Anthem by Ayn Rand: Background Notes

Ayn Rand

• Born in Russia in 1905

• Left Russia for America in 1926 at the age of 21.

• Wrote Anthem in 1937 while she was conducting research for her most famous novel The Fountainhead.

Anthem Background

• American publishers initially didn’t want to publish the book because in the 1930’s many liberals, intellectuals, and journalists were advocating communism. This decade was referred to as the Red Decade (Wikipedia).

• The book was finally published in America in 1946.

• For this publication, Rand re-wrote the original and included a new foreword.

The book itself

• The main characters in the book live in a society where each person lives his/her life for the good of society without thinking about his/her own desires. Ayn Rand is criticizing this way of living which she describes as collectivism. Because everyone lives for the group, the main characters don’t refer to themselves as “I” but rather “we”.

More on the book

• Example: Instead of “I’m sick today.” If I was a character in Anthem, I would say, “We’re sick today.” This is because the characters are never alone and they think of themselves as always existing as part of a group.

• The characters have significant names like Equality 7-2521.

Themes: Collectivism

• The greater good for all; to practice collectivism, one must merge himself into the group, and the only way to do this is to erase individual identity and individual thought

• Anthem speaks against or criticizes this way of thinking/living.

Value of Identity

• Every person is independent and has rights. A person has a right to feelings and private thoughts. Sometimes, a person must consider his/her own needs first before considering the needs of other people.

• In the novel, “I” symbolizes individualism.

Free Will

• When an individual makes choices, decisions, direct his/her own lives by the ideas and values he/she adopts.

Reflection

• Value and Identity: A person has a right to feelings and private thoughts. Sometimes, a person must consider his or her own needs first before considering the needs of other people

Questions

• Do you believe that you need to consider your own needs first before others? Why or why not?

• Describe an instance from your own life where you had to put yourself first before your friends or family despite pressure to do otherwise.