainhead as well.I've been aware of Ayn Rand's views on collectivism, capitalism, and objectivism for many years now and I share her beliefs and ideology.Anthem is a very simple story, I read the whole book in about two hours. It's the story of a man who grows up being constantly punished for thinking for himself. The concepts of "I" and self are completly forbidden in this mass collective society.I love Miss Rand's style of writing and the great use of metaphor and imagery. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521's discovery of electricity and light describes the underlying theme that the collective mind lives in darkness and ignorance. It is the individual that matters, the individual that discovers and invents, the individual that creates.How poignant it is to think that this book, written in the 30's, really speaks to our day and our society's slow migration towards collectivism. It's a frightening wake up call for anyone who wishes to remain free from slavery. In Ayn Rand's own words, from the forward - "People who want slavery should have the grace to call it by it's true name. Collectivism is slavery."

[magadri-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fairly thin dystopian novel. Not much was said here that you couldn't read in something like "We" or "1984." Rand's tone was fairly didactic, but that isn't surprising given Rand's reputation. Overall, I give it 3 out of 5 stars because I did enjoy it, but I felt that more could have been done with it.

[readingover50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book on the serial reader app. It is the first Ayn Rand book I have read and I really enjoyed it. I read it during my breaks during work and it was very hard to put down when it was time to go back to work. I felt the story was very original and I was excited to see what would happen to Equality 7-2521. His society was very disturbing although I did find the ending to be equally disturbing. The use of the plural pronouns made the story that much more intriguing to me.

[loveatfirstbook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anthem by Ayn Rand is a fabulous dystopian-era read. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian reads, this one will hook you from the very first page. And at 105 pages, you’ll speed through Anthem!Equality 7-2521 is a member of society and seems to be too smart for his own good. The society focuses on unity, instead of the individual, a collective “we.” But this doesn’t work for Equality 7-2521 because he has goals, wishes, hopes that seem to place him on the outskirts of society.When he discovers an opening to a closed-off and unused sewer, he takes it for himself as a sort of laboratory. While it is highly illegal to do so, but Equality 7-2521 spends much time in his underground lair, writing in a secret journal (which is how we know what’s going on in the story) and conducting scientific experiments.For the full review, visit Love at First Book

[nakedsushi · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Anthem is a bit over the top in its portrayal of a communist society, but it's still an entertaining read with a feel-good ending. Ayn Rand is heavy handed about the lack of individualism and the stifling pressure to conform. Luckily, it's a short read and a good dystopian novel.

[jgrann_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the concept of this book - that language controls humans understanding of themselves. It's a challenging idea and was an interesting vehical for Rand's philosophy. Certainly worth reading.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Highly suggested for anyone -- perhaps should be required for anyone advocating collectivism.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was just OK for me. After Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged it was a bit of a disappointment. Orwell did this better.

[1morechapter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anthem is a great introduction to the philosophy of Ayn Rand. A dystopian novella, it is much less intimidating than The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. I guess it’s considered science fiction as well, so I also counted it for Carl’s Sci-Fi Experience.It was extremely fascinating reading this book after having read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and The Giver by Lois Lowry last year, both of which were in my 2007 Top 10. Anthem definitely borrows from We, and The Giver most definitely borrows from Anthem. In Rand’s book, the main character even refers to himself as ‘We’ because in his society individuality is highly suppressed, and the goal is for it to be eliminated. Everything must be done for the brothers in the collective and nothing for the individual.While I agree with Rand’s philosophy to a point, I believe she takes it just a bit too far. I very much enjoyed this book, but at the end it just felt too preachy to be rated the same as We and The Giver, which both received 4.5 stars.

[nm1spring1081e1barns · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I greatly enjoyed this book, it had a great story and a great point to tell and show. It had great discriptions and it was very Interesting and i would have never guessed the ending of the book would happen the way it did.

