Initiating Event

EGO

The sun comes up every day. It pierces through the darkness of the night and brings light to the daytime sky. As the sun prepares to set, it takes with it brilliant colors before fading into night again. The same goes with the tone that changes throughout a novel. Tones can feel dark, but switch to a knowledge seeking attitude later in the story. That same eagerness to learn then falls to an optimistic viewpoint. In the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, literary devices are used to show oppressed, enlightened, and hopeful tones.

In the beginning of the book, an oppressed tone is created with the use of diction and similes. An example of diction is shown in the quotation "secret darkness of our heart" (Rand 22). The word "darkness" fills the readers mind with dark colors. These colors show oppression by creating a dominant feeling in the reader. A small amount of dramatic irony is created with the use of the word "secret". A secret implies that there is something that someone does not know. Secrets themselves provoke a feeling of unknowing, which gives an oppressed feeling in the reader. A plural pronoun is used with a singular noun in the case of "our heart". The denotation of this phrase is one heart that many share. Oppression is created in this phrase by giving off a dependent feeling. "Their eyes were as cold blue glass buttons" is a simile that shows oppression (Rand 26). This simile is comparing eyes to something that is dark, reflecting, and lifeless. The word "cold" invokes a numbing feeling in the reader. A presence of solitude is also felt in the word cold. Blue is a cold color, creating an ever-increasing cold reaction in the reader. Glass is breakable, showing the frail state of the eyes. These show oppression by creating a dark sensation. A "thin thread of flame in it, as a crack in the wall of a prison" is a simile used to continue the showing of the oppressed tone (Rand 60). This simile compares a small flame to a crack in a prison wall. The comparison to a prison creates a bad feeling because of the dark nature of the intents of prisons. Flames and fires also strike feelings of fear and physical heat, which is another way oppression can be felt. By depicting a small flame to be like a crack in a wall, whose purpose is too keep people inside of it, shows it as a glimpse of freedom from the oppressed world that the main character lives in. To communicate an oppressed tone in the novel, the author uses similes and diction.

The turning point in the plot is given an enlightened tone using a paradox, denotation, syntax, and diction. "I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse," creates a paradox by calling a blessed thing, which is good, a curse (Rand 98). The character first describes the sense of himself that he had as a curse, but later realizes how great it actually is. This shows enlightenment because he is learning the true value of what he has. When one learns something, they experience an intake of knowledge. Enlightenment works the same way. The paradox shows the ability to re-learn a wrong idea or wrong information. The main character learns that "To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else," (Rand 101). This quotation captures the definition of freedom to the main character. The enlightened tone is shown through the nature of the words themselves. The main character learns what freedom is when he makes this statement. The syntax is meant to show the simplicity of the knowledge and makes it easy to understand because it is so simple of a fact. The denotation suggests that to have absolute freedom, one must have freedom from their own species. With this freedom, one can get freedom from every other lesser thing in the world. Showing knowledge of freedom creates an enlightened tone. "And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth," is another statement that shows enlightenment (Rand 97). The word "now" shows the reader that "the face of god" that he sees is something new to him. This shows enlightenment by knowing something new. The main character also embraces the knowledge and is not afraid to show it. The knowledge is described as a "god", displaying the power and importance of it. Many different literary devices are used in showing an enlightened tone.

A hopeful tone is created in the end of the novel by the use of diction, symbols, imagery, and similes. In the quotation "The forest seemed to welcome us. We went on, without thought, without care, with nothing to feel save the song of our body," contains a metaphor that compares one's body to a song, sung out of joy (Rand 79). The word "welcome" is used to create an accepted and happy feeling in the reader. The reader also gets a free and open-minded feeling through the words "without care". These feelings create a hopeful tone by showing that there is good in the otherwise cruel and oppressed world the characters lived in. "We see the dust of centuries, the dust which hid great secrets," was said about the "dust" that covered the books that the main character found in the house (Rand 93). Dust is used to show the hidden knowledge from the Unmentionable Times. The main character acknowledges the dust and is willing to see through it to learn from the times not spoken of in his society. Dust is a symbol for secrets in this scene because of the hiding nature of dust and how it accumulates over time. However, this symbol is overcome by seeing the dust and knowing that there is something to learn underneath it. Dust is also said to have "hid" the secrets, the word "hid" being the key word because it is in the past tense. The character knows the secrets under the dust. This shows hopefulness because of the conquering feeling the reader gets. Imagery and similes collide in the quotation "This spread of naked rock and peaks and moonlight is like a world ready to be born" (Rand 92). The word "naked" is used in this imagery to give the reader the sense of how purely the characters see the world now. The simile is comparing the landscape and a new world to show, again, how the world seems completely new to them with the new knowledge they learned. The hopeful tone is found in the meaning of the figurative language. They see hope in the world that is new to them. A hopeful tone is created in the literary devices used by the author.

The meaning of words gives the beginning of this book an oppressed tone. That dark tone later translates into a more liberal feeling in the words and literary devices during the climax. The end result of a forward-looking viewpoint is created with many forms of figurative language. Literary devices are used in the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand to show oppressed, enlightened, and hopeful tones. The night feels different than the day. The day feels different than the night. Whoever makes the sun rise and set everyday always has these feelings in mind, whatever they may be.

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Independent Reading Q3 Essay: Anthem