Anthem // Setting

The setting in Anthem reminds me much of the setting of the place where Katniss lives in the Hunger Games. The city is gloomy, dark, and behind the times of other places around the world. The part we do not know in Anthem is whether the city that Equality 7-2521 lives in is the only city in the world or if it is the only city that is living in a so-called Utopian society. 

The city in Anthem is definitely behind times because Equality 7-2521 ends up inventing electricity all over again. Instead of using light bulbs, the city only uses candles. They also assign the people of the city to certain jobs such as a “street sweeper.” If the city were more modernized, they would not need street sweepers. I believe the way Rand describes the setting helps to describe the city even more. The subtle hints of the way people act and how the city is run gives us readers an idea of how much the city is behind times. Not only does the setting of the book give us a visual, but it also leads us to questions. Why is that the city has not modernized? Why (if the setting is futuristic) has the city gone backwards? These questions can be brought up due to the way Rand has described the setting of the novella.