An Objectivist on "The Beach"

Paper Summary:

Uses evidence from Rand's work and the novel to assert that the society in "The Beach" is collectivist and thereby reprehensible by objectivist standards. Emphasizes that all characters in the novel are what Rand would consider parasites, except for the Individualist, Jed, Who is the only redeeming element of the society. Implies that Garland, like Rand, admires Jed and recognizes the importance of the Individual as superior to the collective.

From the Paper:

"Just as a man can evade reality and act on the blind whim of any given moment, but can achieve nothing save progressive self-destructionso a society can evade reality and establish a system ruled by the blind whims of its members or its leader. . . But such a society can achieve nothing save the rule of brute force and a state of progressive self-destruction. (Rand VOS 135)" Ayn Rand's comment on the unreasonable state of world politics in 1963, specifically communism, socialism, theocracy, and any other form of government that holds the collective above the individual, could have easily been written in a critical analysis of Alex Garland's The Beach, even though the novel was written thirty-four years later. According to Rand, and Randite Objectivists, the novel describes a society of parasites who have no concept of individualism - a central component of the Objectivist philosophy".

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