Free Essays - Anthem :: Anthem Essays

Anthem is a story of man’s struggle to be free and to fight the masses of conformity.   It tells of human nature and the want to gain all the knowledge that one could possibly attain.   Man loses his safe haven and his security when he lets this lust for knowledge overpower him and lets it be seen by others. He becomes vulnerable Like Johann Faust, Prometheus sells his life for wisdom.   Unlike Faust, however, Prometheus is expelled from his society but gains his freedom of individuality and his freedom of knowledge and the ability to understand.   In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea sin against society to become singular and understanding much like Adam and Eve’s sin against God when they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge to gain wisdom; as a result, they can be compared to each other by there desire for learning and by their damnation.   An anthem is a sacred composition set to words from the Bible.   This may have significance with the title that Ayn Rand has given the book by paralleling the story of Prometheus and Gaea to that of Adam and Eve.   In the bible, Adam and Eve were given everything that they needed by God with the one exception of not to eat from a specific tree.   They were told by the devil that this tree was the tree of knowledge and to eat of it would give them knowledge equal to God’s.   In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea are told that they have everything that they will ever need or desire by the council.   They are forbidden to gain knowledge that is not permitted by the council but only to do as they are told.   Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the pursuit of knowledge and ate of the tree in order to gain equality to God.   When they did this God found out and so condemned them and punished them for all eternity.   God banished them from paradise in the Garden of Eden.   A dam and Eve were no longer given anything as they were in the garden but instead were forced to suffer and survive on their own.   In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea go against the will of the council and Prometheus yearns to gain knowledge that he realizes is being hidden from him. Prometheus hides his studies at first but then wants to share them with the council for the betterment of society but is instead condemned.