Analysis Of Anthem By Ayn Rand

I believe that Ayn Rand’s early and later life in Russia affected her in such a way that she was pushed to write Anthem. Ayn Rand, born in St. Petersburg, Russia lived through the Communist Revolution and saw the social change from words like ‘I’ to ‘We’ and ‘ Me’ to “Us”. Ayn Rand says in the preface of her Anthem, “I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.(Rand, p. introduction) She saw what could happen if a country went fully into these ideas of collectivism, so she decided to write this book to show people the horrifying reality of what a country can become when it gets wrapped up in collectivism. In this paper, I will look back and examine
Ayn loved literature, especially fiction. Her mother at an early age used to bring home French adventure stories, Ayn devoured book after book she brought home. Plans changed, of course. When she was twelve, the Russian Revolution began. She saw firsthand that this revolution was going to inevitably end in Soviet rule. Her father was the owner of a pharmacy and it was quickly nationalized. Their family was reduced to close to nothing at all. Ayn was able to attend Leningrad State University where she studied philosophy and history. As usual, again Soviet rule affected her in a negative connotation; she was almost expelled from the university during a purge of students without proletarian backgrounds. At the age of twenty-one she was able to secure a visa to America to escape Russia. She gets away and works and practices furiously every spare second to develop her skills as a writer. In the transcript of the University of Arizona for “Ayn Rand and the writing of Anthem” they say, “ After a few years, she has decided she had matured enough and her English is developed enough that she is ready to start work on her first
She was treated as part of a group and never given a voice.The main character of the book Equality 7-2521 uses the terms ‘We’ and ‘Us’ up until the very end. In the very end, he finds his individual self and so does the Golden One. He decides he wants to show his individualism so he decides he needs a name, and names himself Prometheus. He names The Golden One Gaea. They see the importance of individualism and find themselves.
In conclusion Ayn Rand lived a life that she did not want others to ever have to live. I think she did a very good job of showing us the importance of individualism. Ayn Rand was forced to live a life that she wanted no one else to have to live, which is why I thought she wrote the book with emotion and it hit hard to me and a lot of people. She shows in this that the world doesn’t always have to be individual and by ourselves but it is important for us to see the importance of Individualism. The people who do have read this now know what not to do and if it happens how to correct