Anthem pg 17-29

Summary

My first impression of this book was that it was going to be a jungle book. It had tress in the front and some leaves, but after reading the first sentence, “It is a sin to write this” (Rand 17), I started to say in my mind, ‘something is not right’. And I was right, something isn’t right. The narrator says he/she has committed a great sin. A sin that has no punishment because it has never been committed therefore there were no laws that gave the specific punishment. I found out that the narrator’s name is not really a name actually, but a number. The narrators name/number is Equality 7-2521. Now that I found really weird, and I though to myself, where else have I seen a number being substituted for a name, then I remembered the Holocaust. I continued reading and I found something very strange with Equality, he/she refers to him/herself as a third person. Equality doesn’t say ‘my name’ but ‘our name’. Equality doesn’t say ‘I have committed a crime’ but ‘We have committed a crime’ which makes me wonder who is 'we’? Equality is 21 years old and 6 feet tall, which is supposedly bad. We, no I learn more about this society and the way it functions. I learn that there are councils that are in charge of different areas of the society’s daily life. They have the council of scholars (the smart people), vocations (ones who assign jobs) and so on. This book then reminded me of the dystopian society in Gathering Blue and The Giver (both by Lois Lowry). So that’s when I started to ask myself yet another question Is this book a dystopian novel? So many questions, so little space.

Quote

“ We are six feet tall, and this is a burden….We are born with a curse." (Rand 18)

Reaction

This quote was quite….humorous the first time I read it but then I understood what Equality meant. At first I thought I should be considered a gift because we, in my society, consider it a blessing to be that height because, well you can be a basketball player and earn lots of money, but then it is difficult being different from the others. Being ostracized from your peers and family, if he/she had one, and being looked down upon by your teachers and leaders and everyone telling you “You have evil in your body because you’re taller than me” is very difficult to handle.