Ayn Rand’s Anthem discusses many controversial ideas throughout the book. Often times the ideas shown are extreme examples and often polar opposites. Most often the ideas used by Rand can be perceived as one is completely bad and the other good. One of the best examples of this is the extremes of caring only for the whole and the opposite of caring only for the self. Rand has extreme ideas of both of these and expresses them often in Anthem.
These two ideas are the backbone for the whole story and deliver the main message Rand wanted to express. Ayn Rand constructed “a philosophy for living on earth” (Ayn Rand, 111) to abide by based on her own opinions she had formulated since living in a communist society and coming to the West. She called this philosophy objectivism and it most evidently stays away from focusing on the whole. Objectivism is centered on the individual and reason, “the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses” (Ayn Rand, 112).
Throughout the book, Anthem, objectivism is expressed in all aspects and is used to tell what is benevolent and what is bad. One way Ayn expresses her idea of objectivism is by making the antagonist in the book very oriented towards the whole. Rand describes the City in the beginning of Anthem as caring only for the best of the group and completely shunning the self. This is completely opposite to her philosophy of objectivism, so Rand infers to the readers that this is a horrible way to live and completely wrong.
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Ayn refers to the caring only for the whole, or we, as “lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it” (97).
This is the first of the extreme opinions of Rand’s that are shown throughout Anthem and is made out by her to be bad. Ayn Rand has set her beliefs in an idea she calls objectivism and displays them heavily in Anthem. Her philosophy of objectivism is that a man’s “own happiness [is] the moral purpose of his life” (Ayn Rand, 111) and that a man should only think of the whole if he so chooses.
She believes that man “must live for his own sake” (Ayn Rand, 112) and must not sacrifice himself for another’s. Each man’s individual happiness is his own highest purpose in life. After reading of Ayn’s opinion of the epitome of bad ways to live, her opinion of perfection comes out in Anthem. When Equality 7-2521 discovers the house in the clearing of the Uncharted Forest and begins reading the books in the library he discovers a lost way of living that is completely opposite of what he had previously known.
He discovers the self. Rand then begins to express her philosophy of objectivism through Equality 7-2521. He explains that the self is the only one to live for, and that men should only speak of the whole if he so chooses. Equality 7-2521 explains that “we” “is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, [and] by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages” (97).
This is one example of Rand’s extreme opinions being expressed very blatantly in Anthem.
This opinion of Rand’s, that everybody should think only of himself, is good in moderation because of the fact if everybody thought only of the good of the whole there would be no individualism and advancements would slow considerably because of lack of competition between others, but it is flawed in that if everybody took this philosophy to heart there would be no life as we know it. Certain things such as raising children takes sacrifices and these would not be made if man thought only of himself, and without the raising of offspring any population will promptly cease to exist.
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Any extremes when it comes to the caring of only the whole or the self can be bad. Hitler’s notoriety came from his extreme ideas, one of which was only caring for the Aryan race. Hitler wanted the Aryans, the whole, to succeed and live in a utopia. “His dream of a racially pure empire would tolerate no Jews” (Louis Bulow) or anyone of another race. Hitler goaded others to exterminate all those who did not meet his criteria and tried to conquer the world in his quest to do the best for the whole.
Another example of a good idea gone bad when taken to the extreme is the hippie movement in the United States in the mid 1960s and 1970s. The hippies held steadfast to their idea of only doing the best for themselves when they did not refrain from experimenting with drugs and exhibiting free sexuality. The drugs and sex the hippies enjoyed felt good for the self but wrecked their minds and bodies for the future. Since they had been hurt at a young age from sexual diseases and the damaging effects of drugs they were not able to succeed up to their potential and could not help society to the fullest.
These are but two examples of goods idea that when taken to extremes can be dangerous. Anthem has two examples of good ideas taken to their extremes that stand out to the reader. The first example is in the beginning of the novel with the societies taking the idea of; do the best for the whole, the community, to the extreme. With everybody only thinking of the whole they never think more than needed, only enough to do their jobs. Without this extra thought, advancement is very slow and the people together suffer from it.
Difference in the community is forbidden and everybody must do as they are told, be it what jobs they will do or when to mate. Everybody must have the same thoughts and must act the same. With no difference the people never experience happiness and many of the other wonderful things we take for granted in everyday life. The second example of a good idea taken to the extreme is Equality 7-2521’s, or Rand’s, philosophy of objectivism. They “[reject] any form of altruism-the claim that morality consists in living for others” (114).
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If objectivism is strictly obeyed then the human race would soon extinguish itself. Men would take advantage of others for their own good and stop raising children because it takes sacrifices and thought for the whole. These are but two examples of what happens when some ideas are taken to the extremes. Ayn Rand has always had extreme ideas and has expressed them in her many books, Anthem included. Some ideas even in moderation are bad, but even seemingly benign ideas taken to the extreme have their downfalls.
