Anthem

1. Anthem Ayn Rand EARTH COLONY 1: Jocelyn Bish, Brandi Clark, Shelby Volosky, Blaine Curley, Cassie Seaburn, Stephanie Burkett, Heather Watson, Mikki Burch, Nicki Cochran & Brooke Benton

2. Ayn Rand – Biography Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum born on February 2nd 1905 (in Russia) to Bourgeois family. Her parents were Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum. Ayn was the eldest of three daughters. Her father was a successful pharmacist with his own pharmacy, but during the time of Vladimir Lenin, his pharmacy was confiscated and the family fled to Crimea. As a teenager, Ayn declared herself as an Atheist (she valued reason above any other human attribute). After universities were open to women, Ayn enrolled at Petrograd State University, but just months before her graduation, she and many other “Bourgeois” students were purged from the university. After complaints from a group of visiting scientists, the students were able to finish their schooling and graduate.

3. Summary: • This book is based on an Utopian society which was created after a war. The society is very digressed and not very technological. The main character, Equality, goes against his society and thinks for himself. He falls in love with the Golden One who is later named Liberty. He also discovers electricity through a “light bulb” when he presents his findings to the Council of Scholars. He is punished for going against what they believe in. He is sent to jail and tortured but managed to escape. He runs off into the forest, unaware that Liberty is following him. Liberty truly loves Equality and together, they run off, starting their new lives. They learn the word “I” instead of “we” and what it means. Both of them start a new life together with their own society and family.

4. Theme of the book • You can control people by fear and hate but you can’t control a person’s thoughts and emotions. • In the book, Equality lives in a world where everyone is the same. They control the people by making them fear the word different. They make the people think something really bad will happen to them if they act differently. Equality is the one who thinks differently and acts upon it. He ends up running away into the woods. The author believes that the only thing man has to fear is his fellows, who will weigh him down. This explains why the book is played out like it is and why the theme would be fear.

5. Objectivism: • 1.) The tendency to lay stress on what is external to or independent of the mind. • 2.) The belief that certain things, especially moral truths, exist independently of human knowledge or perception of them.

6. Objectivism & Anthem: • The proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness. That is the main idea of objectivism. Rand characterized objectivism as “a philosophy for living on earth.” Equality showed objectivism in the novel in many ways. He did not want to live in a society where other men decided his fate. He did not want to be a street sweeper. He also violated his society’s rules by finding true love. Equality loved the Golden One even though it was against the rules for men and women to look at, touch or even talk to each other. Equality decided to take what little life he did have and go off on his own: To start living the life he thought he was meant to live.

7. Ego: • The sacred word in the book was Ego. Ego fits into the book because every person has their own individual ego. Ego is defined as a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance: it gives everybody a sense of individuality. In the book Anthem, each and every person was supposed to be the same. Equality was “cursed” because he was taller than the other men. In this book, you are not allowed to be your own person. The only way you can fit into this society is by being just like everybody else. The men feared punishment if they acted out and tried to be different.