Anthem Author & Background Information

The Author: Ayn Rand• Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in February 1905• She lived during the Russian Civil War & the

Bolshevik Revolution; these gave way to the Communist era in Russia

• Her family lost its business & lived in extreme poverty

• She majored in Philosophy & History in College & studied screen-writing at Cinema Arts

• When Stalin ascended to power in the 1920’s, she escaped to Chicago in 1926

• She then moved to Hollywood to become a screen-writer

The Author: Ayn Rand

• She married the actor Frank O’Conor

• Anthem was published in Great Britain in 1938, she later revised the novella and, in 1946, published it in the United States

• She is best known for The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Communist Russia• Stalin was the leader of the USSR & he improved

the country's economic status• Stalin also ordered purges (execution) of all those

who opposed him, especially independent thinkers & intellectuals

• Millions of people were killed including government officials, military & common people

• There were also forced labor camps and collective farms, causing many people to die from starvation

• 1879-1973

Anthem: Themes

• Themes to look for . . . -Individual self-expression is important

-Humanity should preserve and value the past

-Humanity has the ability to be reborn or revived

-People lose their humanity when not able to communicate/interact with each other on a personal level

Anthem: Other Information• The novel is written as an allegory, a

fictional story whose purpose is to present a fictional idea

• Rand is critical of the idea of Collectivism – Belief that man must be part of the collective group for the sake of the common good

• Rand supports the idea of Egoism – An ego is essential for a human to be unique, everyone has their own “ego”

To Know, before you read…

• The novel is written using the word “We” because people were not allowed to use the word “I”, they were a collective society & not an individual one

• The novel is written in the future and people can barely remember/know what life was like (life as society now). Imagine that everything has been wiped out & society is starting from scratch even though it is the future