Light, a modern amenity to you today, but a long lost unspeakable evil to the people in the book Anthem. Imagine a world without light but just candles to light the way In Anthem, light via electricity is a thing of the past. The meaning of light is to illuminate or to ignite. In Anthem, light has many meanings and roles in the story. “It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air” Rand (pg.17). Darkness is one of the reasons we need light, but there are so many more. As you read on you will see how Ayn Rand proves the importance of light. Using light throughout as a metaphor for greater things.
I want to start with some of the things light symbolizes in the story and in life today. In Anthem, Equality 7-2521 even talks about how light is very precious. “We stole the candle from the Street Sweepers. We larder be sentenced to ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention if it be discovered. But this matters not. It matters only that light is precious and we should not waste it to write when we need
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it for work which is our crime” Rand (pg. 18). Light today runs the entire world. Without light, travel in the night would be hard to nearly impossible. Crime rates would go up as well. Having light in our homes is a great amenity. I couldn't imagine going back to just candles and fire as they do in Anthem. Could you? Having light in the form of electricity not only provides a way to see, but also provides heat and power. These are some of the practical needs for light and why it's important in the world as well as in the book Anthem. Light can also mean hope and happiness for something better. People always hope for a bright future. Light symbolizes the hope for better and that's important cause without hope what do we have? One of the main symbols in Anthem with light is knowledge. The light symbolizes knowledge in the story because it starts small with nothing but a meer candle. This represents the small amount known in Anthem they are still almost totally in the dark about the world they are living in. However Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One are different. It seems that they both crave more than the others. They want to spark the light and come out of the darkness. They even accomplish this throughout the story as the light grows. What started with a candle then turned into electricity. “ We stood, and we held our head in our hands. We could not conceive of that which we created. We had touched no flint, made no fire. Yet here was light, light that came from nowhere, light from the heart of metal” Rand (pg.59). They are gaining knowledge slowly about science. Science has been hidden from them. The people in the book Anthem have basically been brainwashed and all knowledge is gone. They live and breathe the ways they are told to without question. However, this doesn’t work for Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One. They test things and hope to acquire better knowledge. So that is why they are now making discoveries. The candle light, as Equality 7-2521 is referring to in the quote, symbolized crime, meaning the secret underground tunnel Equality 7-2521 was keeping to himself.
He could only see by the light of a candle. Light also represents discovery. Not only does it represent discovery in this book, but also in life. When you discover something everyone knows the saying is a light bulb in your head going off. Equality 7-2521 and the golden one find a new discovery of light. They called it the power of light and we call it electricity. See, they discovered an old invention to use but a very new invention to them. This is so important because this discovery is what brings the climax of the story. The discovery of light is what brings pain to Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One at first when they are lashed, but in the end their discovery brought them to a house full of new and exciting things to them. Light made this story and light makes the world go
around. In conclusion, light symbolizes a lot, whether it be knowledge, hope, or discovery. Light is important through this whole story. Light shows hope to learn more as light grows you know you're learning more. Without the growth of light through the story, Equality 7-2521 and the Golden one would never have found the truth behind the unspeakable past. It shows discovery even when there are forces against it. Light overall makes a huge impact in life and in Anthem.
I think the main idea the narrators is trying to emphasize is the theme of opposition between the chaotic world and the human need for community with a series of opposing images, especially darkness and light. The narrator repeatedly associates light with the desire to clear or give form to the needs and passions, which arise out of inner darkness. He also opposes light as an idea of order to darkness in the world, the chaos that adults endure, but of which they normally cannot speak to children.
The book Anthem is a book that can be perceived many various ways. To me, Anthem is about an outstandingly smart young man, named Equality 7-2521
It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.” -pg. 85
In Ayn Rand’s famous, or in some circles, infamous, story Anthem, the differing ideologies of objectivism and collectivism are pit against each other. With objectivism being so tight knit and different from the society in the book, it seems that it would be almost impossible to truly follow in its entirety. However, Anthem, as a whole, doesn’t violate the ideals of Rand’s philosophy of objectivism.
Baldwin's use of the symbols light and darkness seem at first stereotypical. Light is the good while dark is the bad, but after several uses it is clear that the author has a more complex idea. The first reference to light occurs while the narrator is thinking over the recently learned news that Sonny has been jailed. "I didn't want to believe that I'd ever see m...
Yet as we journey from the dark to the light in Aeschylus, we cannot leave the dark behind – the darkness breeds the light.
