Rating: 
Summary: wow
Review: I have been asigned to read this book by my English teacher and so far I am loving it! The story is about a young man named Equality 7-2521 who lives in a time hundreds of years after the nineteenth century where the world has been placed back into the dark ages. All the world's secrets have been lost, including electricity. It is a world where everyone is told what to do by a council, what to do for a living, what to think, and even gives you a name. A world where everyone is equal, everyone is one. Equality 7-2521 had been somewhat different from everyone else, and he goes to discovery many things, and even comits some "great transgressions" like loving the women of his choice, and thinking for himself. Anthem is filled with twists and turns and makes the reader consider the possibility of being thrust back into the dark ages. . . .
Rating:
Summary: Look beyond the facade
Review: Anthem may very well be one of the finest examples of literature to grace our intellectual periphery. It is a bold statement coming from a tough critic, I assure you.
Anthem is one of the few books that reaps its true power from its lenth, and contrary to "Atlas Shrugged", it is barely over one hundred pages.
However, bear in mind that the message is revolutionary, but fragile. If handled incorrectly it is but a cliche. As a reader I advese you to look beyond what would seem the potent message to the philisophical nuances. If read with camparison to "Brave New World" or "1984", this book is a failure.
Consider the message and the book as something entirely different, and entirely new.
If you can follow the author, you'll absolutely love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Reactionary narcissism camouflaged by freedom principles
Review: Ayn Rand migrated from the Communist U.S.S.R. with a righteous anger. Not only was she as an individual demeaned by lack of a personal identity -- as far as worth and contribution to society, but her gender incurred unjust persecution as well.
It seems a trend that Americans enjoy literature that reveals the philosophical or political depravity of our own or other countries, and appropriately so. Art, whether visual or written, has always been a powerful form of critique on society and collective human morality.
However, In Anthem, Rand makes a critical mistake.
Rand, being from an oppressively communist country, has equal or greater right in relation to any other voice of her time, to critique and illuminate problems with totalitarian uniformity disguised as commonwealth. Unfortunately, her attempts to reconstruct or provide answers to the above mentioned problems of individualism, peppered throughout this book, aren't only flawed logically and rationally, but are also dangerous. Allow me to explain.
Very little in History has a firebrand or flagrant reactionist radically accomplished mass change in a culture or people.
Take some of History's most prolific examples of men and women who caused change. Gandhi, for instance changed an entire people's way of thinking through peaceful, conscientious objection and demonstration. He didn't take a polar opposite view to that of his oppressive opponent, but reasoned and demonstrated with logic and grace.
Ask yourself who was more successful in erasing the disgusting presence of racism in this country? Malcolm X? Or Martin Luther King Jr.?
I shouldn't even need to bring the character of Jesus into this critique. Whether or not you believe in he existed, believe he was a prophet, or believe his story was the apex of the anthropic myth, it matters not. The impact his teachings and followers made and still make on this world is epic.
My point? If you look at the end of the book, the sacred word inscribed in stone to set the people free? Ego. That's right. Vanitos. Concentration on your own achievements, self awareness and successes. Communist pre-Russia was a prison camp where individuality, human rights, and personal talents were choked and stomped. This was something that we as Americans needed to be reminded of. However, even though Rand poetically reveals the creative and personal starvation of the Anvil & Hammer, the revelation of what a specific Country or government lacks is not the key to all future government success and human development. (For those of you who have read FountainHead and Atlas Shrugged, you know this theme reverberates through her allegorical fiction.) The Ego builds empires that fall. The consideration of other people, not yourself, and the knowledge of the little we all actually know, builds theory and desire for observation that lasts eons.
Reactionary philosophy, especially in a sneaky, preachy, wrapper has never lasted the time test.
My question is this. Why is this book required reading in High Schools? The last thing Americans need is to be more self-focused. For the Education and World awareness scope that our Country has at it's fingertips, our world view is so freaking small that veiled narcissism is the last thing our children should be reading.
I'm not some secular humanist, I'm not some pacifist altruist, I'm not even an evangelical love and peace or fundamentalist Christian. I just don't think it's healthy for our culture to be praising and assigning a series of books so highly, when their core message is achievement based vanity, self focus, and dwelling on how you can succeed in a capitalist culture. That's what Ego is.
