s A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET EDITION OF WE THE LIVING BY

BY MICHael s. beRlIneR, PH.D. TEACHER’S GUIDE 2 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND...... 3

THE THEME...... 3

THE STORY (Part One)...... 4

PART ONE STUDY QUESTIONS...... 4

THE STORY (Part Two)...... 6

PART TWO STUDY QUESTIONS...... 6

GENERAL STUDY QUESTIONS...... 7

THE MAIN CHARACTERS...... 9

PHILOSOPHIC MESSAGE...... 10

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS GUIDE

The We the Living teachers guide has been prepared by Dr. Michael S. Berliner. Dr. Berliner taught and philosophy of education of California State University, Northridge, where he served as chairman of the department of Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University and is the former executive director of the .

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Printed in the United States of America A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand 3

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

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 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 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 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 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 one, somewhere, will understand.” real mother had much in common with We the Living was Ayn Rand’s first major work. Kira’s fictional mother. Leo’s name and some She had previously written short stories, of his characteristics were drawn from Ayn scripts for silent films, and a play (Night of Rand’s first romantic interest, Lev (Leo) Bek- January 16th) that was produced in Holly- kerman, who (unknown to Ayn Rand) was wood and on Broadway. But We the Living executed in 1937 as a “counter-revolution- was her first attempt at fiction with an ary.” (For details regarding the real-life bases explicit philosophic theme. She began work- for these characters, see Scott McConnell’s Essays ’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 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 English” (New York Times), “beautifully writ- wrote in 1959: “The specific events of Kira’s ten” (Washington Post) and “irreproachable life were not mine; her ideas, her convictions, English” (London Times Literary Supplement). her values were and are.” As a university stu- dent, Ayn Rand studied history and philoso- In some ways, We the Living is autobiographi- 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 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

THE THEME

The theme ofWe the Living is “the individual into it, but to a man who really loves her, against the state, and, more specifically, the evil whom she respects and whose love she takes of statism.” (Statism is the view that man’s life seriously. He does not want to buy her, and 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 plot-theme (the basic plot situation by means really loves, a man who happens to be the 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 the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand

THE STORY (Part One)

The story opens in a rotting Petrograd in and that he can raise the quality of the 1922. The long civil war between the Bolshe- masses. Kira is attracted to his underlying viks (the Reds) and their opponents (the character but not to his ideas. In a discussion Whites) has ended. The city is in chaos and with Andrei, Kira makes her first extended its citizens are starving, terrorized, hopeless, philosophic statement—that man does not hostile and helpless against the military and live for the state. When Kira is questioned by police power of the Communist government. the authorities about her meeting with Leo, The Argounova family has returned from Andrei intervenes on her behalf. Kira’s four years in the Crimea, where they awaited father’s business has failed, and, like other the Bolshevik defeat that never came. One of non-Communists, he is drawn into illegal the family members is Kira, the novel’s hero- dealings, the only option for non-Commu- ine, who, at eighteen years old, is set to begin nists. Kira voices her atheism, rejecting the the great adventure of life. Despite the living view that there is anything above man, and conditions and the constant assault of Red she tells Andrei that whereas he is willing to propaganda, Kira is positive and excited. She kill for his ideas, she wants only to live for her wants a career as an engineer (because engi- ideas. She and Leo try to escape Soviet Russia neering is honest, creative and fact-based), but are caught. Her mother is outraged and but her family urges her to play it safe and shamed by Kira’s love affair with Leo and choose a career unrelated to her personal banishes Kira from their home. Kira vows to values and one more appropriate for a female. fight against Communist injustice, but Leo She wants to build not for the Red state but has little hope. Kira eventually reconciles for herself, and, in her first philosophic state- with her mother, who has taken a Soviet job ment, disavows any duty to “society,” reject- and mouths Soviet slogans. Leo can’t get a ing the notion that society is anything other job, because he’s not a Party member. Kira than individuals. Her heroes, we learn, are and Leo’s rent is raised, because people must not the masses, not the Soviet worker, but pay based on their social class and not their rather Vikings, conquerors and achievers. earnings. Leo gets more cynical, as life Kira, who has started her studies at the becomes more unjust and arbitrary. The over- Technological Institute, meets Leo Kovalen- riding goal of Kira and Leo now is to go sky and is attracted to his independence of abroad. Kira continues her friendship with spirit. Given the growing power of the Reds Andrei, who has fallen in love with her. Life and their anti-bourgeois policies, many, becomes more degrading, with relatives and including Leo, have become cynical and supposed friends informing on each other increasingly hopeless; they are convinced that and seeking political influence. Desperate to it’s not worth having ambition and goals. help Leo and to get him into a sanatorium Kira also meets Andrei Taganov, who works for his tuberculosis, Kira begins an affair with for the GPU (the secret police). Andrei is a Andrei, who gives her money, purportedly to Communist but not out of duty or oppor- help a sick relative. tunism: he thinks that is right

