Literary Analysis: Anthem by Ayn Rand

          The book Anthem by Ayn Rand must be critically viewed in two very separate lights.  The first of which is viewing the book as a story.  The second of which is as a platform for the author's ideology.  The former is a very stilted, short, predictable story that falls well short of other books of this genre.  The second is served only in a tiny, brilliant morsel wedged into the story near the end of the work. 
          To address the matter of the story itself, I simply do not get the impression that Ayn Rand the philosopher translates well into Ayn Rand the storyteller.  Anthem falls woefully short when held to the standards set by other dystopian classics such as 1984, Brave New World or Fahrenheit 451.  The story seems to be pushed along clumsily as if it were merely a means to a more important end.  1984 is a personal favorite of mine and as I read that book, I thought the author George Orwell does a masterful job in making me feel the oppression of the society which he creates.  I am drawn into the mind of the main character as he copes with and then attempts to undermine the drudgery surrounding him.  The same cannot be said for Rand's Anthem.  I just don't care about the main character, Equality 7-2521.  Though I must admit, having finished the book only an hour ago, I have already forgotten his nameand had to refer back to the book, which may serve as a testament to the forgettability of the individual in her world of conformity. 
          Another fault I found in her dystopian world is the relative ease with which Equality 7-2521 is able to do as he pleases.  In what is comparatively a very short book, this man is able to steal away every single night for three hours without ever raising suspicion until his own forgetfulness finally betrays him as he loses track of the time spent in his underground hideaway.  Then, after being caught, he is interrogated as to his whereabouts to which he naturally remains silent.  He is then whipped severly and thrown in jail.  Here is where I would expect an all-powerful, individuality-crushing uber-state to grind not just a confession from him, but also every ounce of pride and spirit that Equality 7-2521 had left in his soul.  This was not the case.  Instead the jail is constructed so poorly that he is able to break out of the Palace of Corrective Detention with astonishing ease, retrieve his precious glass box which I imagined to be a very large light bulb and then stroll into the room of this society's ruling body of government with absolutely no opposition.  I would think that a place called the Palace of Corrective Detention would offer a little more resistance to aspiring escapees, but apparently not.  Of course, upon his arrival, the World Council of Scholars did not approve of his glass box as he had hoped, so they order his execution.  No problem.  Equality 7-2521 is able to leap out of a large window with his glass box in hand and run to the Uncharted Forest without a single threat of his capture.  Conveniently, the beautiful woman in the story, the one he had tabbed the Golden One, shows up and they essentially live happily ever after.  I know the book is extremely short, but this is just too incredibly easy. 
         If I may briefly play the devil's advocate, I could defend the aforementioned glaring weaknesses in Rand's vision.  I will say that the very basis for her whole belief system is the shabbiness of a world of collectivism and conformity.  I can argue that these apparent holes also serve to illustrate the meager quality of craftsmanship and courage of men in such circumstances.  It is hinted that this is most likely the case as she describes the escape:
          The locks are old on the doors and there are no guards about.  There is no reason to have guards, for
          men have never defied the Councils so far as to escape from whatever place they were ordered to
          be.  Our body is healthy and our strength returns to it speedily.  We lunged against the door and it
          gave way. 
I would like to think that in the hundreds of years this government was said to have been in place, at least one other person would have had the wits and fortitude to try this.  I understand why it was so easy to escape, but it is still a grievious flaw in this story. 
          The saving grace of this schitzophrenic work is when the personality of Ayn Rand the lecturer reveals herself and steps in to relieve Ayn Rand the storyteller.  The moment when Equality 7-2421 discovers the word I, Rand steps to the pulpit and delivers a three page sermon of her philosophy of objecivism, individuality and virtue of selfishness.  The book suddenly takes on a voice of strength and clarity as she makes declarations such as, "I do not surrender my treasure, nor do I share them.  The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of spirit.  I guard my treasures:  my thought, my will, my freedom..."  This is the kind of writing that I believe is her strength and this philosophy is why Rand is loved by many and reviled by many others.  She returns to the pulpit after three pages to preach about the way "The worship of the word 'We'" has destroyed the greatness of man and allowed society to regress to the point of futility where a man can apparently put a shoulder into the door of his jail cell and run unfettered down the street to make his escape.
          I personally love the philosophy of Ayn Rand and think that she is a brilliant, courageous woman; though this being my first experience reading one of her works, I can say that I was very thankful that Anthem is such a short book, because storytelling is apparently not her strength and I would be wary of investing the time necessary to see what her other, more famous works, Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, have to offer.  My advice to an aspiring reader of this book would be to first read 1984 or Brave New World and upon finishing, read the final two chapters of Anthem.  This strategy will afford the reader a far better dystopian story followed by a powerful declaration of the philosophy that one presumably seeks when he or she elects to read one of Ayn Rand's works.