In my opinion, one of the gateways to understanding Ayn Rand and her philosophy is through reading the short novel " Anthem" a dystopian novel that serves as cautionary tale to excessive collectivism. Published back in 1938, it is quite earlier than the famous dystopian novel by Orwell 1984 which was published in 1949. Today, I believe it is necessary for anyone to reflect upon the state of excessive collectivism in which I think, the world is starting to strip individual thoughts, innovations and there's barely room for any "ego" to thrive. The word "ego" and "egoist" , even "individual" or "individualist" , is often associated with being in the "bad" moral spectrum and is frowned upon. I certainly beg to differ, especially because having ego and being an individual can be a good thing. Anthem is certainly the book to understand, reflect , even scrutinize the idea of Ego and collectivism.

Anthem sets in a distant dark age future where there's only candle to light up the surroundings. Everyone who lives in this society doesn't have a name other than the name on their iron bracelet such as Equality 7-2521 or Union 5-3992 even International 4-88818. The pronoun that they use is "we" and they have a job that is already decided by the Council of Vocations. The main character is Equality 7-2521 who was chosen to work as a street sweeper. The main character narrates his story as a street sweeper and how he found a spot where he eventually invented a light. But his invention was rejected and he was sent to be lashed in the Palace of Corrective Detention. But Equality 7-2521 eventually escaped and went through the forest with his love interest that he called " The golden one"

During their escape, they become hunter and gatherer and survive in the forest. Equality 7-2521 eventually pondered, " If that which we have found is the corruption of solitude, then what can men wish for to save corruption? If this is the great evil of being alone, then what is good and what is evil?"

Eventually after crossing many mountains and escaping from their previous society, they found a home. It was the house from the Unmentionable Times and they eventually discovered that once there was a civilization way better than what they had. They started reading the book and discovered the strange word "I". Then the narration switches from We to I where the main character decided that he adopts the name ofPrometheus and the woman, "Gaea".

! [In the end, the main character decided that he'll make a new world where a man will be "free to exist for his own sake".
] This is the spoiler content.

After reading this book and comparing to atlas shrugged and the fountain head, Anthem is the most profound to me. This novella is short and you come to appreciate Ayn Rand as a thinker tries to draw her thoughts with novel. I am aware of fact that a lot of literary elites detest her work but if reading was an experience and it is subjected to personal experience, then she manages to entertain me as a reader. Just as everyone is valid liking 50 shades of grey novel. I resonate with a lot of quotes in her novel such as this one below;

Reflecting on today's society and I am not talking about western society, I think eastern society needs quite a bit of individualism. Some countries in the eastern hemisphere, especially the developing one, have started adopting it but eventually, since the cultural root and collective guilt-tripping are quite strong, paired with various slogans such as mutual cooperation that in reality was rarely a mutual participation, leaves a little room for individualism. Perhaps, Ayn Rand philosophy isn't needed anymore in hyper individualized society where at least the "illusion of freedom" is guaranteed. However, for collectivist society, a little bit of exposure to the work of "Ayn Rand" is needed.

Objectively, as a novella writer, I have to say that Ayn Rand may not have the The Pulitzer quality but her work much like Orwel and various dystopian writers, deserves a chance to be read at least once in a lifetime. That is to say, some of my friends from the US mentioned they were asked to read Ayn Rand during highschool. But it wasn't the same where I am from, in which they were never exposed to that kind of work early on.