Wealth

Money—and particularly the rapacious accumulation of it—is probably the central item of critique at play in Anthem, which is deeply critical of about every facet of American culture. Although Hawley spends time on many other societal ills—racism, sexism, abuse, etc.—it is ultimately the corrupting nature of wealth that lies at the center of the novel’s attempt at redemption for its characters.

This dynamic is evident enough in the figure of the Wizard, who functions as the novel’s primary villain and is—as Hawley often reminds his readers—the sixth-richest man in the world. Indeed, even the Wizard’s dark sexual proclivities are attributed by Hawley to this kind of self-ingratiating excess that his expansive wealth provokes in him. Hawley spends several pages underscoring the exact percentage of his annual income that the Wizard spends in order to procure sexual favors...