"Today the golden one stopped suddenly and said, 'We love you' [...] 'No,' they whispered, 'that is not what we wished to say.' They were silent, then they spoke slowly, and words were halting, like the words of a child learning to speak for the first time. 'We are one...alone...and only...and we love you who are one...alone...and only.' We looked into each other's eyes and we knew that the breath of a miracle had touched us, and fled, and left us groping vainly. And we felt torn for some word we could not find" (Rand 86).
This quote sums up the role emotions play in Anthem. Emotions become jumbled due to the lack of impersonality and the single word, or letter, "I." The line "we love you," rather than translating to someone deep emotional connection and longing, it says "I, and the government that controls my every move and every other person in this society, loves you." The feeling of love is so personal, that i don't believe that love should really even have a definition. Love cannot be taught, but learned, acquired, and experienced. I found this line particularly saddening. The Golden One has found her love and yet, she has been so suppressed by society, that she does not know how to inform Equality of her love. Each character in this novel is named by a number. Typically, numbers define items, dates, time, inanimate objects, all things that cannot experience or define emotion. The numbers reminded me of the Holocaust, which was arguably the most horrid treatment of mankind in history.
Light represents the acquisition of knowledge and truth. Liberty 5-3000 becomes the Golden One, a color reference to light and Equality 7-2521 becomes Prometheus, the bringer of light. Equality creates the light bulb, which is almost always associated with knowledge or a sudden thought. The town in which Anthem takes place, is described as colorless and overcast, which symbolizes the lack of knowledge and individuality. In the haziness of this society, human nonconformity and genius is shunned. Light is what brings light (no pun intended) to the superior knowledge that is buried within the suppressed people of the society. The creation of the light by Equality, not only gives him a sense of accomplishment, but a sense of self as well. The creation of the light gives him the drive to break the barrier of the society and cross into the woods and the land of the unknown.
The simple sentence structure and short chapters kept my attention and I found myself being able to get through numerous chapters in one sitting. I really enjoyed this book. I loved the scene where the Golden One and Prometheus find their future home and discover the power of books and the unknown word: I. I loved the idea of the creation of an alternate society that was the polar opposite of the world they came from. The one scene that really frustrated me was the scene in which Equality presents the House of Scholars with his creation, and they feared it! What kind of scholars are they? Truth be told, I feel as though these men were fully capable of utilizing their minds but were afraid of their societal restraints. With just a few words, Rand was able to powerfully portray a world that fears human error and embraces conformity.
This quote sums up the role emotions play in Anthem. Emotions become jumbled due to the lack of impersonality and the single word, or letter, "I." The line "we love you," rather than translating to someone deep emotional connection and longing, it says "I, and the government that controls my every move and every other person in this society, loves you." The feeling of love is so personal, that i don't believe that love should really even have a definition. Love cannot be taught, but learned, acquired, and experienced. I found this line particularly saddening. The Golden One has found her love and yet, she has been so suppressed by society, that she does not know how to inform Equality of her love. Each character in this novel is named by a number. Typically, numbers define items, dates, time, inanimate objects, all things that cannot experience or define emotion. The numbers reminded me of the Holocaust, which was arguably the most horrid treatment of mankind in history.
Light represents the acquisition of knowledge and truth. Liberty 5-3000 becomes the Golden One, a color reference to light and Equality 7-2521 becomes Prometheus, the bringer of light. Equality creates the light bulb, which is almost always associated with knowledge or a sudden thought. The town in which Anthem takes place, is described as colorless and overcast, which symbolizes the lack of knowledge and individuality. In the haziness of this society, human nonconformity and genius is shunned. Light is what brings light (no pun intended) to the superior knowledge that is buried within the suppressed people of the society. The creation of the light by Equality, not only gives him a sense of accomplishment, but a sense of self as well. The creation of the light gives him the drive to break the barrier of the society and cross into the woods and the land of the unknown.
The simple sentence structure and short chapters kept my attention and I found myself being able to get through numerous chapters in one sitting. I really enjoyed this book. I loved the scene where the Golden One and Prometheus find their future home and discover the power of books and the unknown word: I. I loved the idea of the creation of an alternate society that was the polar opposite of the world they came from. The one scene that really frustrated me was the scene in which Equality presents the House of Scholars with his creation, and they feared it! What kind of scholars are they? Truth be told, I feel as though these men were fully capable of utilizing their minds but were afraid of their societal restraints. With just a few words, Rand was able to powerfully portray a world that fears human error and embraces conformity.
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