I seriously don't recommend this book unless you view it as it actually is: a full-polar reaction to communism, a philosophically flailing attempt at sociologic reconstruction through self-focus. For the solutions this book offers it is a step back in society. For the critiques it poses creatively, a step forward.
Rating:
Summary: Simple: not great, not bad.
Review: 'Anthem' is a very easy read and can be done in an hour. However its simplicity made the storyline very predictable. I recommend this book toward philosophical/religious people. The ending wasn't that great but the theme is a very interesting topic that can be easily discussed with others.
Rating:
Summary: Unknown gem
Review: Having read THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED many, many years ago, and having both those books completely change my life, I wanted to see what ANTHEM was all about. One often fears that a great writer has "used up" their energy and creativity in their major opus, and this was my hesitation in coming to this book. But my fears were unfounded, for ANTEHM is just as good as anything else Rand has written. The characters are as deep and complex as they are in her other works, and as usual, she has a powerful message. While I tend to stick with a good page-turner like THE DA VINCI CODE or THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, I do occasionally go back to what I term "classical" writers. ANTHEM is one book that Rand fans must read. Shorter and less heavy than FOUNTAINHEAD or ATLAS, this makes for a great summer read.
Rating: 
Summary: awesome book, makes you think.
Review: I thought this book was awesome. The storyline was great and the character names were a little odd such as the main character equality 7-2521. The book makes you think and takes you back to a dark age where everything is controlled and watched. I really liked it because it emphasized on doing what YOU think is right, not what everyone else thinks. It shows that uniqueness is a great quality and you shouldn't give up on what you believe in just like equality 7-2521 did. The book has a great moral message and has a little romance in it, as most books do. It really made me think about the future and whether technology will advance to a new level or is there a possibility where we could all be monitored and controlled by our loving government(sarcasm). The ending was everything i expected, equality 7-2521 aquired the name Prometheus and married the Golden One and had a child and lived happily because of his will and bravery to do what he thought was right. I would recommend the book to anyone because it hits close to home, not necessarily meaning you have to start a revolution, but everyone at one time at another has passed up a chance to stand up for what they believe in. Tight book, go read it. Peace
Rating:
Summary: loved it
Review: In Ayn Rand's futuristic tale of the dark ages, society has lost all concepts of individualism, values, and leadership. It gets to the point where people are unfamiliar with the word "I" and refer to themselves as "We." Rand uses her knowledge on philosophy to portray the concepts in Anthem, "I had to originate a philosophical framework of my own, because my basic view of man and of existence was in conflict with most of the existing philosophical theories. In order to define, explain and present my concept of man, I had to become a philosopher in the specific meaning of the term." In other words, Rand wanted to show how people hate change and only live their lives going by the philosophical theories that they already know.
This novel is one of the most unique ones ever written. There is essentially no plot. There is just one main idea spread throughout the entire book-that idea being having a society where everyone and everything is exactly the same. The novel helps portray how important it is now to have freedoms and independence. Some of the concepts and ideas brought upon the society are so ridiculous that it makes one consider how lucky they are now to have their own vales and independence. It is a little hard to understand the book at first by the way its written in terms of "we" and "our" instead of "I" and "mine." But this method that Rand uses in writing this helps the reader better understand the ideas on individualism. It is a great novel for all audiences who care to see the importance of freedom and independence that we have today.In the beginning of the novel, the protagonist of the novel is introduced. He goes by the name of Equality 7-2521. Everybody in the society has names such as these-where they are referred to as numbers rather than just normal human names. The reason for this is to make sure that no one has anything unique to himself or herself, that numbers alone can classify each person.
The society's names are probably the only thing that somewhat differs among people. Everyone is to learn at the same pace, eat at the same time, sleep at the same time, and allow others to make decisions for him or her. A career is picked out for each person in which they are forced to be, and if they for some reason cannot fulfill the tasks of that career. They have no choices for themselves whatsoever, "dare not choose in your minds the work you would like to do when you leave the Home of the Students. You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you. For the Council of Vocations knows in its great wisdom where by your brother men, better than you can know it in your unworthy little mind"(22). They do not feel that anyone is capable of knowing whom they really are in order to choose their path in life.
At one point in the novel, Equality 7-2521 finds out that he is smarter than another student, Union 5-3992. He has to try to do less than he is capable of just because it would be a sin to have greater knowledge than any of their brothers or even to know less than their brothers. Everyone must always be exactly the same.