PART ONE STUDY QUESTIONS

What does Kira mean when she says that and thrive. (This anticipates her 1958 charac- the USSR “forbids life to those still living”? terization of her philosophy, , as She means that the Soviet system makes it a “philosophy for living on earth.”) Life, for illegal and ultimately impossible for people human beings, requires political freedom, to do what they need to do in order to live which allows people to act on their thinking, A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand 5 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 vive and thrive only by the use of reason, but government can’t admit that. The only “solu- collectivism in general, and Soviet Russia in tion” they allow themselves to undertake is to particular, eliminates political freedom and arrest speculators, hoarders and private trad- makes it illegal to think for yourself and act ers (which the Soviets’ planned economy has on your own judgment. An example of for- created). (2) The purpose of the system is to bidding life to the living is Leo: Although he maintain control of people’s lives; thus there is not put before a firing squad, he is denied is no attempt at practical solutions (other what he needs in order to live a human life, than the occasional relaxation of economic e.g., education and work. He is condemned controls, called the NEP, or New Economic to what amounts to a drawn-out death sen- Policy). The overriding goal is that all people, tence. Ayn Rand’s working title for We the including starving peasants, become part of Living was “Airtight,” which she took from a the Greater Whole. line in the novel that expressed the attempt Why is there so much emphasis by the Soviets to prevent people from living on illegal business dealing, as humans: “You’ve driven us all into an iron much of it by racketeers? cellar and you’ve closed all doors, and you’ve locked us airtight, airtight till the blood ves- Business (the exchange of goods, such as sels of our spirits burst!” food, clothing, shelter) is unavoidable in any economic system, if people are going to sur- What attracted Kira to Leo and to Andrei? vive. But in the Soviet world of We the Living, Kira responded to Leo’s independence, which all economic activity is controlled by the she recognized the first time she met him. He state, which owns all businesses (private busi- thought for himself, chose his own values, nesses, like that of Kira’s father, have been and had no interest in being part of the nationalized); there is no private property crowd. He was severe, self-sufficient and and no freedom to buy or sell without the evoked the spirit of Kira’s man. What permission of the state. The normal business attracted Kira to Andrei was his purposeful- dealings we take for granted are illegal. Some ness and honesty. Kira said “no” to his words honest Soviet citizens engage in illegal deal- (the ideas he espoused and tried to live by) ings, because they have little choice but to but “yes” to his voice, i.e., his integrity and take the risk of jail (or worse). But those who commitment to what he believed in. In con- have large enterprises and get considerable trast to Leo, Andrei believes (at least at this money are generally dishonest people. They point in the novel) that his values and ideals are attracted to illegal dealings because they can be achieved. like to get something for nothing, and they know that their customers have no legal Why do visiting peasants get recourse if they are cheated. Their customers propaganda lectures rather than can’t call the police or sue the seller for breach real help for their problems, of contract, because “black market” purchas- such as shortages? ing is just as illegal as “black market” selling. (1) The problems, e.g., shortages, faced by Some illegal business deals are made possible the peasants were caused by the government, only because of government controls, such as as the leaders well know. The only way to Leo’s scheme that depended on government actually solve the problems is for the govern- connections with Pavel Syerov. 6 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand

