One of the most striking features of Anthem is its use of language, especially the absence of the word “I.” Characters refer to themselves using the first person plural “we” and not the first person singular “I.” This use of language is often confusing, but must be understood if the book’s meaning is to be clear. The use of the plural rather than the singular self-reference, goes to the heart of the book’s meaning.
The collectivist society in which Equality 7-2521 lives is similar to the Nazi and Communist states of the twentieth century. The rulers of this society do not permit any individual to think freely; all must subordinate themselves to the state. “Collectivism,” Ayn Rand notes, “means the subjugation of the individual to the group—whether to a race, class or state does not matter.” Under such conditions, a person is not regarded as an autonomous individual with a life of his or her own, but as a fragment of a group whose sole purpose is to serve its needs.
The rulers of Equality 7-2521’s society seek to discourage even the realization of individuality; they attempt to inculcate an “ant colony” mentality in which human beings emulate the self-sacrificial existence of insects serving the overall good of the whole. The authorities wish to expunge from human nature all thoughts of individuality and, as a consequence, all elements of a personal life in action. No one has a personal name; instead each is tagged with generalized concepts of collectivism such as Equality, International, Solidarity, and so on. This attempt to extirpate all elements of individuality similarly explains why each person has a number attached to this collectivist label. Because the state considers individuality unreal, no person is unique or outstanding, human beings are interchangeable parts of a greater whole.
As a further means toward the obliteration of individuality, the state has forbidden friendship and romantic love. These elements of individuality are considered examples of the Transgression of Preference, the act of singling one person out of the mass of humankind for purposes of establishing a close relationship.
But the state’s main weapon against individualism is the crude but effective form of thought control that it practices. The state has forbidden humans from speaking or even thinking of the word “I.” Society has mandated, under punishment of death, that all first-person references are with the plural “we,” even when the reference is to a single person. Over a period of centuries, the rulers have managed to extirpate all knowledge of the word “I” from the language. All that remains is a vague memory that there is such a thing as an Unspeakable Word—but no one has an inkling that it is the word “I.”
Despite the primitive backwardness of this collectivist society, the power of its suppressive methods must be recognized. The dictators have succeeded in subjugating the populace in ways that go beyond the stifling policies of such murderous tyrants as Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. These real-life collectivist rulers forced millions of human beings to surrender their individuality in practice. The dictatorial regimes of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, and Communist Cambodia forced their citizens, in action, to serve the state. Individuals had no right to their own lives, and their actions were brutally controlled; they were slaves of Nazism or Communism.
