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Anthem: Rand’s Dismissal of Sin
Ayn Rand is quite possibly one of the most famous female philosophers of modern time.
Through her collectivist novels, she is renowned for her unique perspective on government and
lauded as a heroine of libertarianism. Even half a century past the publication of her novels, the
ideas she presented through them still impact society today. Yet, while she is most famous for
her beliefs on government, the subtle undertones of her novel, Anthem, may lead the reader to
delve deeper into her worldview. Through Anthem’s protagonist, Prometheus, also known as
Equality 7-2521, Rand coveys her conviction that man cannot be free until he rejects the concept
of moral authority. Since Prometheus’ relationship with government is inseparable from his
relationship with religion, a complete rejection of both is presented as the only means to his
freedom.
In the beginning of the novel, Rand establishes an inseparability of moral authority and
government, which binds Prometheus to the course that has been determined for him. The first
lines of the book say, “IT IS A SIN TO WRITE THIS. It is a sin to think words no others think
and to put them down on a paper no others are to see…We have broken the laws…May we be
forgiven” (17). The first thing Rand does upon establishing the story and characters of Anthem is
introduce the reader to the fictional society’s concept of sin; the idea that the government of the
book strictly controls the ideology of good and evil; that the standard of right and wrong is based
on what is deemed law. The root of “all evil” is listed as breaking the law of being alone.
As soon as the reader is familiar with the initial concept of sin, he or she is shown how
Prometheus struggles with a seemingly dichotic relationship between good versus evil. Before he
even introduces his name, he tells of the light that he must not waste because he needs it for the

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work, which is his crime (18). He tells how he is born with a curse because his body has grown
taller than his brothers. Then he says how he also is cursed with a mind that “has always driven
us to think thoughts which are forbidden…We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us
and no power to resist it” (18). Rand uses these lines to show that Prometheus is a helpless
victim of his desires. Although he cannot reconcile these desires with his actions, he is incapable
of forsaking them. The government in Prometheus’s city imposes laws in the same capacity
which religion typically regulates moral behavior, by declaring all it opposes to be sin. The use
of the term “sin” draws the reader to associate all acts against the government with deep moral
reprehensibility.
This initial realization will follow Prometheus through the entire novel as he attempts to
free himself from government regulations only to be controlled by the internal concept of “sin”
with which he was indoctrinated. Prometheus’ brothers are unable to see how the government
controls them because they place a religion-like faith into the “Great Truth,” which is that all
men are one and must function as a collective whole” (18).
Another way the line between government and religion is obscured is by Rand’s use of
religious language for government activities. She attempts to draw the reader into contempt of
the church by describing heinous government activity in terms typically reserved for sacred
worship. Three terms Rand uses to associate government with church, apart from the terms “sin”
and “curse,” would be the use of the words “brother,” “worship,” and “hymns,” which are sung
during the social meeting.
Twice Prometheus mentions the concept of working to remit his sins, an ideology often
associated by the Christian works-based salvation theory. The first mention is when he receives
his life mandate, a position lower than he desired, “We knew we had been guilty, but now we

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had a way to atone for it. We would accept our life mandate, and we would work for our
brothers, gladly and willingly, and we would erase our sin against them” (26).
His second reference to earning a remission for his sins is when he is heading to the
Council with his discovery of the light box and he says, “We shall confess everything to them.
They will see, understand, and forgive. For our gift is greater than our transgression” (61).
Rand’s purposeful inclusion of these two instances further reinforces the association of
government and religion as equal entities.
Once Rand has established the innate connection between government and religion, she is
able to take Prometheus through a series of events that will shape his view of sin and change his
relationship with God and government forever.
Through the struggles Prometheus encounters with his curse and the sins he commits, he
begins to question the existence of good and evil as he knows it. The reader first sees Prometheus
begin to doubt the true evilness of his sin when he accidentally happens upon an old abandoned
subway tunnel, leftover from the “Unmentionable Times.” Although at this time his doubt is not
overt, a seed has been planted in his mind that all which seems evil may not always work for evil
in the end. Because Prometheus is still in a state of indoctrination, he says regarding his find,
“This is a foul place. They are damned who touch the things of the Unmentionable Times” (32).
Yet, though he says this, his subconscious is in conflict with the idea, for the next line continues
to say, “But our hand which followed the track, as we crawled, clung to the iron as if it would
not leave it.” He notices here the way his psyche interprets the dichotomy of good and evil, as
though neither are truly as defined or opposite as he has been led to believe all his life.
Prometheus knows that the sins he commits are considered wrong, yet he cannot justify
by their outcomes that they are purely evil. When he sneaks down into the tunnel with the stolen

