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Jessica Hiestand
Professor Deanna Heikkinen
Human 003
26 November 2017
Anthem Analysis

Ayn Rand’s Anthem provides readers with a strong critique of collectivism by creating a

world that has fully shunned individuality to the point where citizens have no concept of self.

Anthem is a thought provoking, page turner that illustrates a world much like Rand’s own when

she faced corrupt socialism Russia and lived through the time of Hitler and Nazism. Her work is

powerful and uses many forces that make readers realize the power of the individual. The tools

Rand uses to challenge these collectivist groups that I find most affective are the names of the

characters, the lack of the world “I” and scientific regression.

In the world of Anthem, each person’s name reflects a goal or aspect of a collective

society. The names unoriginal labels specified by numbers. Words like Equality, Harmony, and

Collective become names, and this forces the citizens to identify with these parts of collectivist

ideology from the time they are born. Names are important. They are man’s first way of

identifying a person or object. This is why Equality 7-2521 renames Liberty 5-3000 first as The

Golden One then again as Gaea (parts 4, 12). The renaming of both The Golden one and himself

were meaningful to Equality 7-2521 because he could not associate the previous, collective

based names with the unique, beautiful people they went with.

The lack of the word “I” goes along with the use of names in Anthem. When we drop all

words that identify a singular self from language, we remove a sense of self, not just by limiting

actions, but by changing the citizens’ ideology from its roots. There is no room to think freely in
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this society. Even when an individual talks about themselves, using “we” in place of “I”

automatically connects that statement about one to a statement about all. We see Equality 7-2521

and The Golden One search for this “Unspeakable Word” when they try to explain their love for

one another. The Golden One tells Equality 7-2521 in the forest, “We love you,” but because she

has no idea what a word for a singular self could be she goes on to try and explain her feelings.

“We are one… alone… and only…and we love you who are one… alone… and only” (part 9).

The third tool Rand uses that I wanted to discuss is scientific regression. In the world of

Anthem, our age, the age of “wagons without horses and lights without flame” are the

“Unmentionable Times” which are considered evil, and as the name suggests, unmentionable

(Part 1). The few people who were placed as scholars and allowed to examine things and think of

ideas never looked to make scientific progress. The newest invention for them was the candle

and it was made “only” one-hundred years before Equality 7-2521’s writings (Part 1). Needing

to have majority agreement on a new invention is necessary for the scholars to proceed in

making it, and that never happens because new inventions decrease toil (Part 7). Toil, to the men

of Anthem is the reason for living. “There is no life for men, save in useful toil for the good of all

their bothers” (Part 9). The lack of progress as a collective society is an excellent argument for

individuality, and it makes the reader think beyond today’s social standings.

Equality 7-2521 and The Golden One go on to escape their society and find a new home

where they hope to create their own, but when I closed the book it resonated as a warning rather

than a happy ending. Rand’s urgings, at the time they were written, were up against a whole

world of popular collectivist doctrines that she felt were wrong. Her arguments against

collectivism are clear, strong, and appeal to the emotion of the reader. This was my favorite

literary work that I read this semester because of both the forceful, poetic language and the
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interesting philosophical ideas behind it. Her work is wonderful and persuasive. I believe

Anthem did its job to convince the reader of the power of the individual.
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Works Cited

Rand, Ayn. Anthem. W. Ross Macdonald School, 1984.