Equality 7-2521 discovers a tunnel in which he secretly explores. He ends up learning more on his own in that tunnel than all of his years of schooling in the House of Students where everyone in society gets his or her education. He eventually discovers electricity, which he feels is the greatest gift that could ever be given to man. He finds out that it is from the Unmentionable Times, which were the times when there was equality and freedom and technology. But now in these dark ages of the future, these times are to never be spoken of.
Equality 7-2521 finally decides to confess everything about his tunnel and his discovery of electricity, and he is immediately thought of as evil and sinful to the world. He ends up running away into the Uncharted Forest. There he is able to learn more and eventually regains his individuality.
But the most important discovery that Equality 7-2521 makes, is his final understanding of the word "We." He figures out how that word came to corrupt all of society. It took away all possible individual freedoms. He decides to never use it again seeing as it symbolizes terrible things, "'We,' the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame"(97). He then understands the importance of the word "I" to replace "We", "...will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: 'I'"(97). This is all proving the symbolism of no independence within the word "We", and the freedom within the word "I."
Anthem is one of the most unique novels written yet. Ayn Rand has a way of expressing values of independence and freedom by showing them in extreme measures. Anthem shows an amazing prediction of what the future could be like if those values were taken away from civilization.
Rating:
Summary: Short, Sweet, Thought Provoking Intro to Ayn Rand
Review: The novel is a tale of a time when the human race has lost all individuality, when people are reduced to numbers and have lost their freedom to make decisions for themselves. Through this novel, written and completed while Ayn Rand was working on Fountainhead, Ayn Rand introduces her philosophy concerning the individual. The novel really got me thinking and I couldn't put it down. At just over a hundred pages, i read it all in one setting, and thought about it the rest of the week. Though the world in Anthem is a very dark and depressed one indeed, it comments nonetheless on more subtle forms of control and losses of our individual freedom in today's world. An excellent read and a great intro to her philosophy. This book led me to purchase Atlas Shrugged, and I recommend these both to all my friends. Amazing and Powerful.
Rating:
Summary: Struggle for the Self
Review: The story of a government with absolute control over the people is captured in numerous books. The unique twist portrayed in "Anthem" is the loss of the sense of self. Though a very short read without a plot in the usual sense, it is a read that makes a person think.
"Equality 7-2521" is the main character, guilty of crimes against his brothers. The word "I" and the sense of self are abolished, being replaced by the word we as a symbol of the collective good. The individual is of no importance, the "we" is all that matters. Equality 7-2521 has possessed thoughts that are unique to himself, which is a crime in this world. These thoughts stay largely hidden until the day he discovers and underground tunnel which seems to have been a subway in an earlier era. This leads him to further thought and the discovery of lightbulbs or capturing the power of the sky as he calls it. Thinking the discovery and its mastery would gain him immunity for his crimes, he takes his discovery to the Council of Scholars. The Scholars reject his invention and suggest he should receive the worst punishments possible. Equality 7-2521 escapes with his invention into the Uncharted Forest. He is followed by a woman he labels "The Golden One". Together they find a cabin and discover more of the Unmentionable Times. They vow to start a new civilization with the sense of self importance and other ideas of enlightened times. In effect, the hero of the story seeks to the dark ages described in the story as a conclusion.
When I reached the end of the story, I found there was so much more I wanted to know. Although we never learn what becomes of Equality 7-2521, I found myself wishing for a sequel to the book describing his revolution. But perhaps this part of the story is best left to develop in my own mind as unlike most of the people described in this world created by Ayn Rand, I can think independently and have thoughts of my own.
Rating:
Summary: unbelievable
Review: this book changed my life. Rand's soft yet harsh representation of the future world hit me where it hurts. i makes you realize the true importance of the word 'I' and what it means to others as well as yourself. this morose portrayal of world without 'I' will get in your head and will refuse to leave. i read this book in one sitting and it was the single most enlightening sitting of my life. a quick read, this book will grab you and at the end you will feel yourself grabbing back. Equality 7-2521 is representative of almost all of us, wondering is we think what the others think, but never having the initiative to discover exactly what it is we are thinking. the only recomendation i have about this book is to read it in one sitting. it will change your life forever.
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