7. Anthem

Ayn Rand's novels are considered iconic, both in revealing personal philosophy and making a bold statement. Three of them have movie adaptations, and several have foreign translations. As such, I thought it was high time that I finally read one of her pieces. Naturally, I chose one of her shortest stories in order to gauge her writing style. Anthem is more a novella than a novel, but it strongly conveys its message in its few words. It is interesting, to say in the least, due to its social commentary, and it brings up thought-provoking ideas. 

The central premise of Anthem is an intriguing one. It presents a dystopian society in which everything and everyone is part of the collective. The word "I" does not even exist; the people refer to themselves as "we" and to other individuals as "they." As such, the plot becomes a bit confusing at times, with the shift in personal pronouns. I didn't grasp the topic in the beginning, and when the main character kept referring to himself as "we," I thought he was including another person. However, the overall idea of a world with no uniqueness (where people given names such as Equality 123, Unity 123, etc) and with condemnation towards independent thought is an interesting one. While the fictional aspect is nice enough to read about, Rand's social criticism is glaringly obvious. It even detracts from the plot by establishing clear-cut "good" and "bad" as opposed to relaying the true complexities in society. The harsh judgment she reserves for communism or socialism is apparent in every page, in every description of her characters. Whereas free-market is represented by a vibrant blonde-haired, "saint-like" man, communism is personified in a cold old man with unfeeling, glassy eyes. Such details are strewn throughout the entire novel and reveal Rand's personal beliefs on economics, politics, and more. Although she openly admits this story's purpose is to reveal her beliefs, I expected more in terms of plot. There were simply too many thinly-veiled barbs to make the plot exciting. It was all an extended metaphor, and the story seemed to be your average parable. Still, it presented food for thought and brought up several debatable topics. It would be an excellent book for discussion purposes.