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Society Exposed In Ayn Rand's Anthem

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Ayn Rand in her novel Anthem exhibits a society where people only purpose is to serve and better the community. Rand was writing Anthem, while World War 2 was emerging and she was watching countries change their views on society and the citizens in it. Some of these countries started to force their citizens into a mold. Thinking that society would be benefit if everyone was like-minded. Rand wanted to show these views in an extreme situation to demonstrate what could happen in the future if countries continued to do this. In her book Rand created Equality 7-2521 which is a 22-year-old male who dares to break away from the mold his society has created and be himself. He has the potential for so much and yet his society keeps him from it. Rand uses Equality 7-2521 and his society to illustrate that if society tries to push …show more content…

The short story is about an Indian named Junior Polatkin and his school career from 1st grade to graduation. He had a hard time being at school and each grade, he tells us something he has learned. Junior went to school on an Indian reservation from 1st grade to 7th grade. The government tried to keep the Indians on the reservations and wants to make them more like Americans. When Junior was in first grade the government tried to make him less like an Indian and this can be seen when he said, “My hair was too short and my U.S. Government glasses were horn rimmed, ugly, and all that” (Alexie 170). In second grade Junior’s teacher Betty Towle thought that Junior was very disrespectful. However, she was not respectful to fact that Indians and their traditions like having long hair. So she tried to force Junior to cut his hair. The text said that “She sent a letter home with [him] that told [his] parents to either cut [his] braids or keep [him] home from class” (Alexie 173). The school and government tried to control the Indians and push them into a mold so they would be more like

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