Teacher’s Guide INCLUDES: SUMMARIES, STUDY QUESTIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING We the Living By Ayn Rand Teacher’s Guide by Michael S. Berliner, Ph.D. For 10th – 12th graders 2 A Teacher’s Guide to We the Living by Ayn Rand A Teacher’s Guide to We the Living by Ayn Rand 3 TABLE OF Contents INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND .......................................................3 At a farewell party before Ayn Rand left they were happening at the time.” One Soviet Russia for America in 1926, a family example was the purge of university students THE THEME...................................................................................................................................3 friend urged her: “When you get out, tell the whose parents were proletarian; and many of rest of the world that we are dying here.” We the small details were taken from her own THE STORY (Part One) ..............................................................................................................4 the Living, published ten years later, fulfilled life, such as the music she liked. Many of the her promise to that friend. It was also a characters were based on members of the PART ONE STUDY QUESTIONS ..............................................................................................4 promise that the fictional Kira Argounova extended Rosenbaum (her birth name) wanted to fulfill for her Uncle Vasili: “I’ll tell family: Ayn Rand’s sister Nora was the basis THE STORY (Part Two) ..............................................................................................................6 them over there, where I’m going. I’ll tell for the character of cousin Irina, her actual them about everything. And maybe some- father was the basis for Uncle Vasili, and her PART TWO STUDY QUESTIONS .............................................................................................6 one, somewhere, will understand.” real mother had much in common with Kira’s fictional mother. Leo’s name and some GENERAL STUDY QUESTIONS ...............................................................................................7 We the Living was Ayn Rand’s first major work. She had previously written short stories, of his characteristics were drawn from Ayn Rand’s first romantic interest, Lev (Leo) Bek- THE MAIN CHARACTERS .........................................................................................................9 scripts for silent films, and a play (Night of January 16th) that was produced in Holly- kerman, who (unknown to Ayn Rand) was executed in 1937 as a “counter-revolution- PHILOSOPHIC MESSAGE ......................................................................................................10 wood and on Broadway. But We the Living was her first attempt at fiction with an ary.” (For details regarding the real-life bases Annual Essay Contests ON Ayn RAND’S NOVELS ...........................................11 explicit philosophic theme. She began work- for these characters, see Scott McConnell’s Essays on Ayn Rand’s ing on it only three years after her arrival in essay “Parallel Lives” in “We the Living,” America, while she was struggling to learn and edited by Robert Mayhew.) then master the English language. Neverthe- Andrei was totally fictional, as was the story ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS GUIDE less, upon publication in 1936, reviewers of Kira, Andrei and Leo. But was Kira based praised her writing style as “remarkably fluent on Ayn Rand herself? Yes and no, as she The We the Living teachers guide has been prepared by Dr. Michael S. Berliner. Dr. Berliner English” (New York Times), “beautifully writ- wrote in 1959: “The specific events of Kira’s taught philosophy and philosophy of education of California State University, Northridge, ten” (Washington Post) and “irreproachable life were not mine; her ideas, her convictions, where he served as chairman of the department of Social and Philosophical Foundations of English” (London Times Literary Supplement). her values were and are.” As a university stu- Education. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University and is the former dent, Ayn Rand studied history and philoso- In some ways, We the Living is autobiographi- executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. phy, not engineering (Kira’s field), and Ayn cal. The background is drawn from Ayn Rand was more philosophical than Kira (Ayn Rand’s life under the Soviets (she was twelve Rand began writing fiction at the age of eight when the revolution started and twenty when and started a philosophic diary at the age of she left Russia). Such things as the details of twelve). But she shared Kira’s independence the revolution, Communist control and and self-sufficiency, hatred of dictatorship terror, general living conditions—all of these Copyright © 2021 The Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved. and hatred of a moral philosophy that mirrored what she and her family lived demanded that people live for something through. In many