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A Collective Society In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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Many stories include an adventure of triumph and accomplishments. Anthem is no different, but the adventure was not all sunshine and rainbows. Ayn Rand, the author of Anthem, brought us a character that was already set for greatness but lived in a world where greatness was not tolerated. Equality 7-2521 was scorned and punished for being smarter and overall better than his peers because the world he lived in believed that the society was all. Everything was for the better of society, but the rights and privileges of the individual were abolished. This was the setting that Ayn wanted to use to illustrate the faults in a collective society. Although her focus was to prove a point, she did give us a story of breaking expectations and of being who we were meant to be. Her story is one giant quest of being yourself. What qualities add up to make a good quest, however? Thomas C. Foster made a list of requirements that a quest needs. He said that “the quest consists of five things: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, he was born different than his other peers. He was more muscular, more beautiful, and overall smarter than the other kids. He was consistently slandered for this and even envied another boy who was pale and had half a brain (Rand 21). Equality just couldn't handle the fact that he wondered about the world around him, which was against the rules because everything was for society. He then learned of a profession where he could put that wonder and curiosity to good use for society. He wanted to be a Scholar, who were the people who invented the greatest contraptions since the world took a collective approach to life. The scholars were famous and he wanted to be one. He wanted to enjoy what life truly was within the society. However, with every dream comes to its own challenges, and this dream was no

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