42 pages • 1 hour read
Ayn RandAnthem
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Oppressive Collectivism
Oppressive collectivism is a pervasive theme throughout the novella. The opening lines make clear how thoroughly Equality 7-2521 has internalized his society’s prohibition on independent thought. Using collective pronouns—we, our, us—he indicts himself for the “sin” of writing the text: “It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down on paper no others are to see” (1). This act of self-criticism establishes the dire situation in which Equality 7-2521 finds himself and suggests a narrative arc for the story, as Equality 7-2521 must unlearn the damaging ethics that have been imposed on him.
In the first two chapters, the reader sees what kind of world has so effectively turned the protagonist against himself. The City is controlled by the World Council—a governing body based on collectivism. The citizens are organized into different branches, or Homes and Councils, where they live and perform their assigned social roles. The laws are focused on ensuring complete equality, and people are conditioned to believe in collectivist ideals. Slogans are used to assist in the conditioning process. Such slogans include “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great we, One, indivisible and forever” (5), which is carved into the Palace of the World Council, and “The will of our brothers be done” (10), a common phrase recited by the citizens that appears multiple times in the text. The extent of governmental oppression is further illustrated in the fact that the government has become the sole religion, as expressed through the Teachers’ prayer: “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen” (6). By presenting the World Council as corrupt and oppressive, the author satirizes the concept of collective societal systems.
In the closing chapters Equality 7-2521 undergoes a process of personal enlightenment, and his emerging individualism sheds further light on the dangers of oppressive collectivism. He is now able to see what is wrong with the system he was born under, and he declares, “I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs” (54), suggesting that collectivism is immoral because it turns the individual into an object to be exploited by others. He further argues, “To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else” (59). The author’s primary message (and one of the primary points of criticism of the text) is fully realized, as she argues that true freedom is only achieved by pure individualism—acting only for the self.
Collectivism as a Barrier to Innovation
The connection between individualism and innovation is depicted through the lack of developments in the City of the World Council and through Equality 7-2521’s scientific research, and Rand constructs a narrative that reinforces her philosophy that individual ideas lead to progress and the collective leads to stagnation. The negative impact of collectivism on innovation is satirized in Equality 7-2521’s description of the Scholars’ role: “All the great modern inventions come from the Home of the Scholars, such as the newest one, which was found only a hundred years ago, of how to make candles from wax and string” (8). The Scholars’ reaction to electric light provides another criticism. The Scholars refuse to accept Equality 7-2521’s discovery because he worked alone and because it could have negative impacts for certain people. Solidarity 8-1164 argues, “Many men in the Homes of the Scholars have had strange new ideas in the past […] but when the majority of their brother Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men must” (40). The Scholars’ slow technological advancement and their harsh rejection of Equality 7-2521’s electric light are intended to present the idea that collectivism delays innovative progress.
Equality 7-2521 is able to discover electricity because he devises a way to escape by himself and focus on his own thoughts and interests. He is unable to fully explore his mental capacity while he is surrounded by others and living in a collectivist environment. However, he is able to develop his intellect in the solitude of the tunnel: “Now we sit in the tunnel for three hours each night and we study” (16). Equality 7-2521 is thrilled by his initial discovery of electricity, which occurs while he is examining a dead frog. His experiment alludes to the work of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), an Italian scientist who discovered that the legs of dead frogs respond to electrical stimulation. Galvani’s own life illustrates the potential for conflict between individual innovators and state authority, as he was stripped of his university professorship after refusing to swear loyalty to the French occupation of Northern Italy. Equality 7-2521 uses his discovery to suggest a new innovation—electric light, which is far more efficient than candlelight. This specific innovation carries significant symbolism, as it aligns with Equality 7-2521’s metaphorical identity as Prometheus, the hero of Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods. Near the close of the novella, Equality 7-2521 adopts the name Prometheus to signal his role as a bringer of light both literal (the electric lightbulb) and metaphorical (the “light” of absolute individual freedom).
Individualism as a Prerequisite for Love
In the relationship between Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000, individualism functions as a prerequisite for love. In the collectivist world they escape, love is forbidden as an extreme form of the Transgression of Preference. Men and women are paired for mating purposes by the Council of Eugenics and are not allowed to express or even to feel attraction for one another. Even the language of that world, with its absence of singular personal pronouns, makes it impossible to express romantic love, and Equality 7-2521’s discovery of the word “I”—which allows him to say “I love you”—marks a major turning point in his development from an unhappy member of a collective into a fully formed individual.
