Anthem Analysis Essay

Anthem is a novel which describes a future in which people have lost all wisdom of individualism, to the point where people don’t even use the words â€Å"I† or â€Å"me.† It is a tribute to one’s ego, as in the value of individualism and one’s uniqueness. By the end of the novel, the main character, Prometheus, comes to understand that their battle is one that is impossible to loose. The liberty that they died to save can never pass away. Every human’s inner-self will always desire freedom, which can’t be killed by any leader, dictator, or ruler like the society in which they lived in. The society claimed that all of his actions were sins, due to the fact they wanted everybody in the society to be an equal, and they don’t like it when people strive more than others, like Prometheus did. He decided to choose how to live, instead of letting someone choose for him. That is what Prometheus grew to learn, that freedom is necessary, and can’t be shattered, and that is why it is impossible to loose their battle. The author, Ayn Rand, made that clear in this novel, while portraying diction, syntax, and figures of speech. Rand uses diction in the novel to state that it is good to be an individual instead of being a part of a matching set. â€Å"Our name is Equality†¦ We are twenty†¦ We are six feet†¦ We were born†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , is a symbol of â€Å"unity† that the author shows us in the novel, she uses plural pronouns such as we, our, their, etc., whenever she means one person because the community in the novel treats everyone as an equal and singular pronouns do not exist. Prometheus calls Gaea â€Å"The Golden One† to emphasize that she is different from the others, he actually looks at her differently than he does to other men, which is a sin in the community because you may not love one person in specific, you must love all your brothers equally. Knowing the word â€Å"Ego† is the best way to understand the concept of this novel. Ayn Rand uses the word, â€Å"Ego† to express self individualism, your ego is something that makes u special from anyone else, it defines you as someone that is distinct, and that’s what the author is portraying. The author uses syntax to help the reader understand the tone, and develop the main character’s understanding of his actions. The quote, â€Å"We shall not report our find to the City Council. We shall not report it to any men.† demonstrates that Prometheus felt that if he reported the tunnel to the city, then he would keep letting them walk all over the community, and decides to keep it to himself because he wanted freedom for once. The author writes, â€Å"This God, this one word: ‘I’† as a symbol of his praise to the word, it emphasizes his first real taste of freedom. The use of anaphora is illustrated at the beginning of chapter 12 when the main character, Prometheus, keeps repeating the word â€Å"I† to show that he truly now knows the meaning of the word, to be an individual. Ayn Rand uses figures of speech to demonstrate that individualism is a huge part of life, and everybody should have it no matter what, and helps understand the characters more thoroughly. The author uses allusion when she gives the main characters, Equality and Liberty, the names Prometheus and Gaea. Prometheus stole fire from the gods, and gave it to the humans, and Gaea was the mother of earth and of all gods. Irony is demonstrated in the novel when Prometheus talks about how he felt happy when he was committing â€Å"sins† while he was in a dark and lonely tunnel working on his experiments, but then he feels sad and depressed whenever he is in the white, bright room, with all of his brothers. Individualism is a huge part of someone, it identifies you as someone distinct than anyone else, and it is what makes you special. If you don’t have individualism then you might as well not have a face, you’re not different from anyone else, you are a person that has no true identity, and is identical to everyone else. Individualism allows you to have a name, unlike the story, that also makes you distinct from anyone else. The novel, Anthem, is an incredible story that makes you realize that you are unique in your own special way, and that everyone deserves freedom of who they truly are no matter what.