The book Anthem by Ayn Rand is one you may have never heard or read before but need too.
“Ayn Rand, born named: Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum was a Russian-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and philosopher. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand).
Ayn was an overall important woman in history and it was shown clearly through her writing. I am really inspired by writing from history and how it can still be relevant today. Ayn’s writing was so inspirational and insightful that we are still reading her novels today and learning from them, even though she is not here anymore – now that is something to live up too.
Even though Anthem was not one of her most popular novels it was still a great one. I had gotten recommended this book by my grade 11 English teacher and I decided to give it a read since it was a fairly short novel and seemed very interesting.
The story is a dystopian fiction novella and it takes place at a very unspecific future date when mankind has entered what they call a dark age. This is what makes the novel so interesting and makes you never want to put it down because you are reading to find out more about the setting but the plot lacks much detail about it since it is mostly unknown. In the novel, technological advancement is very carefully planned and the concept of ‘individuality’ is not a thing. Imagine not being unique and in a place where everyone is the exact same as you! The story mainly focuses on a young boy known as ‘Equality 7-2521’ (all characters had weird techy names like this) rebels and is the only one who dares to be unique by doing forbidden scientific research. When what he has been doing is discovered he eventually runs away from this city into the wilderness to end up with the love of his life who they end up planning a new society based on Equality’s research on rediscovered individualism as the other place he lived was lacking so and he knew how sad and boring it was.
I know what you are thinking, this book sounds cheesy and ends up like every other novel where the boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after. But, nope. I just gave a quick summary wherein the novel there is a lot more to it and he doesn’t find this ‘girl’ so easily. You just may need to read it to find out! It is a ‘sitting on the edge of your seat’ kind of book but yet at only about 100 pages which makes it easy to read and get caught up in without all the extra boring plot and useless storyline which can make some books get boring!
The song linked above reminds me so much of this novel, it has such a dystopian vibe and the different beats, and drops in instruments remind me of the different parts of this novel. Such as when Equality is running away from the city of no individuality and into the wilderness to create his own new, happy life and you feel his emotions while reading of joy and how nice it must be to finally be getting away from that sad life. You feel the same emotions in this song when it goes from being sad and slow to very upbeat and fast.
I’d like to curl up in my warm bed with a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate and read this book. Occasionally with soft music in the background to relax me as I read.
The 'M' Word 