Other forms of love also exist in tension with the collectivist values of the World Council. Even before he meets Liberty 5-3000, Equality 7-2521 experiences close bonds with other people. These bonds serve as his only sources of happiness even as they test his commitment to the universal love which, in his world, is supposed to supplant all others. His bond with International 4-8818 is Equality 7-2521’s first personal relationship. Equality 7-2521 is drawn to International 4-8818 because he, too, is “different.” International 4-8818 was an outsider in the Home of the Students because he frequently smiled and “it is not proper to smile without reason” (12). The relationship is one-sided until they find the tunnel, and International 4-8818 accepts the risk of keeping the secret, saying, “Rather shall we be evil with you than good with all our brothers” (27). Equality 7-2521’s feelings of friendship are later extended to Fraternity 2-5503 and Solidarity 9-6347, and he plans to return to the City to rescue them from the oppressive collectivism of the World Council. Like International 4-8818, Fraternity 2-5503 and Solidarity 9-6347 are both incomplete conformers, and their behaviors—crying and screaming for help, respectively—suggest that they are unhappy with collectivism. By presenting these characters as nonconformists and individualists, the author demonstrates that individualism is a requirement of personal relationships. At the same time, personal relationships foster and perpetuate individualism—something the Council clearly realizes, given the lengths to which they go to repress such relationships.
Equality 7-2521’s romantic relationship with Liberty 5-3000 also depicts the connection between individualism and love, suggesting not only that individualism is necessary for love but also that both individualism and love are part of human nature. The intense personal relationships that spring up spontaneously throughout the novella demonstrate that individualism is innate. Equality 7-2521 is driven to kiss Liberty 5-3000’s hands, though, given that he does not know the word for the gesture, he does not understand the concept of kissing—“We only knew suddenly that their hands were empty, but we were still holding our lips to their hands, and that they knew it, but did not move” (30). They experience a similar occurrence when Liberty 5-3000 finds Equality 7-2521 in the Uncharted Forest and he hugs and kisses her: “We bent to raise the Golden One to their feet, but when we touched them, it was as if madness had stricken us. We seized their body and we pressed our lips to theirs” (47). In the City, sexual intimacy is universally regarded with shame. Only in this moment does Liberty 5-3000 realize that this shame arises not from sex itself but from the coercive circumstances under which it occurs. In the context of mutual consent and desire, sex becomes something natural and beautiful.
The Tension Between Altruism and Egoism
In Rand’s objectivist philosophy, altruism and egoism are mutually exclusive, totalizing value systems that cannot coexist without introducing untenable contradictions. Equality 7-2521’s emerging individualism puts him on a collision course with the World Council, making it impossible for him to continue living within the society that raised him. Those living in the City are subjected to an extreme form of altruism: Their lives are entirely devoted to performing services for the collective rather than pursuing any personal interests. The expected altruism is so intense that people cannot legally have individual interests, and to show preference is a crime—a Transgression of Preference. In the Home of the Students, the Teachers prepare the students to accept their lifelong vocation, telling them, “there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies” (7). Human worth is predicated entirely upon altruistic behaviors; if someone is not completely altruistic, they are seen as having no purpose and no right to life. In depicting this extreme form of altruism, Rand deploys a technique common in dystopian fiction: critiquing a real-world social phenomenon by exaggerating it until it becomes self-evidently absurd.
The World Council’s absolute altruism is countered by Equality 7-2521’s equally absolute egoism, which emerges when he begins studying in the tunnel and develops as he escapes from the City and finds the freedom to pursue his self-interest. He experiences multiple revelations before arriving at the final concept of egoism. His first hunting experience is an early act of self-care, and his reflection in the stream is symbolic of his progressing capabilities of self-reflection and of his growing self-esteem—“For our face and body were beautiful […] And we thought that we could trust this being who looked upon us from the stream, and that we had nothing to fear with this being” (45). When he completes his sexual awakening by sleeping with Liberty 5-3000, he discovers that sexuality is natural and that it need not be reserved only for procreating to keep the human population thriving. Although he spends much time contemplating his purpose, Equality 7-2521 does not have access to the appropriate language to arrive at egoism on his own. It is not until he claims the house—the introduction of self-interested property rights—that he learns words used for expressing individuality, namely “I” as opposed to “We.” The overall concept of egoism is symbolized in the Unspeakable Word, ego, which is revealed as the last line of the text. Equality 7-2521 concludes that serving his interests is his—is everyone’s—purpose in life. This does not mean, however, that he is selfish; Equality 7-2521 wants to share his freedom with others like him, such as International 4-8818. Through the inclusion of Equality 7-2521’s desire to help others, Rand demonstrates that egoism and self-interest do not equate to total selfishness; rather, she argues that benevolent gestures should be offered only to the deserving or when the gesture benefits the individual who offers it.
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