Anthem

1. Anthem By Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

2. Ayn Rand’s Biography • Anthem was written by Ayn Rand. • She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905. • She witnessed both the Kerensky and Bolshevik Revolutions during her teenage years in Russia. • In order to escape the fighting during the Russian revolution, her family went to the Crimea, where she finished high school.

3. After high school, she attended the University of Petrograd and later the State Institute for Cinema Arts. • In late 1925. she obtained permission to leave Soviet Russia for a visit to relatives in the United States. • Although she told Soviet authorities that her visit would be short, she was determined never to return to Russia, and she never did. • In Hollywood, she met actor Frank O’Connor, whom she married in 1929.

4. Ayn Rand’s Biography (cont’d.) • After struggling for several years at various non-writing jobs, she sold her first screenplay, Red Pawn, to Universal Pictures in 1932. • Her first novel was We the Living. • She began writing The Fountainheadin 1935. • While writing The Fountainhead, she took a break in 1937 to write Anthem. • She began writing Atlas Shrugged in 1946.

5. Ayn Rand wrote and lectured on her philosophy of “Objectivism,” which she characterized as “a philosophy for living on earth.” • Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982, in her New York City apartment. • Every book by Ayn Rand published in her lifetime is still in print, and hundreds of thousands of copies are sold each year, so far totaling more than 25 million.

6. Genre: Anti-Utopian/Dystopian Fiction • Definition: • Depicts a (generally futuristic) society that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. • It has underlying cautionary tones, warning society that if we continue to live how we do, this will be the consequence. • It is regarded as a negative utopia and is often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian (ex: communism) form of government.

7. Genre: Anti-Utopian/Dystopian Fiction • Dystopias usually feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, a lack or total absence of individual freedoms and expressions and constant states of warfare or violence. • Dystopias often explore the concept of technology going "too far" and how humans individually and en masse use technology. • A dystopian society is also often characterized by mass poverty for most of its inhabitants and a large military-like police force.

8. Genre: Anti-Utopian/Dystopian Fiction • Rand’s Version of the Anti-Utopia/Dystopia: • Ayn Rand did not believe it was possible to have a society that is tyrannical, yet has a highly technological economy. • She held that economic progress depends upon freedom, that the free mind is the source of technology, prosperity, and progress. • Thus the collectivist society she depicts is stagnant and primitive.

9. Collectivism vs. Objectivism • Collectivism – a form of communism; the subjugation of the individual to the group – whether to a race, class, or state does not matter. In Anthem, Ayn Rand will present a collectivist society that is stagnant and primitive, and the word "I" is obsolete. The individual . . . • is owned by the group • has no right to a private existence • has no right to lead his own life, pursue his own happiness, or use his own property • exists only as part of the group

10. Collectivism vs. Objectivism • Objectivism/Individualism –regards every man as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism does not mean that one can do whatever he feels like doing; it means that every man or woman is an individual and has the same rights. The individual . . . • has rights • will not run anyone else’s life, nor let anyone run theirs • will not rule or be ruled • will not be a master nor a slave • will not sacrifice themselves to anyone, nor sacrifice anyone to themselves

11. About Anthem • Anthem is one of AynRand's earlierworks. • It warns of the fears of Collectivismthat characterize Objectivism. • The novel is set in the futureand has a universal, timeless feel in its characterization of an ideal character's struggle against an all-powerfulstate. • In the relatively short novella, Rand sets the individual against the collective and concludes that the rational celebration of selfis the only avenue through which technological and societal progress can occur without the suppression of free will.

12. More About Anthem • As in the case of many contemporary writers of dystopian/anti-utopian fiction, Rand initially wrote her novel as a warning against Soviet Communism before the end of World War II. • Rand rejected all forms of Collectivism as inherently flawed, a conclusion that undoubtedly had roots in her experiences in early twentieth-century Russia. • Unsurprisingly, given her background, Rand was a staunch opponent of Communism before and during the Cold War. • In her view, Collectivism led inevitably to the persecution of people with original ideas, as well as to the punishment of the able by forcing them to serve the state.

13. Communism Background Information • Communism - a government where the desires of the group are more important than the individual. • People share work fairly and are paid equally. • The word “Communism” comes from the Latin word “Communis” which means common or belonging to all. • Goal: to get rid of social classes & make everything fair for everyone.

14. Red Scare in the U.S. In US history, the term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong anti-communism: the First Red Scare, from 1917 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957.

15. The Scares were characterized by the fear that communism would upset the capitalist social order in the United States; the First Red Scare feared worker revolution and political radicalism. • The Second Red Scare feared (national and foreign) communists infiltrating the Federal Government.

16. Anthem: Key Facts, Symbols, & Motifs Setting - Sometime in the distant future, after the collapse of the social order because of the common acceptance of collectivist values; location is in an unidentified city Protagonist - Equality 7-2521 Point of View – First Person (Plural); Equality’s POV Symbols - Light; the forest; manuscripts Motifs - Darkness and light/ ignorance and knowledge/ transgression and damnation

17. Themes of Anthem • Individualism or Egoism (celebration of self): • Equality 7-2521 struggles throughout the novel with his growing desire to spend time alone, to write for his own benefit, and to create at his own leisure and for his own purposes. • Dangers of Collectivism: • The World Council of Scholars embodies one of the chief evils of Collectivism, which is the inability of a collective government to come to a conclusion and take action on behalf of the society it governs. • Martyrsas Heroes: • A martyr is one who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.   • Creativity& Originality: • Rand believed a man’s value rests in the originality of his mind as expressed in his work, and the value of his work resides in his personal investment in it. • Loveand Friendship: • Rand thinks love and friendship are not simply an irrational attachment to another human being. Instead, they are the result of the mutual recognition of like-minded individuals.