Anthem

Analyze
Anthem takes place in a futuristic world but in reality they have really gone backwards in time. The characters have lost their real identity and have become nothing more but a number. Such things as love, friendship, electricity, and even true happiness was taken from this community of people and yet no body knows how to break free. The men and woman in this world do not even know something as simple as the word I. A one letter word that means so much has been taken from these people and replaced with We. Emotions are not to be shown amongst two people nor are they aloud to have any type of physical contact especailly between a man and woman. How is it possible that such a large community was completely reformed and changed by a small group of people? Where did the idea of taking people's identity away come from? And even the word I? The master minds of this community wanted to form a type of Utopia where everyone is the same and happy and life is good but that was not the case for all. Atleast there was one person in this community that knew how to get away. When the word "I" was introduced to him for the first time it was a great new expirience and he could finally express a true emotion to the woman he loved. A society without the word "I" seems impossible but in the book Anthem it was very much possible.

Passage
"We stood still; for the first time did we know fear, and then pain. And we stood still that we might not spill this pain more precious then pleasure" (39). To feel emotion is such a wonderful thing in someones life and for Equality this was his first expirience in feeling love and an attraction toward a woman, Liberty. Even though he did not know specifically what he was feeling he knew there was something there and seeing that girl made him feel good inside. Something that he had never felt before and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as possible. When he says it was "more precious then pleasure" he is feeling probably the largest amount of good emotion hes ever felt. I really liked this passage because its a big turning point for Equality. From that moment forward he realized there was something wrong with the life he was living. There is something missing in his life and even though he did not know the word for it or how to say it, it was still there and he couldn't ignore it.

Opinion
Anthem was a wonderful book that took you trough the life of a man who had many new expiriences and eventually found love. It grabbed me right from the beginning when I had to figure out why the man was always refering to himself as "We" insead of me or I. I was very interested on how a community could be turned around and brought backwards in time while at the same time going forward. They lived with no electricity and acted like they had no idea what it was when it was discovered again for the first time. People were refered to by numbers instead of names and there was no personal freedom. Living without the word "I" seems like such a unique idea and it kept me reading and very interested. The ending of the book was very good as well. It described a life that was basically starting over and giving two people hope for a better world. Anthem was one of my favorite books and had such a unique concept.