When the protagonist D-503 is summoned to the Benefactor at the novel’s end, following the Mephi’s failed plot, he learns that he could have become “the greatest of all conquistadores” (84). This is the culmination of this knight’s quest and the end of his Sir Gawain-esque adventure. As the Integral’s chief builder, he would have been responsible for taking the One State philosophy into space and spreading it to other civilizations, but he, like Gawain, is captivated by the allure of the past and its potent mythology. At first, D-503 takes on this mission with glee. He is convinced that the One State has found a “mathematical, perfect life” (1), and he even begins a journal to document this perfection, to help convince other societies. Yet, as he writes in this journal, D-503’s conviction starts to waver. Seduced by I-330 and the possibility of a more vital way of life, he begins to break the rules, asking whether there is something beyond the rationally proscribed happiness of the One State. He is the primary instrument through which the narrative explores the theme of The Conformist and Subversive Potential of Writing.