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Nicole Williamson
Mrs. Pike
College Prep
7 May 2014
1. Close Attention
In all works of literature there is often a deeper rooted meaning. Every story has a lesson, for
example the story of the tortoise and the hare. The hare and the tortoise enter a race, and the
tortoise believes that if you take your time you will always come out first, while the hare believes
the faster you go the better, and in the end the tortoise wins. When looking closely, the moral of
this story seems to be when you take your time and be patient everything will turn out better in
the end. Another example of a deeper rooted meaning is in the stories Anthem and Tuesdays with
Morrie.
Anthem is a story written by Ayn Rand around the time the Nazi’s and communism were
popular. In the story of Anthem there is a society where extreme communism is displayed. “If
this should lighten the toil of men…then it is a great evil, for men have no cause to exist save in
toiling for other men” (Rand 74). In this society all men work only for the betterment of other
men, no man thinks for himself, and if a thought is not thought by all men than it is not the truth.
In this story, the main character, Equality 7-2521, thinks differently than the society he was
brought up in. He believes something he does not yet understand, he only begins to understand it
when he finds a tunnel while doing his day job as a street sweeper. This led to his discovery of
the light-bulb and eventually his downfall in the city. Therefore, he ran away into the forbidden
forest, here he discovers what he has been searching for all along; individualism. Upon
discovering the word I, Equality states “I am. I think. I will,” showing how he is finally free from
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the oppressive collectivism of the city (Rand 94). The story of Anthem presents Ayn Rand’s own
philosophy of collectivism and how it is the root of all evils. At this time period communism was
feared, and nobody wanted it to spread. Ayn Rand adopted this fear and took it to the next level,
she believes without individualism the world as we know it will crumble and it will become a
world as shown in Anthem. Upon analyzing Anthem, I found the moral of the story is that
collectivism is evil and individualism is virtuous, without it a society is nothing.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is another work that has a more insightful meaning. It
is an autobiographical work about Mitch and his professor Morrie. Morrie is one who has always
loved life; he loved to dance and to speak what he believed. Then, Morrie was diagnosed with
Lou Gering’s disease or ALS. This disease slowly and painfully shuts down your nervous
system, allowing it to receive messages but not allowing it to send them back out. When Mitch
saw his old professor Morrie on “Nightline”, he immediately hopped onto a plane to see him.
Instantaneously the two were as close as they were when Mitch was in college. In fact, they
began to see each other every Tuesday. These meetings they called their final class together,
while the book Mitch wrote is his final thesis. With each page turned of Mitch’s thesis, Morrie
progressively gets sicker. Soon he is no longer able to leave bed, which is one of Morrie’s
greatest fears. As he said, when you cannot leave bed you are dead. On these Tuesday meetings
Morrie spoke of topics everyone was afraid of such as death. But while Morrie’s was dying, his
mind grew. He had always been a great listener, and always gave great advice. But now, now
that he was dying, his philosophies grew and his mind flourished. Morrie’s story, upon looking
closer, teaches a vital lesson of living. Everyone dies and we all have this one life, do what
makes you the happiest.
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In both stories, Anthem and Tuesdays with Morrie there is a more profound philosophical
significance. In Anthem a common theme is the importance of individualism, while in Tuesdays
with Morrie the theme is to add more life to the years you have, not more years you do not have
to a life you do not enjoy living. Ayn Rand’s belief is that collectivism is evil, and that is why
she wrote it. It is a political work that warns people of the malicious ways of communism and the
Nazi party. Furthermore, Tuesdays with Morrie was written to help spread the ideas Morrie
shared the last few months before his death. It was published by Mitch to help pay for all of
Morrie’s medical expenses, a much more selfless reason to publish a book. Moreover, Anthem
and Tuesdays with Morrie both have morals displayed in their works. You just have to be willing
to look below the surface and want to understand them. I did, and now I understand the richness
of their writing.