THE STORY (Part Two)

In contrast to the beginning of Part One, impending danger from Andrei’s investiga- Part Two opens with an admiring description tion. The GPU plans to prosecute Leo as a of the productive and intellectual history of private speculator but not his partner Com- St. Petersburg (the pre-1914 name for Petro- rade Syerov, because that might stir up grad). Andrei is now more focused on Kira opposition to the Party. Andrei discovers that than on his work. Leo returns cured from the Kira has been living with Leo and, in the sanatorium but won’t commit to “living novel’s climax, arrests Leo as a speculator, but again,” though some part of him wants to Kira tells Andrei that she’s proud of herself; hold on to the self-confident person he used she also tells him what his Communist phi- to be. Andrei talks of personal goals, which losophy really means. Andrei learns why Kira leads Kira to anticipate a major conflict in had the affair—to save the man she loves— Andrei’s life, since Communists aren’t sup- and this restores what he feels for Kira and posed to have personal, private goals. As Leo the idea that he was right to love her, that she becomes increasingly purposeless, he enters was what he had always thought she was. He into short-range and dangerous business is therefore committed to helping Leo. Rec- activities, sinking deeper and deeper into ognizing that it is his philosophy that has led despair. Andrei laments Communist Party to death and destruction, Andrei publicly corruption, but Kira blames it on Party denounces the Party. After blackmailing ideals. When Irina’s brother Victor (a Party Syerov to obtain Leo’s release, Andrei com- member) refuses to help Irina, she realizes mits suicide, but at his funeral, Andrei is that the lives of individuals make no differ- praised as a Communist hero who lived and ence in the USSR. Andrei buys presents from died for the Collective. Aware of Kira’s affair a speculator and, disillusioned by Party cor- with Andrei, Leo denounces her as immoral, ruption, suggests that he and Kira go abroad. but Kira doesn’t tell him why she did it, not The ideological and psychological conflicts wanting to see him struggle and be defeated among the main characters become more once again. Knowing that she can’t save Leo manifest in their lives: Andrei warns Kira from himself, Kira decides to escape but is about Leo, and Kira warns Leo about killed at the border.

PART TWO STUDY QUESTIONS

Why did Party leaders nism, the quicker it will fail. (2) The professed attack “over-idealism”? standard of morality is “the furtherance of the By “over-idealism” the Party meant a strict revolution” (a non-objective standard that is adherence to Communist ideas and an unwill- used to justify anything and everything). ingness to compromise. There are two related Since the leaders must be free to do anything reasons they advocated this approach: (1) The they want at any time, they need a justifica- “ideal” of collectivism doesn’t work, as the tion for the relaxation or temporary abandon- history of the USSR showed, i.e., it can’t be ment of their professed “lofty goals.” practiced to achieve even the economic goals Is there any special significance to it professes, i.e., it can’t produce goods or even the description of Ivan Ivanov, the enough food. Nor can it totally ban self- Soviet border guard who shot Kira? interest and independent thought. Therefore, “over-idealism” turns out to be a threat to the Here’s Ayn Rand’s response to an editor who system. In fact, it was Andrei’s “over-idealism” wanted her to cut that scene: “It contains— that sealed his fate. The purer the Commu- in a few pages—the whole idea and purpose of the novel. After the reader has seen Kira A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand 7

Argounova, has learned what a rare, precious, lectivism kills. But it’s not a tragic ending, irreplaceable human being she is—I give [the because it doesn’t happen by chance and reader] the picture of the man who killed because Kira is never defeated (the Broadway Kira Argounova, of the life that took her life. version of the novel was titled The Uncon- That soldier is a symbol, a typical representa- quered). As Ayn Rand later explained: “The tive of the average, the dull, the useless, the theme of We the Living is ‘the individual commonplace, the masses that killed the best against the state.’ What I present in the story there is on this earth. . . . Citizen Ivan Ivanov is the evil of the state, and what it does to its is the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. best individuals, under its power. If I let Kira And that Union killed Kira Argounova.” escape, then I’m leaving the readers with the following conclusion, ‘Statism is very bad, Why does Ayn Rand have Kira die at the but there’s hope, because you can always end of the book? Is the ending (Kira’s escape abroad.’ Now that wasn’t the theme of death) necessary to the novel? Or could We the Living. . . . And in Russia, a citizen has it just as easily have ended happily? no chance to leave, and no chance to escape. The ending is necessitated by the theme of Someone who does escape is an exception.” the novel and the nature of collectivism: col-

