Symbol Analysis
In this novel, it is the world council that controls everything from what each individual is going to do with their life to what people will use for light. They symbolize the idea that Rand is trying to present that society cannot function well at all without original thinkers and those who are allowed to give their own ideas to society. Equality says that the council is a large group of old men and women who can never agree on anything. It even took them many years to approve the candle as a source of light for their community. The ideas and thoughts that Ayn Rand says people should have are shunned by the World Council, this is plainly seen by the fact that it did take them so long to approve the candle, and is even more evident when they appeared so frightened by Equality’s lightbulb. Without inventions such as Equality’s, their society could not move forward. The reason behind this fear, though, was that if society moved forward, more people would have more new ideas, and they would be back to the way that the world used to be, before this new city was created, or however far this new society reached around the world. That old way of life was what they tried to get away from, but Rand is trying to show how, really, their ideal is the one that is bad, where everyone is unhappy and follows all the rules, instead of having happy people with new ideas.
Quote Analysis
“Never had we seen rooms so full of light. The sunrays that danced upon colors, colors, more colors than we thought possible, we who had seen no houses save the white ones, the brown ones and the grey.”
If one of the themes of this book is an awakening from a dystopian society, then Prometheus’ awakening is the most important scene in the novella, and this quote is part of it. Light is seen as a new beginning, and the light that comes from the many windows of the house Prometheus and The Golden One find shows that being on his own away from those who tell him what to do and even how to think is new for him. Also, light is a symbol of happiness, and Prometheus is ecstatic that, now that he has found out what happiness really is, he can be his own person and live how he wants to live, even if he cannot fully express his joy or does not know what to call it.
The colors that he is not used to seeing exhibit the new things to come for him, and new ideas that can be found. If light so radiant and colors so bright could be found simply by leaving the place that he did not want to be, then there are infinite possibilities as to what Prometheus can do and discover if he looks for new things and ideas that fit his ideals and his confinements that he places on himself, if any. It is not for another person to decide what another thinks or does, only that person should be able to limit themselves.
Thoughts
Before reading Anthem, I had never considered what any society, especially ours, would be like if the word “I,” or any other word dealing with individuality, was taken away from our language. It is a very interesting thought, but is mostly scary. If “I” was taken away from us, everyone would lose their identity and would be unable to express themselves. As soon as you can’t say “I think” or “I feel,” you are no longer one, but, the embodiment of the whole, no longer singular. It must be horrible knowing that you could never express yourself, or not even knowing what expressing yourself is, never mind knowing how to do it. I could barely put Anthem down once I had picked it up, I always wanted to know more about what equality was going to do next.
