The novelette, Anthem, by Ayn Rand is a fictional story that displays the author's philosophical views. The narrator of the story uncovers the truth of the world and discovers how life was intended to be. Some quotations in this story reflect many deeper ideas and show the authors true reason for writing this great novelette.
In the opening sentence of the story, "It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think-, we see that Rand believes in individualism. By saying that it is a sin to write and think words alone, it shows that there is absolutely no individualism. The world Equality lives in has everyone in a standard and portrays them all in the same way. No one can express their own thoughts or feel their own feelings. Because Rand makes this the absolute first and most apparent part of the story, it is reasonable that individualism is extremely important. Having laws against individual thought is self destruction in its purest form. Furthermore, this quote describes the non-intellectual world of the future. Without having a wide variety of thoughts, nothing is possible. Rand makes a very strong point because if the world had not had the brain power of all past scientists, we would not be where we are now. Equality starts writing in a tunnel that he discovered and begins thinking his own thoughts. This shows that Rand believes that even in such a society there are bound to be people who have their own thoughts. It also clearly demonstrates that in other places of the world today, people are oppressed for having their own thoughts, just as Equality is. He is not allowed to convey himself, and Rand makes sure to point this out with this quote. In conclusion, we see that the opening sentence to the story describes the world in which there is no individualism and it forces people to realize that this is something they take for granted every day.
The quote "I wished to know the meaning of things.