Anthem- Symbol/Theme

One of the major noticeable characteristics of Anthem was the continual references to one large being of man. The names of the people, the daily schedule of events and how they are carried out, and the peculiar rules and mannerisms all seem to emphasize that the community is not a community, but rather a single group of people. One huge brotherhood of man, whose sole purpose is to simply exist and slave away for everybody else because individuals are as nothing. What is truly interesting is that the individuals of the society, though they work for the entirety of man, are truly fearful individuals whose prevailing thoughts reflected an idea that they are and have never been anything but evil, and that they owe their lives to their "brothers and sisters" for all the trouble they have caused.

Firstly, all the people in the community have names that are symbolic of unison and wholeness. Equality, Fraternity, Unity, etc...all stand for a united group of persons. However, these words have very little of their true meaning left. If they are now names, then there is a good chance that their meanings have lost value, and that to use them in this society would not get much of a reaction in return. Instead, it is assumed that the society is all these words, and that they are no longer needed. After all, that would only be stating the obvious. In the novel, Equality gets scolded for singing or whistling, I forget exactly what, and he states that he did so because he was happy. Then the elder tells him, in effect, well that's obvious, of course you're happy, everyone is. In losing their meaning, there is no real way for the citizens to confirm that there is, in fact, unity and equality. Equality should supposedly have known that he was happy, just as he should supposedly know the community abounded with continual expressions of unity. It was taken for granted. However, this hides (or rather, partly emphasizes) that there really is no unity. If there was, the people would be as one people gladly working together for the betterment of others. The unity is only skin deep; within, they do not know what else they could possibly be. They do not realize that the community's stressing of unity has devalued what unity actually is, and has torn them farther apart than ever. Equality also has a technical but really-not-there-fully existence in that everyone appears to be the same and therefore equal, but in reality the people set themselves lower than everyone else because of their own personal "sins." The community really isn't united any more than it is happy.

The daily schedule is also an emphasis that all people are as one. They all rise at the same time, go about their jobs, and travel to their respective eating quarters and recreational facilities with all the others of their specific kind. Now I'd like to point out the obvious fact that if everyone were that same it really shouldn't matter where you went with what people, so long as you followed a schedule. No, apparently, the people are equal, but not that equal. Anyway, everyone moves in the same way around their life with their section, all working in unison. Again, it only appears to be unison. Equality stresses the fact that he daydreams, and therefore is evil, unlike his brothers. Well, how does he know that, exactly? The idea that everyone could be dissenting secretly seems to stress that the society is meant to keep the people in apparent unison to dissuade any that feel like doing something else. The rampant fear of how anything that all do not think is evil prevents anyone from really expressing how they feel. This most likely causes everyone to withdraw from others, with a sense of fear of being recognized as evil. This, more than anything else, result is a society that focuses on the individual's struggle to blend in. It points out the fact that everyone is terrified of being different, so in pretending to be the same everyone fakes it and cautiously blends in, ever wary of and distant from others. No one can trust the other, and no one wants to be evil. Let the evil keep their distance from the holy.

The other little quirks of the society include strict separation of women and men, where neither can speak to or even really acknowledge the other. For a society of unity and equality, there really is a little bit of a required explanation for this. About the only reason that would count would be that they needed to separate them for sexual and competitive reasons. But if they've got that much control over the community, I really doubt that many problems would arise due to lust or competition. Besides, that is an evil that absolutely must be avoided. No one in the community would want to be evil. Therefore, the separation really stands against any idea of unity. Particularly when considering the security at the Palace of Corrective Detention. When Equality breaks out of the Palace, he just knocks a door down and then walks right out. No one ever disobeys society. If anything, that incident shows that the Elders go pretty much unchallenged, and that there really shouldn't be a fear about allowing others to mingle. Other than the fact that the two different genders are a difference that they cannot ever overcome. A weak solution to an unavoidable part of nature that only accentuates the disunity of the society. Curiosity also kicks in and makes people want to break the rules even more. Also, the peculiar practice that everyone had to go to an assembly with their group as recreation deserves some attention. Everyone is expected to want to watch the same thing, to appreciate the same form of art. Really, this isn't unity, this is just a ticking time bomb. Some will tire of the performance, then either express it and be rooted out or will become terrified that they are evil and do not think as their brothers really ought to be thinking. Others will most definitely show some great appreciation to it, and may whistle, bob heads, tap feet...do things that are different that will land them in trouble, like Equality's whistling or singing. Personally, I think that subjecting everyone to a play is just passing them through another sieve or an obvious negligence that will point out that the entire community is not 100% united in all thought, all the time.

As as result, the many aspects of the community that seem to hint to unity only point out how far from unity the society is. It reminds us that perhaps the more one attempts to achieve total unity and conformity, the more nature will rage against it and express itself in defiance. The people end up becoming paranoid and self-deprecatory. Equality's escape was bound to happen at some time, and is bound to happen again. Eventually, in a world that points out how different everyone is and teaches them that these differences are evil, someone will get to the point where, believing they can't get any lower, they will strike out and act for themselves, doing as their different minds dictate.