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Summary: A Great View of an Alternate World
Review: This book was pretty great; it was short, concise, and eye-opening. It showed a world that most people fear living in, yet we are heading towards. Ms. Rand's ideas are extreme, but she gets her point across. The only bad part about the book was it's preachiness, and the huge intro and end of the book. Overall, if you like being introduced to new ideas and don't have a ton of time, this book is a great choice.
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Summary: A Great Portrayal of the Future Gone Bad
Review: "Anthem" is an absolute gem of a book. It is a dark tale that makes the reader consider the negative aspects of collectivism. At the same time, it provides the satisfaction of "hope for the future" by the end of the novel that 1984 lacks. It is short and concise, providing just enough detail to spark the imagination and feed the soul (unlike some unsatisfactory pieces that are crowned with supposedly flattering words such as "sparse"). Therefore, I highly recommend this book--in only a couple of hours, you can get all the moral eye-openers and romantic elements that longer reads such as "1984" and "Farenheight 451" provide.
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Summary: Changed my life
Review: For anyone who has tried to read Rand's non-fiction books, in which she presents her unique philosophy in a sometimes overly-wordy fashion, or wants to expand their horizons into the *thinking* world, I would recommend this book highly. Although others have tried to do that "negative Utopia" thing, and occasionally succeeded, Ayn Rand is, in short, the master. Although it may be offensive to some very devout Christians, I say, read it, and then spread the word: WHOA, AYN RAND! (If you liked this one, also check out "The Fountainhead" and "We The Living", other novels from Rand.)
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Summary: A snapshot of the anti-indivualists ideal society
Review: In a short and easy to read story Rand provides the reader with a first person view of the ultimate anti-individual society - one in which identification with self is barred.Because the book is written as if by the hand of the hero, the reader gets no insight into how such a society could have come about. For this, read Atlas Shrugged by the same author wich explains exactly how it can be done in 1000 pages. What the reader does get is to share in the pleasure of the heroes 'journals' recording his escape to freedom. A great thought provoker for young and old alike.
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Summary: ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL -- THIS IS A GOOD THING, YES?
Review: Anything carried to extremes eventually breeds perversion. The catchy slogan of Dumas' Three Musketeers warms our hearts with faith in trustworthy comradery. However, that comradery stretched to extremes can be perverted into the comradeship of collectivism, the sacrifice of individuality for the good of the collective. The problem with collectivism is that the one required to make the sacrifice is not the one deciding or defining what "good" is. In Ayn Rand's story, a young man comes of age in a strict and sterile society where even people's names do not belong to them. Names are assigned at birth by the collective (state/government) like serial numbers on machinery. Two injunctions of this collective society are: (1) the individual shall not distinguish himself beyond the lowest common denominator in the group; and (2) the individual has no personal ownership of anything. Everything, including thoughts, belong to the state -- oops, the collective. In the society postualted by Rand, all activities are compartmentalized. Upon completion of school (where little is learned beyond the propaganda that supports the state -- a novel idea for sure), young people are assigned to their life's work. Practically speaking, this means they are also assigned the barracks where they will live and thereby the companions they will mingle among -- for life. Our hero is a gifted free thinker. Early in his youth he is identified as a troublesome and rebellious creature because he is _taller_ than his companions; he is told his body betrays the evil that is inside him. Since he cannot suppress his growth, he makes extra effort to suppress his "evil thoughts" of individuation, of personal satisfaction, of selfhood -- forbidden concepts for which he has no words. The thesis of the story celebrates the indestructibility of the human spirit -- the personal soul: it will be expressed, if not in secret acts of rebellion, then surely through the slow, life draining malaise of suppression into madness; for, indeed, through insanity (as, e.g., through art) the individual makes a personal expression. (Art, of course, is verboten in Rand's collective society -- except as sanctioned by the state; then, of course, it is no longer "personal", is it.) As bleak and foreign and even sinister as the circumstances are in "Anthem", it is a story of discovery, and the ultimate discovery of self is sweetly told in the concluding pages. Rand's story reminds us not to take what we have for granted, especially the "little" things. For there are no things so little that WE [I] should allow them to be robbed from us [me].
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Summary: I disagree
Review: I guess it's OK, but I don't really agree with her ideas. I definitely preferred Animal Farm.
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Summary: An excellent social commentary from the mid-century
Review: Ayn Rand is a master at depicting the possiblities of society. This is one of the best books of the genre, rating right at the top with 1984 by Orwell. The main character, Equality, is engaging and true to human form. His eventual rise from the evils of collective thought is entertaining and thought provoking. His search for "I" is very real and believable. Very human book.
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Summary: GROUND BREAKING- GREAT
Review: PROBABLY THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ-A POETIC AND LIBERATING READ
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Summary: A crazy world in which individualism has been eliminated
Review: An excellent story of bravery and a quest for truth, Anthem deals with a character and his struggles against the norm. As he casts away the shackles of the oppressive ways of the world in which he lives, where "I" is not a word, he fights to bring back the world before the war, our world.
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Summary: Anthem was very well written and was full of many good ideas
Review: I believe that Anthem was rather quick reading, but it left a lasting image in my head. Equality 7-2521 has the qualities that few people have today. Ayn Rand portrays this very well by the way she organizes the novel. The entire novel is written as if it is a journal kept by Equality 7-2521. This format allows the reader to look inside him and understand the thoughts, feelings, and hopes of Equality 7-2521. The use of plural words and the complete omission of singular words and ideas is an effective device in portraying the immense difference between the culture today and that of the future. In a time when individualism is a sin, one man dared to be different. His greatest crime was that of holding his own thoughts and ideas sacred, above the importance of "his brothers." The courage and determination he exhibits throughout the novel is enough to inspire me to follow my own ambitions, and not to depend so much on the beliefs of society as a whole.
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