Anthem is a book full to the brim of symbolism. Some of it is clear to see and others you have to really pay attention to capture. Anthem is not a hard book to understand, but it can still be difficult to grasp the full meaning of it. The meaning of which is elusive at points, slipping between your fingers and resting on the pages in plain view. Unity, we, I, Ego, it all plays a major part in this book along with the symbolism of things.
...colors, help to create a feeling of eternity in the passage. This is displayed in the quote “the water rose further and dressed Simon’s coarse hair with brightness” (pg.154). These lights that are around Simon symbolize him rising up to heavens.
There is a distinct symbolism of light in this novel. While growing up Equality 7-2521 wanted to be assigned to the House of Scholars, but instead was made a street sweeper. While doing his daily job he discovers a tunnel from the Unmentionable times. He ran away to his secret tunnel every night where he rediscovers the light bulb. His invention represents his curiosity and the beginning of his individualism. Light is used again when giving Liberty 5-3000 a private name of “The Golden One” and his final name “Prometheus” at the end of the novel. Prometheus is the Greek God that brought fire to men from the Gods. Equality 7-2521 feels the name fitting for himself because of his rediscovery of the light bulb.
Language has the power to influence and reshape our thoughts and actions. In Anthem, by Ayn Rand, there is a society which controls the language of everyone in it. Under the World Council, everyone is to follow the many rules put in place and no one even tries to break them. There is no “I” in their language, there is only “we”. With the power to influence and reshape people, language has a big impact on our thoughts and actions.
The use of light and dark motifs by Mulisch explains many reactions of Anton when encountered with problems of his past. Perception of darkness Anton Steinwijk, the main character, experiences such assault by soldiers during the Occupation and his family being shot by them. His desire to leave what has happened to him in the past has been influenced thoroughly by some of the people he encounters as well as the trauma. Light and darkness symbolizes Anton's sense perception as well as moral issues conveyed by people he met, which influences him observing the war and his past years of life, and the desire to leave the past behind and move on.
...alters the meaning behind light. Instead of being seen as something that is perceived as comfortable it has been altered to bee seen as painful and daunting. Just as a fire can keep someone warm and science can save many lives; if one gets too close one can get burned, in Victor Frankenstein's case it led to his death.
Since symbolism first began to be used in the English language, Light has always represented a theme of hope and optimism. The phrase “Light at the end of the tunnel” best encompasses this, implying an opportunity or relief after difficulty or chaos. In the same way, Darkness has represented confusion or despair. James Joyce expands on the traditional connotations of Light and Darkness in his short story “Araby”. The narrative follows a young boy on his futile quest to find love with a girl much older than himself whom he hardly knows. Joyce uses Light to represent not only hope, but unrealistic idealism and illusion. In the same way, Darkness, in addition to despair, represents the reality and truth in the narrator's predicament. Joyce uses Light and Darkness as a symbol for the clash between fantasy and reality that takes place within the narrator.
Mr. Kenneth Muir, in his introduction to the play - which does not, by the way, interpret it simply from this point of view - aptly describes the cumulative effect of the imagery: "The contrast between light and darkness [suggested by the imagery] is part of a general antithesis between good and evil, devils and angels, evil and grace, hell and heaven . . . (67-68)
It is significantly connected to Blanche’s personal image compared to the other characters. Light captures the theme of truth and reality through the book. Blanche hates being in the light because she is afraid it’s going to show her true age and she’s ashamed of her past. She uses the paper lantern to cover the bulb in her room. She never lets Mitch see her in the light in the beginning of the book by only agreeing to go out at night and only to poorly lit areas. Mitch expresses to her “I don’t think I ever seen you in the light… you never want to go out till after six and then it’s always some place that’s not lighted much” (Williams 143). Light also symbolizes love, both Stanley and Stella’s and Blanche’s also. Blanche uses light to describe important events in her life especially when she found out the truth about her spouse and then when she lost him to suicide. His death was the turning point of Blanche’s problem with light. She says to Mitch “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off” (Williams 115). Bright lights represent the reality and full desires of the characters while dim ones represent fantasies and attempts to stay in the past. Stanley is also connected to the symbol which represents his reality and wishes. It shows when he mentions to Stella “I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them colored lights going!” (Williams 136). Stanley wants their love life can be reignited and his usage of light signifies his honest attitude. He lacks the fantastical attitude of Blanche but rather lives in reality. Stanley can also be symbolized by the naked bulb in their apartment. With the arrival Blanche, she tried to diminish his effect on Stella by metaphorically covering the bulb with a Chinese lantern. However, as the book went on and Blanche