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manuscripts and candles, he begins to understand his wrongdoing as something that is actually
beneficial. Though he still considers the actions to be “sin” he also acknowledges “And in these
two years [of reading the manuscripts] we have learned more than we had learned in the ten
years in the Home of the Students” (36). Rand shows the reader through this portion of the book
that though Prometheus has committed crimes, he actually cannot be held accountable for them
as evil because in the end, the actions accomplish good; they better Prometheus as an
intellectual.
Prometheus also is introduced to the beautiful concept of love through his forbidden
experiences with the Golden One. Though he knows preference to be a crime, he cannot believe
in his heart that loving with a true and pure love could actually be a sin.
As Prometheus continues to commit his crimes, his heart and mind begin to harden to the
concept of sin and by that he begins to feel a greater sense of peace and personal freedom.
Though he is still technically under the control of his government, beginning to reject the
concept of moral authority has already allowed him to experience a greater sense of self-
awareness. Prometheus realizes for the first time in his life that although he has sinned, “there is
no shame in us and no regret” (37). He feels no burden of wrongdoing and no fear. “Strange are
the ways of evil! In our heart there is the first peace we have known in twenty years” (37).
Though he has yet to expressly denounce the existence of sin, Prometheus lays here the mental
foundation for the moral choices he will later make.
A second way Prometheus begins to see good and evil as existing not as opposites but as
equal choices on a parallel plane is from the impact good actions have on his brothers. He sees
how his brothers live in fear due to the perceived consequences of evil. He also sees them
develop apathetic, hopeless spirits. When he is caught singing during an inappropriate time, he

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talks about how although all men are bade to be happy, few are. He says,
The heads of our brothers are bowed. The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they
look one another in the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched and their muscles
are drawn, as if they are shrinking and wished to shrink out of sight. And a word steals
into our mind, as we look upon our brothers, and that word is fear (46).
He also tells of how the brothers must believe that “It is not good to feel too much Joy nor to be
glad our body lives. For we matter not and it must not matter to us whether we live or die” (46-
47). Prometheus begins to renounce the reality of good and evil after watching his brothers lives
conflict with what he feels the rewards and consequences should be.
As the novel progresses, Prometheus realizes that the concept of sin is what has been
holding him captive. Although through most of the book the government is blamed for
controlling thoughts and actions, Prometheus realizes that his own perceptions of right and
wrong are truly what have been controlling him.
For Prometheus’s struggle with sin, the pivotal point in the novel is when he takes his
discovery of light to the Scholars hoping to gain acceptance from it. He believes up until
speaking with the Scholars that the good outcome of the discovery will overshadow the
wrongness of breaking rules to discover it. Yet, when he goes before them, he sees that the
Scholars are not even interested in his discovery; all they care about is the fact that he discovered
the light on his own and what all men have not thought together must be evil. When Prometheus
hears their response, he experiences a revelation of self-awareness. He sees here how he really
cares more about himself than he does brother man, even more than he cares about doing that
which is “right.” He admits, “We have lied to ourselves. We have not built this box for the good
of our brothers. We built it for our own sake. It is above all our brothers to us, and is truth above

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their truth” (76). This revelation frees Prometheus to act on his desires and not care about what
others say or feel. As Prometheus runs into the Uncharted Forest away from the Scholars who
wish to punish him for his sins, he discovers elements of himself that he would never have been
able to know while he was under the influence of the government’s moral authority.
Prometheus discovers the beauty of his own countenance as he rejects the doctrine of sin.
When he first enters the Uncharted Forest, he stops by a stream to drink and sees his face for the
very first time. He recognizes his own beauty and remembers that he is the “damned.” Yet, this
time, for the first time in his life, instead of believing in his own damnation, he laughs.
The Golden One follows Prometheus into the forest because she also understands the
journey of self discovery that Prometheus has taken and the positive impact rejecting sin has had
on his outlook. She explains her desire to join in his discovery, “We have followed you…and we
shall follow you wherever you go. If danger threatens you, we shall face it also. If it be death, we
shall die with you. You are damned and we wish to share your damnation” (82). She says, “We
wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with our brothers” (83). The Golden One says
this to Prometheus, not meaning that she believes they will be damned to hell in the traditional
concept of the term, but that if being “damned” is what it is called when someone discovers the
meaning of truth and happiness, then, damnation is certainly better than the misery known before
as blessing. Prometheus responds to her perception with the phrase “Let us forget their good and
our evil.” He is not referring to forgetting those actions he did that were evil and those of his
brothers which were good, but more wholly to forget altogether the doctrines of “good” and
“evil.” He no longer cares if something is labeled as “sin,” for he will not let that label influence
his decisions any longer. The only thing he will allow to impact what he does will be his feelings
toward that choice.

