Anthem By Ayn Rand: An Analysis

The dystopian novel “Anthem” by Ayn Rand has many Objectivist political agendas hidden within it. At the beginning of the book, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, says that all of his crimes are sins. Some examples of these crimes were his acts of individuality, writing, and interacting with those of the other sex outside of the Time of Mating. To the average American, these do not seem like crimes at all, but they are in the extremely communistic society in which Equality 7-2521 lives in. By making this society appear as evil, Ayn Rand was pushing her Objectivist political view. Equality later had a different moral assessment of these “sins” thinking that they were what made life full. Equality’s eventual assessment of his sin was incorrect, because his sins were hurtful to the community of his town, the World Council, and his own standard of living.
To begin with, the community of Equality’s home town was hurt by his sin of individuality. After committing the crime of being an individual, one of those who questioned him about the crime said, “Take our brother Equality 7-2125 to the Palace of Corrective Detention. Lash them until they tell,” (Rand 64). This quote shows that Equality had broken one of the largest of laws by being an individual and was
Early in the book, Equality reads the words cut into the marble of the palace of the World Council, “We are in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever,” (Rand 19). This quote shows the basic structure of society set by the World Council. It also shows common use of “we” in place of “I”, the lack of individuality in this society, and how the World Council expects to survive forever. Even if it seems that Equality was fighting for his positive cause, when he committed his multiple sins of individuality, he disobeyed this extremely meaningful quote and hurt the very system of the World