Historical Context- Lucas T

Anthem, by Ayn Rand
Chapters 5 & 6
Lucas Taragano

In my opinion, the book Anthem by Ayn Rand is controversial for some reasons. To begin with, the whole Idea of Anthem is that the post-apocalyptic society is built in a very different way then how ours is today. In this society, the idea of individualism is completely banished and is not known by anybody. Before getting on with the details the definition of individualism would be "the pursuit of individual rather than common or collective interests;egoism." (dictionary.com) This leads to the first reason why this novella is controversial. The idea of how individualism can be something bad because it challenges how our societies are shaped today. A thought that I had was that this book might have made people think about if their ideas for how a community should be, and to prevent possible uprisings leaders decided to censor this book. In addition to that, in one specific part of the book the protagonist of the story, Equality 7-2521, finds electricity (Rand 4). Apparently, he has never seen something like this, and is amazed by his new discovery. This indirectly connects back to the main question, since electricity was not in the society, it might have been banned for some reason. A final example would be that instead of people having babies on their own, there is a specific place for only some to have children, the Palace of Mating (Rand 2).This can be a controversial place because it expresses how many problems can occur due to unexpected, and sometimes not wanted pregnancy. It challenges once again, how our society is today, and shows how the author thinks it should be different. All in all, it is clear to the reader how Anthem is such a controversial book in a certain perspective.