#6-Anthem

Perfect World. Can perfect and world really be used together? Is the phrase just an oxymoron? Ayn Rand's Anthem hooked me with a story of a perfect world.

The setting was, of course, a perfect world. Everyone was happy. Everyone was as one. Everyone was "WE". No one disobeyed the course of the world. People were not assigned names, but they were assigned more of what could be said as labels. From children to adults, they were told how to live their lives, and their whole life was planned for them. Different "Homes" housed people of different "trades". People died at the age of 45. That was how life was. But was this necessarily the "perfect world"?

The main character Equality 7-2521 was cursed. He was guilty many times of the "Transgression of Preference". This was looked down upon by the people of the world. People were not allowed to express their opinions on what they wanted to do or what they wanted to be. Equality 7-2521 disobeyed the ways of his land many times. When he was assigned as "Street Sweeper" as his work for the rest of his days, he took the job with pride although he wanted to be something else, a "Transgression of Preference". While on the job one day, he finds a passage which lead to the "Unmentionable Times" of his world. He does not want to give the place up, so he keeps his place a secret. In his place, he is guilty disobeying many rules of his world.

The theme of this book is a world is never perfect. Always, someone will not be happy with the way the world is, just as Equality 7-2521 was. No one can make everyone happy at once, so someone is always going to try to break free and be a rebel to their world. Never will there be a "perfect world".

To me, this book was only fairly interesting. The book ended well, and I was happy about that. I would not necessarily recommend Anthem to everyone, but I know many people out there that would probably enjoy reading the story.