Anthem is written by a person who escaped Communist Russia, exploring the negativities of communist society by placing the reader in a dystopian world. In this world, the central idea is that there is no individuality, and the word "I" doesn't even exist. All jobs are assigned to people when they reach a certain age and there is no change allowed. There is one person named Equality 7-2521 who is unlike everyone else in that he is too curious, which earns him the job of a street sweeper. But one day when he is sweeping the streets he finds a tunnel leading to an ancient place where he eventually discovers electricity, which they didn't have in this society. He presents the idea of the lightbulb to the city council, who rejects him because they dislike change, angering him and making him run into the unknown forest. As he travels, he learns more about what truly happened in the past before the Society formed. Will he survive by himself, or was the Society right about needing a group to survive?
I thought that this book was an interesting perspective on individualism and objectivism. However, I found the storyline too vague and the ending of the book could have been better. In addition, it starts to seem less like a story near the end and more of an informative essay on a certain stance that the author has. Because of all this, I give this book three out of five stars.