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Now that both Prometheus and the Golden One, have rejected the idea of moral authority,
they are able to experience for the first time, the ecstasy of an intimate relationship. Prior to
coming to this point of moral rejection, anytime Prometheus and the Golden One showed favor
to one another they were blanketed with guilt. They could not enjoy each other’s company for
the nagging feeling of sin. Now that they were freed from that concept, Prometheus “knew that
to hold the body of a woman in our arms is neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy
granted to the race of man” (84).
The farther Prometheus journeys into the forest, the further he is freed from moral
concept. As he experiences the joys of solitude and the satisfaction of working to hunt for his
food, he reflects, “If that which we have found is the corruption of solitude, then what can man
wish for save corruption? If this is the great evil of being alone, then what is good and what is
evil?” (85).
Although Prometheus rejected the laws much earlier in the book, to an extend he still
believed in their truth. Now that he is separating himself from morality, his true thoughts and
feelings emerge. He realizes, “We have broken the law, but we have never doubted it. Yet, now
as we walk through the forest, we are learning to doubt” (86). He conjectures that there is one
error in the thinking of men, yet he says he does not know what that is. Through this statement,
Rand is prodding the reader to come to the same conclusions she has toward the morality of man;
that the frightful error man makes is not to do that which is sin, but it is to believe that that which
is truth can be found outside of oneself. She wants the reader to conclude from Prometheus’s
discoveries that the concept of moral authority and its definition of right and wrong go hand in
hand with the control of government and leads to the stymied progression of society.
Though Prometheus claims not to understand the downfall of man, he does understand

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how he is aiming to be different. For instead of looking to the councils or to a higher power for
direction in his life, now that he has capacity of total freedom, he chooses to look for guidance
from within himself, “We look ahead, we beg our heart for guidance in answering this call no
voice has spoken, yet we have heard” (93). “May Knowledge come to us! What is the secret our
heart has understood and yet will not reveal to us, although it seems to beat as if it were
endeavoring to tell?” (93). He has not yet come to his overt conclusion of the deity of man, yet
Rand has conditions the reader for Prometheus’ revelation which will come in the next few
pages.
Prometheus suddenly finds the answer to all his questions. The spiral of rejection and
self-reflection he has participated in for the previous pages now culminates in the main message
of Rand’s story. When Prometheus reads the manuscripts he finds in the abandoned house in the
uncharted forest, he makes the greatest discovery of all. He finds the use of first person
pronouns, which releases him to understand the meaning of who he is and why he exists. He
declares upon learning the use of first person pronouns, “I am the meaning. I wished to find a
warrant for being. I need no warrant and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant
and the sanction” (94). No longer will Prometheus need to question life or morality for he has
discovered that all the answers and meaning are already within himself. “The guiding star is
within me…my happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its
own purpose” (94).
Now Prometheus not only rejects the idea of his curse of sin being bad, but he is thankful
for the way sinning has led him to discover the greater meaning of life. For without his
impetuous curiosity, he never would have found the tunnel in the city; he never would have
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ever discover light, present it to the council and run off into the wilderness. He realizes that
though all of these actions were “wrong” they have brought him so much good he cannot
imagine how terrible his life would still be without having done them. He says,
I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse. I understood why the best in
me had been my sins and my transgressions; and why I had never felt guilt in my sins. I
understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kills the spirit of man nor the sense
of truth within him (98).
Prometheus has attained complete freedom through a total rejection of the concept of sin.
Although Ayn Rand is most famous for her writings against collectivism, a deeper look
into her novel Anthem will reveal that Rand not only writes against government, but she also
writes against the concept of moral authority. In Anthem, Rand portrays Prometheus as a
character who is bound by an indoctrinated belief of sin. The government in Prometheus’ city
uses the idea of moral authority to control its subjects in much the same way Rand believes
society uses the concept of religion to control people. Rand establishes her worldview by
painting Prometheus as a character who must undergo a transformation in belief before being
able to experience freedom.
Prometheus comes to discover truth and freedom at the end of the book once he has
rejected the concept of sin. He realizes that not only has the government and his brothers
enslaved him by using consequences for his actions, they have enslaved him by teaching him the
concept of right and wrong. By seeing how his “wrong” actions produce desirable results,
Prometheus is able to declare the government’s teaching of morality as false and establish his
own concept of truth, which he finds from within himself. Since Prometheus can see his sins
leading him in a direction that promotes his understanding of good, he cannot justify them as

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wrong. Even though he does not initially reject the idea of his sins being evil, he cannot find
within himself the power not to continue sinning. Prometheus never believes that his curse is
something for which he should be responsible. Through this book, Rand shows how Prometheus’
coming to reject the concept of sin leads him to achieve freedom by not allowing government to
use the convention of religion to control its citizens. Prometheus’ relentless dismissal of sin leads
him to reject the concept of moral authority and discover self-awareness and egoistical freedom.

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Work Cited
Rand, Ayn. Anthem. New York: Signet, 1996. Print.