Imagine it's five hundred years ahead of the present time yet the technology is as advanced as it was in the middle ages and it's a collectivist social structure so out of reach that Joseph Stalin would roll over in his grave. Imagine the only source of light is a candle and that the only things known about the solar system are that the earth's flat and that the sun revolves around the earth. This dream is Ayn Rand's Anthem, a politically charged novel about a society that uses oppression and communism/collectivism as a way to keep their citizens in control. Anthem is a story with strong themes tying in directly with communism and collectivism and how the oppression of many can lead to the enlightenment of few.
To begin, the rulers of this society either apply wild contortions of normal ideas or restrict certain things vital to humans in order to justify their collectivist ideals. The most blatantly abused ideal in the story that is used to corrupt minds is that all brothers are equal. These thoughts on men's equality are inscribed in marble, "We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, one, indivisible forever" (19). Along with the misuse of the word "equality" there is also a lack of emotion in the people of this society. When people reproduce, the parents are chosen at random and once the baby is born it is put into the Home of Infants. Prometheus conveys the lack of nurture in the home of infants, "The sleeping halls were white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds" (21). The children of this society are a barren wasteland, void of all emotion, and as they grow they are deprived of more of the personal choices people in a normal society would make. Furthermore, once a child reaches the age of 15, he or she is assigned a job, they have no right to choose. Not only can they not choose jobs but friends are out of the question as well, "International 4-8818 and we are friends.
