HIGH SCHOOL | BLUE VALLEY DISTRICT NOVEL RATIONALE
Anthem by Ayn Rand
English Language Arts, 9th Grade
WHAT’S THE STORY?
A youth named Equality 7-2521, who has found a hidden tunnel and hides in it to write, knows his solitude violates all the laws of his society. As he
spends more time alone, he realizes that solitude suits him, and he begins to crave more and more time by himself. Equality 7-2521 shortly discovers
electricity and successfully builds a light bulb from the materials he finds in his tunnel. However, the World Council rejects his invention out of fear and
anger at his individualism. When the Council threatens to kill him and get rid of his light bulb, he and his female companion flee to the Uncharted Forest
where they discover that they are free at last to believe in individualism and the supremacy of the ego.
CONNECTIONS TO CURRICULUM
The following are some, but not all, of the connections to curriculum for this novel.
●Unit 2: The Individual and the Community
○Essential Question: “How does community influence identity?”
KEY STANDARDS ADDRESSED
●Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. W9.4
●Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most
significant for a specific purpose and audience. W9.5
●Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. W9.9
●Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing. W9.10
●Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. W9.11
●Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a
range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. W.9.12
●Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. RL.
9.3
●Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it, and manipulate time create such effects as mystery,
Updated Spring 2021
