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What Is Dramatic Irony In Anthem

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Novelists create science fiction novels that represents what today’s society could possibly look like if the government has too much power. Today’s society would fall into a state of corruption, where nothing belongs to a single person and everything is owned by the government. It would be a place where people cannot openly voice their thoughts or opinions without getting in trouble with the powerful government. Ayn Rand’s science fiction novel, Anthem, depicts a dark vision of the future world where individuality is not permitted to exist. The main character, Equality, sets himself aside from the other people living in society. He knows that he is different, but with a sense of naivety, he finds his independence wrong, but he cannot help it. Liberty, the female character in which Equality has feelings for, also finds herself to be different from others and follows Equality’s path. In conveying the insidious corruption of the collectivist society of Anthem, Ayn Rand uses dramatic and situational irony. To show how the citizens of Anthem are kept completely ignorant of their human rights, Rand employs several moments of dramatic irony, such as when Liberty explains how he is different from his brothers, “This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them” (Rand 21). It is dramatic irony because in the modern day society, it is known that people have different levels of

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