GENERAL STUDY QUESTIONS

How does Ayn Rand show the lack of to look to the Party, not to reality, for the individuality under collectivism? truth. Party propaganda about the wonderful People are called “Citizen” or “Comrade,” life under Communism takes the place of the both of which emphasize an individual’s con- facts of starvation and terror. Individuals nection to and identity as part of a greater spouted Communist propaganda and slogans whole. People, including Party members, as evidence of their loyalty to the state, their spout memorized clichés rather than any proof that they were (at least outwardly) ideas that come from their own minds. Per- obedient parts of the collective rather than sonal goals are attacked as “selfish.” Privacy, independent individuals. Whether or not including where you live, is minimized. Baby they actually believed those words was irrele- names are derived from the revolution. Per- vant even to themselves. sonal achievement is suspect; rewards are Why does Leo give up? based on social class and family background, Do you think that he was justified? rather than on what the individual himself has earned. Literature and art have become Leo gives up because the society he lives in nonpersonal: no heroes, just the “drama and has no place for him; he lacks the strength to color of mass life.” resist but has too much character to try to become part of the system. Doors are closed What explains the prevalence to him because he has an aristocratic rather of propaganda and the endless than a working-class background; employ- use of pro-Communist slogans ment and advancement are based on the used by everyone, from Party economic class of one’s parents. His not lectures to private conversations? being a Party member also precludes his get- The leaders bombarded the country with ting jobs, and his background and indepen- propaganda that no one believed, because dence are enough to prevent him ever they wanted these slogans to take over peo- becoming a Party member. Success in Soviet ples’ minds and discourage them from think- Russia is based on background and personal ing for themselves. They wanted the citizenry pull. As a result, Leo turns to illegal business 8 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand dealings, which have little chance of long- comes to realize that the ideals he’s always term success. He doesn’t care, sinking into lived by result in the destruction of every- despair. His life is at the mercy of the whims thing that makes life possible and worth- of bureaucrats and Party leaders; his success while. Kira dies but is unconquered in life is not a consequence of his own deci- spiritually: she never forsakes her values, and sions. He has no control over what the Party in fact she dies in pursuit of the value of and the government do, but he does have freedom; she never stopped living by her own control over his response. Unlike Kira (the judgment and for her own happiness. unconquered), he gives up any hope and any How was self-interest plans for the future, turning to self-destruc- a threat to the leaders? tive behavior. Because Ayn Rand was an advocate of free will, she did not describe Self-interest is always a threat to those who Leo’s situation as forcing him to give up, any want to control other people’s lives. If your more than Kira’s situation forced her not to goal in life is to make yourself happy, then give up: each was a choice, though few people your primary concern is not to make the did (and can) remain psychologically strong group happy or to do what the group (as while living in a totalitarian dictatorship. mandated by its leaders) wants you to do. Making your own decisions about what you Did Ayn Rand believe collectivism want in life is always in potential conflict to be a noble idea that was betrayed with the goals of the group (whether it’s the by power-hungry leaders? masses, the proletariat, the Party or your No, she did not believe that the ideals family). To seek your own goals means that espoused by collectivists were noble; in fact, you’re thinking for yourself—and the man she considered them to be evil (see below). who thinks for himself is the man who can’t Rather than betraying the ideals of collectiv- be controlled by others. ism, the leaders were putting those ideals into Collectivism preaches the brotherhood practice: anything that strengthened the col- of man. How does We the Living show lective and the dictatorship of the proletariat that it achieves the opposite? was considered to be good. In that respect, the traditional notions of honesty and dis- By “brotherhood,” collectivists don’t mean honesty are rejected as bourgeois prejudices. friendship and benevolence between indi- It should come as no surprise that the Soviet viduals; they mean that an individual should government was full of power-hungry employ- become part of the collective, with no sepa- ees who confiscated property, approved or rate rights and that each should live for all denied both external and internal passports, people collectively. (Karl Marx attacked the controlled the distribution of food and idea of individual rights, because it separated determined what (if any) jobs people could people, leaving them free to think for them- hold: that’s exactly the type of person who selves and act to achieve their own private wants to work for a government that controls goals.) If you sacrifice yourself, then others every aspect of peoples’ lives. are reaping the benefits; if you’re giving, then someone else must be receiving. The result is How does the novel’s theme necessitate what is described in We the Living: would-be the “fates” of the main characters? masters vs. prospective slaves, each person The theme is the individual against the state. trying to get the better of others, to succeed We the Living shows how collectivism destroys by getting others to fail. There can be no the individual. Leo survives physically, but “brotherhood” or good will when some are his spirit is destroyed; he loses all interest in being sacrificed to others. life, has no goals, no values, becomes cynical, has no interest in whether he lives or dies. Andrei is destroyed physically, because he A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand 9

