Book Review: We the Living

I literally stumbled upon this book in my search for a list of modern classics. I typically don't read books with an original publishing date of later than 1920 (with a few exceptions), and I felt the need to "expand my horizons" so to speak. Expand my horizons it did. I was introduced to new concepts like the "proletarian state" and the "dictatorship of the proletarian" and the use of the term "bourgeoisie" as a pejorative. But more importantly, in this book I found that the human spirit, the God-given drive to live and let live is something that should be cherished and when taken away, life ends in broken spirits, broken bodies, and dulled minds.

The book opens on Kira Argounova (the protagonist) and her family returning to Saint Petersburg, then called Petrograd, at the end of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1922 and the beginning of the bloody rule of Communism. Kira, a bright girl with a sharp mind, decides to attend the Technical Institute to become an engineer. Being the daughter of a "capitalist bourgeoisie" later prevents her dream from being realized because of "purges" in the educational system. The "purge" simply meant that any students whose parents were formerly employers of the masses were expelled from universities and forced to either take government jobs or starve. But Kira refuses to give in to the philosophy that dictates that individuals have no meaning and should do nothing, not even think for themselves, but serve the state. Kira struggles against the Communist tide that sought to overpower her and those she loved. At the beginning of the book (part 1), Kira effectually proclaims to her family and to her classmates, "I will not cease to think! I will not go quietly into the blackness of thoughtless, meaningless submission and sacrifice my humanity for the masses." This ultimately played a part in her struggle for survival. In part 2, we see the curtain open on an older Kira. A woman who knows the power of love for another, the kind of love that would cause her to turn from, "I will not cease to think!" to "Don't think!" simply to save the one she loves more than her own soul, yet that love in the end is not returned. Kira is faced with the harsh reality that she cannot save anyone from the poison of a dead spirit, they have to save themselves. 

As I read this book, I realized how much I take for granted. I sit here, stretched out on my favorite comfy "writing couch", in an apartment that I can call both home and mine, waiting to finish a master degree, using my computer to write these words to you. And all this I do freely of my own volition because I am alive. Life, how often I do not realize its value! 

This essentially is the core theme of We the Living: the sanctity of human life. I think this is why this book resonates so strongly with me.This is the very reason I have decided to go into the field of social work. Every life is valuable, no it is invaluable. It cannot be priced, bar-coded, or measured by length, social standing, or fame because every life brings with it the unspoken promise of something. I believe each person has an individual something they bring with them and with it bless the lives of others. 
But here is where We the Living falls silent, it does not offer any explanation of what makes human life precious. I do not know if the author, Ayn Rand, believed in God or not, but if she did she would have been able to give a reason for the sanctity of human life. We are created in the image of the Creator God and we are the only beings that can claim that truth. That, in my mind, is what gives life its value.

When people stop believing in the value of life, evil raises its ugly head. Lenin killed his millions, Stalin his hundreds of millions simply because they valued social gain over human life (ironically). Men who held to a philosophy that claimed to bring equality and peace brought inequality, fear, bloodshed, and war. 

What I took away from reading this book can best be described in two ways, first: the pendulum never swings to the middle. I will leave the full explanation of this to the physicists, but we all know it has something to do with the law of gravity: what goes up, must come down. 

The second is well articulated by Kira and reverberates within my soul,"Now look as me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want- isn't that life itself? And who--in this damned universe--who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want? Who can answer that in human sounds that speak for human reason?...But you've tried to tell us what we should want. You came as a solemn army to bring a new life to men. You tore that life you knew nothing about, out of their guts--and you told them what it had to be. You took their every hour, every minute, every nerve, every thought in the farthest corners of their souls--and you told them what it had to be. You came and you forbade life to the living. You've driven us all into an iron cellar and you've closed all doors, and you've locked us airtight till the blood vessels of our spirits burst! Then you stare and wonder what it's doing to us. Well, then look! All of you who have eyes left--look!"

I have heard it said that good literature is read by the masses, but great literature works its way past bone and marrow and touches ones soul. By that definition, I would say We the Living is great literature.