Anthem

Anthem

by Ayn Rand

Who is Ayn Rand?

Objectivism

She was born in St. Petersburg Russia

At the age of six she taughter herself to read.

At the age of nine she decided to make fiction her career.

She loathed collectivist Russia, so she ended up admiring authors such as Victor Hugo

Thereafter, Ayn Rand wrote and lectured on her philosophy—Objectivism, which she characterized as “a philosophy for living on earth."

1. Metaphysics Objective Reality

2. Epistemology Reason

3. Ethics Self-interest

4. Politics Capitalism

Simply translated:

1. “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed”

2. “You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.”

3. “Man is an end in himself.”

4. “Give me liberty or give me death.”

A savior for the America people

Life changing

The worse thing that ever happenned

Essential

Just NO

The greatest writer ever.

The most important literary figure of our time

A moron

So Why Do We Cover Her?

Controversial

Just avoid her at all costs

The most important person of the 20th century

My greatest hero

Great writer trapped in terrible ideologies

Terrible writer trapped in terrible ideologies

Some reactions when I mention Ayn Rand

Brilliant

The enemy

Because she is so conflicting. She is at once considered a savior, but she is anti-religion. She is certainly admirable when examining her rags to riches story. And I find (and this is my opinion) that Anthem is a worthy text, one that can sit next to the other texts we are doing (i.e.: 1984) and be examined through a similar critical lens. Once you separate author and text, the text is a remarkable and unique piece that shows what can be.

Her History

Her Work

Atlas Shrugged

Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged is often identified as her greatest achievement. In this novel she dramatized her unique (but controversial) philosophy in an intellectual mystery story that integrated ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics and sex.

Although she considered herself primarily a fiction writer, she realized that in order to create heroic fictional characters, she had to identify the philosophic principles which make such individuals possible.

The Fountainhead

She began writing The Fountainhead in 1935 (taking a short break in 1937 to write the anti-collectivist novelette Anthem). In The Fountainhead, she presented the kind of hero whose depiction was the chief goal of her writing: the ideal man, man as “he could be and ought to be.” The Fountainhead made history by becoming a best-seller through word of mouth two years later, and gained for its author lasting recognition as a champion of individualism.

In late 1925 she obtained permission to leave Soviet Russia for a visit to relatives in the United States. Although she told Soviet authorities that her visit would be short, she was determined never to return to Russia. She arrived in New York City in February 1926. She spent the next six months with her relatives in Chicago, obtained an extension to her visa, and then left for Hollywood to pursue a career as a screenwriter.

What came next?

After struggling for several years at various nonwriting jobs, she sold her first screenplay, “Red Pawn,” to Universal Pictures in 1932 and saw her first stage play, Night of January 16th, produced in Hollywood and then on Broadway. Her first novel, We the Living, was completed in 1934 but was rejected by numerous publishers, until The Macmillan Company in the United States and Cassells and Company in England published the book in 1936. The most autobiographical of her novels, it was based on her years under Soviet tyranny.

Arriving in Hollywood

On Ayn Rand’s second day in Hollywood, Cecil B. DeMille saw her standing at the gate of his studio, offered her a ride to the set of his movie The King of Kings, and gave her a job, first as an extra, then as a script reader. During the next week at the studio, she met an actor, Frank O’Connor, whom she married in 1929; they were married until his death fifty years later.

Demille

Ayn Rand

What came next?

propaganda from the

Bolshevik revolution

Kerensky

Finished her high school time in Crimea, and while learning about American History, she viewed America as her model of what a nation of free men could be

She also witnessed the Bolshevik revolution, which she publicly denounced

During her high school years she witnessed the Kerensky Revolution, which she supported

Her High School Years

Her Belief System