Anthem Literary Analysis

1539 Words7 Pages
‘Freedom’. Although one of the most recognizable words in America, how frequently is it ever truly achieved? We live under the idea of freedom, although we are not free in the truest sense, as we still have laws and concepts to follow. In the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, the characters Prometheus and Gaia, or Equality and Liberty, have no such guidelines other than their hearts. Based in the future, they had left a society they did not wish to follow, and wished to create their own society only based on their knowledge and the texts they had found from our current time, and recruiting people from their old society. Their idea of their society, based on ‘I’, not ‘We’, is doomed to fail, as they will not people to find the materials necessary to…show more content…
Without people a settlement cannot sustain itself, as they will not have enough workers to finish tasks necessary to the establishment and sustainment of the settlement. Gaia and Prometheus society, however, will not have enough people willing to join or be born into. Prometheus says that the source of the members would be, “my sons and my chosen friends shall build our new land”(104). This means that the only source of new members for the society are Prometheus's friends who are willing to come and any children born from its members. In Prometheus’s story we learn of his few friends, most notably International 4-8818 and Union 5-3992. Both of his friends did not conform to the Anthem society, as International was an artist against the will of the council and Union had some form of seizures or spasms. Both of Prometheus’s friends were a form of outcasts in the Anthem society for their differences, like Prometheus himself once was. Unless the Anthem society is full of outcasts in a society where all people are included, they will not supply a good or a steady stream of members. Without another steady source of people, the society would fall from lack of…show more content…
In the story Gaea is about seventeen during the founding of the society, which means that she can have about sixteen children, taking into account both pregnancy length, a nursing period and her age before likely occurrence of menopause. Since the best time period between children is seventeen months, with pregnancy and nursing, Gaea and other similarly aged females would be able to have about that many children, and any any women of similar age could have. However, this is not taking into account miscarriage or issues during early childhood. Both Prometheus and Gaia have not had an opportunity to interact with a child due to the way the breeding works in the Anthem society, so they will likely be unable to properly care for the child. During its growing up, the child, depending on the amount of people in the society may face nutritional deficiencies and therefore malformations from lack of food. Another issue to factor in is inbreeding. If the new society does not receive new members from the outside world it’s members may become inbreed to the point where they can birth no children, and the death of the society. Without people to spread its ideas, a society
Open Document