cases, as she later related, other than their own happiness. she took “chronologically the exact events as This teacher’s guide is being published in cooperation with: The Ayn Rand Institute THE THEME aynrand.org/educators [email protected] The theme of We the Living is “the individual into it, but to a man who really loves her, For additional information and resources for teachers, against the state, and, more specifically, the evil whom she respects and whose love she takes visit https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com of statism.” (Statism is the view that man’s life seriously. He does not want to buy her, and or email [email protected] belongs to the state, which holds unlimited she must hide from him that it is a sale—but power.) Here’s how Ayn Rand stated the she has to sell herself to save the man she In Canada, please visit plot-theme (the basic plot situation by means really loves, a man who happens to be the https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/academic of which the theme is presented): “A woman particular person the buyer hates most.” sells herself, not to a villain who forces her 4 A Teacher’s Guide to We the Living by Ayn Rand A Teacher’s Guide to We the Living by Ayn Rand 5 THE STORY (Part ONE) their independent judgment of what’s true ment to stop controlling the lives and busi- and what’s valuable. Human beings can sur- ness activities of the peasants, but the The story opens in a rotting Petrograd in and that he can raise the quality of the vive and thrive only by the use of reason, but government can’t admit that. The only 1922. The long civil war between the Bolshe- masses. Kira is attracted to his underlying collectivism in general, and Soviet Russia in “solution” they allow themselves to undertake viks (the Reds) and their opponents (the character but not to his ideas. In a discussion particular, eliminates political freedom and is to arrest speculators, hoarders and private Whites) has ended. The city is in chaos and with Andrei, Kira makes her first extended makes it illegal to think for yourself and act traders (which the Soviets’ planned economy its citizens are starving, terrorized, hopeless, philosophic statement—that man does not on your own judgment. An example of for- has created). (2) The purpose of the system is hostile and helpless against the military and live for the state. When Kira is questioned by bidding life to the living is Leo: Although he to maintain control of people’s lives; thus police power of the Communist government. the authorities about her meeting with Leo, is not put before a firing squad, he is denied there is no attempt at practical solutions The Argounova family has returned from Andrei intervenes on her behalf. Kira’s what he needs in order to live a human life, (other than the occasional relaxation of eco- four years in the Crimea, where they awaited father’s business has failed, and, like other e.g., education and work. He is condemned nomic controls, called the NEP, or New the Bolshevik defeat that never came. One of non-Communists, he is drawn into illegal to what amounts to a drawn-out death sen- Economic Policy). The overriding goal is that the family members is Kira, the novel’s hero- dealings, the only option for non-Commu- tence. Ayn Rand’s working title for We the all people, including starving peasants, ine, who, at eighteen years old, is set to begin nists. Kira voices her atheism, rejecting the Living was “Airtight,” which she took from a become part of the Greater Whole. the great adventure of life. Despite the living view that there is anything above man, and line in the novel that expressed the attempt Why is there so much emphasis conditions and the constant assault of Red she tells Andrei that whereas he is willing to by the Soviets to prevent people from living on illegal business dealing, propaganda, Kira is positive and excited. She kill for his ideas, she wants only to live for her as humans: “You’ve driven us all into an iron much of it by racketeers? wants a career as an engineer (because engi- ideas. She and Leo try to escape Soviet Russia cellar and you’ve closed all doors, and you’ve neering is honest, creative and fact-based), but are caught. Her mother is outraged and locked us airtight, airtight till the blood ves- Business (the exchange of goods, such as but her family urges her to play it safe and shamed by Kira’s love affair with Leo and sels of our spirits burst!” food, clothing, shelter) is unavoidable in any choose a career unrelated to her personal banishes Kira from their home. Kira vows to economic system, if people are going to sur- What attracted Kira to Leo and to Andrei? values and one more appropriate for a female. fight against Communist injustice, but Leo vive. But in the Soviet world of We the Living, She wants to build not for the Red state but has little hope. Kira eventually reconciles Kira responded to Leo’s independence, which all economic activity is controlled by the for herself, and, in her first philosophic state- with her mother, who has taken a Soviet job she recognized the first time she met him.