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
punished for thus. If a town punishes a criminal for committing a crime, it was hurtful to the town as it posed the potential of ruining the current society for good or for bad.
Second of all, the World Council was hurt by Equality’s sin of individuality.
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
Council.
Thirdly, Equality’s standard of living was hurt by his sin of individuality. Soon after Equality enters the uncharted forest, he thinks, “We have made a bow and many arrows. We can kill more birds than we need for our food; we find water and fruit in the forest. At night, we choose a clearing, and we build a ring of fires around it. We sleep in the midst of the ring, and the beasts dare not attack us. We can see their eyes, green and yellow as coals, watching us from the tree branches beyond,” (Rand 84). This quote shows how Equality and Liberty are living with little to no shelter and even less technology than the already technologically ridden society they previously lived in. The act of heightening the chances of death in any situation is anything but good.
Equality 7-2521’s sin was hurtful to the community of his town, the World Council, and his own standard of living, thus his eventual assessment of his sins were incorrect. Firstly, Equality hurt his home town by breaking its largest of laws. In addition, Equality hurt the World Council by destroying the very structure of the society they had worked hard to create. Finally, Equality hurt his own standard of living by leaving society to become a roamer with little shelter or technology. Ayn Rand had an Objectivist political agenda hidden in Anthem, but her agenda was pushed to the point of destruction.