THE MAIN CHARACTERS

Kira Argounova. Kira is the central character Leo Kovalensky. Leo represents what can in We the Living, the character who drives the happen to the best under a collectivist dicta- story and through whom we see the effects of torship. Initially benevolent, purposeful and the Soviet regime on human beings. It is self-confident to the point of arrogance, Leo through Kira that we see the meaning of the is slowly beaten down by the system and his political/moral philosophy of collectivism. own inability to deal with it. Leo’s personality Throughout the book, Kira is unconquered. and appearance were meant to reflect the She may be beaten down physically but never real-life person on whom he was based: psychologically. Kira is presented as what “There was,” said Ayn Rand, “always a smile “could be” in a human being, with the capa- behind [Lev Bekkerman’s] attitude, and an bility and the values to live a full human life. arrogant smile of, ‘Well, world, you have to But she is prevented from doing that, and admire me.’ [Arrogant] in a good sense of the although she is unbroken, her love, her word.” But Leo gradually becomes cynical, career, and ultimately her life are taken by the self-destructive, apathetic, as if nothing he Soviet government. What characterizes her does makes any difference. He comes to care above all is her purposiveness. She is guided about nothing, not even Kira. And finally he by a single main purpose, although the par- ceases to be the Leo with whom Kira fell in ticular purpose changes over time: career, love. As Kira put it to Leo: “It was I against a Leo’s health, and, finally, freedom. Kira’s goal hundred and fifty million people. I lost.” in life is to be an engineer, and, in the early Andrei Taganov. Andrei is mixed. A dedi- parts of the book, she is uninterested in any- cated Communist, he has a personal charac- thing else; she is oblivious to clothes, food, ter that clashes with his ideals: he holds weather, other people, even politics—the deeply personal values despite the fact that only thing that matters is her studies at the his philosophy rejects the personal and the Technological Institute, leading to a career as private. That is why Kira said “no to his ideas a builder of bridges. Then, when Leo devel- but yes to his voice.” From Ayn Rand’s notes ops tuberculosis, her over-riding goal is to about Andrei: “Dominant trait: a born indi- restore his health, and she goes to the extreme vidualist and leader who never discovered it. of becoming the mistress of Andrei, so that A great mind and a profound honesty. An she can acquire the funds to send Leo to a iron will and unconquerable strength. A sanatorium. In Ayn Rand’s notes for the great calm and deliberation—the calm of a novel, she wrote: “[Leo] is, to her, the symbol man who knows he is master of himself and of everything [Kira] wants and the meaning has learned long ago to have complete self- of life as she sees it. Therefore, her indiffer- control. Occasional, very rare flashes of ence to others, the clarity of her mind that temper that show the real fire in him—a fire, leaves her cool to many useless emotions and however, that never gets the best of the man.” affections, her straightforwardness—these Andrei was ultimately honest enough that lead her to an all-absorbing passion, almost when he realized what his ideas meant in unbearable for a human being.” And finally, practice, he took his own life. with both Leo and Andrei out of her life, she thinks of nothing but escaping to freedom, and as with her other values, she acts to achieve it, and this is what makes Kira heroic and the best example in We the Living of someone who is fully alive. 10 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand

