Anthem Author

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AnthemAuthor Background Information
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The Author Ayn Rand

• Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in February 1905
• She lived during the Russian Civil War the
  Bolshevik Revolution these gave way to the
  Communist era in Russia
• Her family lost its business lived in extreme
  poverty

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The Author Ayn Rand

• She majored in Philosophy History in College
  studied screen-writing at Cinema Arts
• When Stalin ascended to power in the 1920s, she
  escaped to Chicago in 1926
• She then moved to Hollywood to become a
  screen-writer

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The Author Ayn Rand

• She married the actor Frank OConnor
• She wrote a screen play called Red Pawn, a play
  Night of January 16th, and then her first novel
  We the Living (1933)

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The Author Ayn Rand

• Anthem was published in Great Britain in 1938,
  she later revised the novella and, in 1946,
  published it in the United States
• She is best known for The Fountainhead (1943) and
  Atlas Shrugged (1957)

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Communist Russia

• 1879-1973
• Stalin was the leader of the USSR he improved
  the country's economic status
• Stalin also ordered purges (execution) of all
  those who opposed him, especially independent
  thinkers intellectuals

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Communist Russia

• Millions of people were killed including
  government officials, military common people
• There were also forced labor camps and collective
  farms, causing many people to die from starvation

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Man - vs. - Society
• Objectivism (Individualism) vs. Collectivism
• Freedom vs. Oppression
• Egoism vs. Altruism
• Individuality vs. Conformity
• Dystopian Warning

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Collectivism (The WE) "Collectivism means the
  subjugation of the individual to a group--whether
  to a race, class, or state does not matter.
• Collectivism holds that man must be chained to a
  collective action and collective thought for the
  sake of what is called 'the common good'"
  (Lexicon, 74).

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Individualism/Objectivism (THE I)
  "Individualism regards man--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 holds that a civilized society . .
  . can be achieved only on the basis of the
  recognition of individual rights--and that a
  group, as such, has no rights other than the
  individual rights of its members" (Lexicon, 218).

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Altruism "The basic principle of altruism is
  that man has no right to exist for his own sake,
  that service to others is the only justification
  of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his
  highest moral duty, virtue, and value . . .
• The self is a standard of evil, the selfless is a
  standard of the good" (Lexicon, 4).

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Egoism (You are valuable because you are you)
• "Egoism states that each man's primary moral
  obligation is to achieve his own welfare,
  well-being, or self-interest . . .
• He should be 'selfish' in the sense of being the
  beneficiary of his own moral actions (Glossary
  12).

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Conformity (Instead of being independent, you
  become like others)
• "The act or habit of bringing oneself into
  harmony or agreement with others of adhering to
  conventional behavior" (Webster's 149)

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Anthem Themes Ideas

• Obedience "Complying with a command yielding to
  those in authority" (Webster's 533).
• Independence "One's acceptance of the
  responsibility of forming one's own judgments and
  of living by the work of one's own mind . . . is
  the virtue of independence" (Glossary 23).

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Things to know before you read

• The novella is written as an allegory - an
  extended narrative that carries a second or
  symbolic meaning along with the surface story.
• This novella describes a dystopia.

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Things to know before you read

• Dystopia a fictional society, usually portrayed
  as existing in a future time, when the conditions
  of life are extremely bad due to deprivation,
  oppression, or terror.
• Dystopia the opposite of Utopia

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Things to know before you read

• Social critics use the term "dystopian" to
  condemn trends in post-industrial society they
  see as negative.

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Things to know before you read

• In most dystopian fiction, a corrupt government
  creates or sustains the poor quality of life,
  often conditioning the masses to believe the
  society is proper and just, even perfect.

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Things to know before you read

• Dystopias are frequently written as warnings, or
  as satires, showing current trends extrapolated
  to a nightmarish conclusion.

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Questions?