We The Living Essay: We The Living By Ayn Rand

614 Words2 Pages

Angelina Correa
Humanities 205
Mr. Farson
March 10, 2014

Essay on ”We the Living” by Ayn Rand

In the novel, “We the Living” by Ayn Rand, the setting takes place in Petrograd, after the civil war. Ayn Rand gives her novel a tone of despair, helplessness, and anger. She describes the atmosphere as dirty, dusty, poor, old, and crazy. Ayn Rand’s word choices create very vivid and strong concrete images. For example, saying the setting is full of cobwebs shows it takes place in an old and dusty atmosphere.
Also, in the sentence, “A pinkish-gray banner that had been red, hung in the webbing of steel beams.” This sentence gives me the illusion of an old banner that was once new now is torn up and hanging in the cobwebs.
The very first sentence in the novel really stands out. “Petrograd smelt of carbolic acid.” Ayn Rand really shows the importance of this sentence by making it into its own paragraph. It is such a strong, straight forward start to the novel; it is as if I can almost smell the carbolic acid.
Ayn Rand uses a lot of metaphoric phrases. She describes the crowd of people wai...

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