PHILOSOPHIC MESSAGE

Collectivism is evil. Collectivism is the view Andrei’s funeral: “What, then, are the stan- that the individual is nothing but a part of some dards of our new humanity? The first and great whole or collective; and therefore, the basic one is that we have lost a word from our individual belongs to the collective for it to do language, the most dangerous, the most with him whatever it wants. The individual has insidious, the most evil of human words: the a duty to act only for the collective good and word ‘I.’ We have outgrown it. ‘We’ is the to live his life for the collective. The particular slogan of the future. The Collective stands in collective can take many forms; typical our hearts where the old monster—‘self’— examples are: the nation, community, social had stood.” This point is, in fact, the theme of class, ethnic group and family. The most , Ayn Rand’s 1937 novella, where, in common form is the one that rules in We the a futurist society, the word “I” has vanished. Living: the state, or the political collective. In In showing the evil of collectivism, Ayn Rand this regard, it is important to keep in mind refutes a claim often heard about communism that the enemy that Ayn Rand portrays in We and socialism: that it’s a noble idea that lacks the Living is not Soviet Russia per se. Ayn practicality. In fact, the is still Rand was emphatic that We the Living is not often described as a great moral experiment a novel about Soviet Russia but rather a novel that went awry because it was betrayed by its about collectivism set in Soviet Russia. This leaders. But, as Kira tells Andrei, and as point was brought home in 1942, when a Andrei comes to realize, it’s those “noble ideals” pirated film of the novel was produced in that led to the slaughter and enslavement of Fascist Italy and endorsed by the Fascist gov- millions. It is that same “noble” ideal of self- ernment—they had praised it as anti-Com- sacrifice that justifies and leads to all forms of munist—but they soon discovered that its totalitarianism, whether Soviet Communism popularity in Italy was due to its also being or German Naziism. There is nothing noble anti-Fascist, so they quickly banned the film. about an idea that advocates the sacrifice of One aspect of the evil of collectivism is the individuals, nothing noble about the idea that ethics on which it’s based: altruism or self- the individual should live for others—what sacrifice. Ayn Rand developed this idea in her that leads to and what it means is that the later novels and essays (e.g., the theme of The individual is a slave to whatever collective he Fountainhead is “individualism vs. collectiv- exists to serve. Collectivism is impractical; col- ism, not in politics but in man’s soul”), but lectivism doesn’t “work,” because it is immoral. she had already identified the immorality of The essence of collectivism’s immorality is collectivism when she was a teenager, rebel- implied in the title of the book (and Ayn ling against the idea that man should live for Rand’s working title, “Airtight”): Collectivism the state. Collectivism requires the sacrifice of makes life impossible. This is another point the individual, his values, his goals, his inter- developed in her later writings, but We the ests to the collective’s goals (as decided by its Living dramatizes the meaning of life and the leaders). This idea is portrayed throughout impossibility of life under collectivism. Life We the Living, as the individual citizens lose requires thought, decision-making, indepen- their identities, swallowed up by the Greater dent judgment—all of which are considered Whole. All desires for personal happiness are immoral by the dictators, who need blindly condemned as selfishness, which, in fact, they obedient servants. The arbitrary and ever- are—selfishness being a concern for one’s present demands from government officials own individual happiness. “Living for others” and the need to justify everything by the means that you must reject all personal goals undefinable standard of “collective good” and values, that your life as an individual make it impossible for people to plan ahead means nothing. As Victor Dunaev says at or to act on any decision they make. A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of We the Living by Ayn Rand 11 ESSAY CONTEST For 10th, 11th and 12th Graders

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