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. Adam 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. Prometheus and Gaea freely choose to leave the city and flee into the forest . Both Adam and Eve and Prometheus and Gaea are able to obtain the knowledge that they yearn for after they flee from their guilt of disobedience. Prometheus and Eve can be compared to each other as they lead their partner into disobedience and defiance.
Adam and Gaea can be compared to each other as they followed and supported their partner. Both couples in the end were left alone to create a new man kind that would be free but would have to work to achieve their goals. Both couples had sins of pride. Prometheus felt he was something more then a number and a nameless face in the crowd. Eve felt that she should be something better then she was.
Gaea loved Prometheus and had pride in him and sinned when she followed him into the forest in order to gain her own knowledge. Just the same Adam loved Eve and had pride in her and sinned when she betrayed him and he ate of the fruit that was forbidden.
I believe that Ayn Rand wrote Anthem based on the story of Adam and Eve given that the word anthem means a sacred composition set to words from the Bible.
I think that the comparison of there sins for wisdom and understanding is so closely related that Ayn Rand wanted to portray a futuristic or present view of the old bible story for others to see. Society represents God in their power to overpower and rule over others. As Prometheus says, ‘To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.’; Man will overcome boundaries that may be set for him and will fight to be equal and free as Adam and Eve and Prometheus and Gaea.