[alixtii · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Rand's description of a socialist/communist dystopia and the story of a man and a woman who somehow manage to regain their individuality within it nonetheless. Is it fair to Marxism? Probably not, but it's true that the theory's weakest point is the vagueness of its eschatological vision, and so I can well believe that this is what Rand took away as believing the "collectivists" were arguing for.Politics aside, the problem is that as a writer, the premise doesn't really allow her to shine: her best books, like Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are ones where the focus is on characters which, if not quite fully realized and three-dimensional, are at least fun to read about, like Dagny Taggert and Dominique Francon. Watching these characters debate philosophy while running around like Nietzschean ubermenschen can be entertaining even if one doesn't agree with the position she is pushing, but here there really isn't anything left but the didacticism.Rand's misogyny and anti-feminism are in full presence here as elsewhere in Rand's work. The story is told from the male's perspective, with the female character being silent throughut the work, denied a voice of her own. While one of the male's most triumphant moments is when he gives himself a name, this is denied to the female; he names her too. Maybe these are the kinds of things Rand herself looked forward to and saw as providing hope that utopia would rise from dystopia, but I don't think most women would find them so.

[nickdreamsong · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This fable about a man who flees the organic collective society of the "we" and rediscovers individuality may, upon a first reading, seem dated. After all, we live in the shadow of the greatest "Me" generation the world has ever known, right?But there is something alarming and insidious in a world where language is taken away from a people, where students or employees or dissidents are punished for the words they use, where political correctness supersedes meaning. As I recently re-read Rand’s novella, I could not help but think that Equality 7-2521 not only lived in a world bereft of self, but a world bereft of meaning, and I wondered if the path to that world began with the bowdlerization of social and political discourse and ended with the demise of the self.

[erniepratt · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Rated G
A sci-fi look at Ayn Rand's Objectivism Philosophy. A futuristic story about Individualism and following one's bliss.

[sean191 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you liked Brave New World and 1984, this is worth a read.

[df1a_sarahg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was actually really interesting. It takes place in the future where everyone is supposed to be equal and they all refer to themselves as "we". It really makes you think about the way that we live and what it would be to live like they did in the book.

[audacity88_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Starts strong but loses its cohesion somewhere around the point where the protagonist discovers electricity - by chance.

[yougotamber · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First: Some questions that went through my head while reading this.
1. If we lived in a collective society, how would we experience or ignore certain events that come to pass that would feel abnormal or alien to us?
2. Would the mind automatically wonder of things forbidden? or would this happen to only a few? (like the main character and what he thinks is his curse).
3. Is this society possible? could it ever exist? Are we already living in a society where this is happening (in certain ways)?

To be someone without an identity, a mindless herd. I put myself in the shoes of the main character and threw myself into this word as best I could... and I found it to be terrifying to think of. Thinking of it, I realize that out society has many similarities to the world and characters within the story. Going day to day, doing the same thing, without original thought or identity is something that happens all the time. But the question is... how much does original thought and identity really matter? If looked at on a whole, our existence matter very little once our time has ended. We believe it's important to have our own voice and ideas but in the end it plays a part only DURING our existence in the here and now. If you put religion or spiritual beliefs into the equation then the view will change but without those things there is hardly a reason for doing anything or experiencing anything.

I do not like feeling this way about life and tend to avoid if fairly successfully. This book brought those questions and thoughts through my mind again. It is just another way of looking at our existence and trying to make meaning of it. This is not to say it is the truth behind our humanity and the meaning of life.... nothing. It should be tread lightly lest you take it's subject matter too closely to your heart and mind.

The books world is a nightmare. It is the type of society that I have nightmares about. Having no free will, no identity. Where is the reason for life? Everything is a machine, no reason for anything. It touches on many topics that I fear from my own thoughts. It was hard to read only because it brought those fears around again. On the other hand, I put myself into the world and felt the excitement of discovery, of seeing familiar things in a new light. Of appreciating what we have in the world around us and not wanting more then what is usual. All these things I have been reminded of through this book. I highly recommend it but caution those who will take those subjects and brood on them... I know it can be done and it's not easy to handle. Stay away, if you are one of those few.