"Anthem" by Ayn Rand

We read this book in Mrs. M's literature class. Although a lot of people didn't like it, I found it incredibly interesting and enlightening.

It's set in the future, in the great age of "We." It sort of reminded me of the Borg in Star Trek. ("We are the Collective..." and all that jazz.) There are no individuals, no "I," no thoughts or beliefs or name of your own. It is written from the perspective of the man called Equality 7-2521, who is daring to hide away in the pits of the City to write and study science, though he is placed as a street sweeper. He has always been told he is sin, because 1) he's six feet tall, making him different from his "brothers," 2) he asks too many questions, and 3) he commits the sin of preference often. (The sin of preference is liking one of your brothers over the rest.) He falls in love with a girl he sees working in the fields, Liberty 3-5000, even though he's not supposed to notice women. He re-discoveres electricity (which they don't have), and he tries to show it to the house of scholors, and, though he thinks they'll be as excited as him, they condemn him for working on it in solitude. this leads to him running away...and i can't tell you anymore because i want you to read it.

i finally finished this stupid post! yes! awesome! woot woot!
took me long enough...

I'm not very good at reveiws or summerizations or anything, never have been. Maybe I should stop trying...lol

xoxo,
Brii333

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all men wear on their left wrists with their names upon it. We are twenty-one years old. We are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall. Ever have the Teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and frowned and said: "There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers." But we cannot change our bones nor our body.

We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear, that we know and do not resist.

We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike. Over the portals of the Palace of the World Council, there are words cut in the marble, which we repeat to ourselves whenever we are tempted:

"We are one in all and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE,
One, indivisible and forever."

We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps us not.

~Excerpt from Ayn Rand's "Anthem"
~First Signet rinting, September 1961 edition
~Copyright Leonard Peikoff and the Estate of Ayn Rand
~Page 18
~(in other words, it's from the American version of "Anthem")