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Essay: Atlas Shrugged: Would it Work in 2009?

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This website analyzes the work Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, published in 1957. It focuses on Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, and how it is employed throughout the book. The copy used for this analysis is the Signet Book edition published in 1985.* The book is 1084 pages long. It is divided into three parts. Each part has 10 chapters. Part One: Non-Contradiction Chapter 1: The Theme Scenes 1. Eddie Willers 2. Eddie and James Taggart 3. Dagny Taggart 4. Dagny and James Taggart 5. Dagny and Eddie 6. Dagny and Owen Kellog Eddie Willers "Who is John Galt?" The light was ebbing, and Eddie Willers could not distinguish the bum's face. The bum had said it simply, without expression. But from the sunset far at the end of the street, yellow glints caught his eyes, and the eyes looked straight at Eddie Willers, mocking and still-as if the question had been addressed to the causeless uneasiness within him. "Who is John Galt?" is the theme that runs through the first part of the book. Eddie Willers is an important but supporting character in Atlas Shrugged. A loyal follower of the main character, Dagny Taggart. Notice that his first name is "Eddie," - Eddie is the diminutive of Edward...few people in power..at least in books, are called Eddie. Author Rand goes on to set the scene... bums are all over the street, asking for dimes (that's be dollars, or food, today!) And, of course, this particular bum can now go and buy a cup of coffee for a dime. (At least author Rand thinks he'll drink coffee and not liquor. Or perhaps that's just the innocent of Eddie, who hands the bum a dime and says, "Go get your cup of coffee.") Eddie Willers dislikes the twilight, it's the time when he feels "this sense of dread without reason. No, he thought, not dread, there's nothing to fear: just an immense, diffused apprehension, with no source of object. ..." The following paragraph is rife with symbolism: The clouds and the shafts of skyscrapers against them were turning brown, like an old painting in oil, the color of a fading masterpiece. Long streaks of grime ran from under the pinnacles down the slender, soot-eaten walls. High on the side of a tower there was a crack in the shape of a motionless lightning, the length of ten stories. A jagged object cut the sky above the roofs; it was half a spire, still holding the glow of the sunset; the gold leaf had long since peeled off the other half. The glow was red and still, like the reflection of a fire: not an active fire, but a dying one which it is too late to stop. The city is clearly dying...civilization is dying. Once a masterpiece, it is now faded and dirty. Note that this is not the 1957 that was current at the time of Rand's writing of the book - this is a science fiction novel, after all. It's a picture of a time in the near future, of what would have happened, in particular to the United States, as more and more "men of the mind" go on strike because of the way they're treated. Rand also shows the depths of Eddie's character: He walked on, reminding himself that he was late in returning to the office. He did not like the task which he had to perform on his return, but it had to be done. So he did not attempt to delay it, but made himself walk faster. There's more symbolism, as Eddie continues his walk through the city streets: He turned a corner. In the narrow space between the dark silhouettes of two buildings, as in the crack of a door, he saw the page of a gigantic calendar suspended in the sky. It was the calendar that the Mayor of New York had erected last year on the top of a building, so that citizens might tell the day of the month as they told the hours of the day, by glancing up a public tower. In other words, Rand is not thinking of the calendar as a public convenience - one set up by a business for the convenience of its customers, but rather as one set up by a government-run entity. "Yes, people, you don't need to keep track of the day or time, we, the government, will tell you." Eddie Willers looked away. He had never liked the sight of that calendar. It disturbed him, in a manner he could not explain or define. More foreshadowing. The phrase Eddie is trying to remember, but can't, is "Your time is running out." The days of civilization are numbered, in this post-1957 New York of Ayn Rand's... And Rand continues to hammer this home subtly: When he came to Fifth Avenue, he kept his eyes on the windows of the stores he passed. There was nothing he needed or wished to buy, but he liked to see the display of goods, any goods, objects made by men, to be used by men. He enjoyed the sight of a prosperous street; not more than every fourth one of the stores was out of business, its windows dark and empty. Ayn Rand was Russian, and emigrated to the United States in 1926. Before that she had been part of a monied class whose family had been dispossessed by the Revolution, and she hated Communism with a passion. (Her novel We the Living is semi-autobiographical.) She found work during the Depression, married an actor, Frank O'Connor, and began to write. Perhaps it is the sights of Moscow after the Revolution, and New York during the Great Depression, that informs her view of the dying metropolis we see here. Rand was writing this book in the late 1950s, and the writing was on the wall for capitalism even then. Just as many opponents of Roosevelt's "New Deal" thought that his policies were retarding America's recovery from the Depression, so in the late 1950s the Green movement was just getting started, as was the Cold War with Russia. [Not that Rand deals directly with those things in her book. Nor does she talk about black civil rights, etc., which will not begin to gain national prominene until the early 1960s - several years away. While one is sure Rand would have been supportive of ending racism and sexism - it prevented whole streams of society from being productive and forced them to be burdens on society, in the form of welfare payments - the issues she deals with here are of a broader scope...which would have brought about their emancipation in the end.] Eddie continues his walk, and remembers an old oak tree that had been on the Taggart estate in his childhood: The great oak tree had stood on a hill over the Hudson, in a lonely spot on the Taggart estate. Eddie Willers, age seven, liked to come and look at that tree. It had stood there for hundreds of years, and he thought it would always stand there.... He felt safe in the oak tree's presence; it was a thing that nothing could change or threaten; it aws his greatest symbol of strength. One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it the next morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell; it's heart had rotted away long ago.. Again Rand makes it clear that something is happening...has happened...to New York, and by extension the United States. It seems powerful, but it's only a shell, with a rot inside. How surprised and disappointed Rand would be to see the United States of 2009, with our trillion dollar debt, our infrastructure crumbling after years of neglect... Childhood Ambitions Eddie Willers, all grown up, has been a childhood friend of the Taggerts, and worships Dagny Taggart (whom we'll meet in the flesh shortly.) She is Rand's "everyman" the person who is not a genius, not a creator, but is willing to follow the people who are. When he was asked [at the age of 10, by the "one precious companion of his childhood" - Dagny Taggart] what he would want to do, he answered at once, "Whatever is right," and added, "You ought to do something great...I mean, the two of us together." "What?" she asked. He said, "I don't know. That's what we ought to find out. Not just what you said. Not just business and earning a living. Things like winning battles, or saving people out of fires, or climbing mountains." "What for?" she asked. He said, "The minister said last Sunday that we must always reach for the best within us. What do you suppose is the best within us? "I don't know." "We'll have to find out." She did not answer. She was looking away, up the railroad track. Eddie wants to find the best within himself...Dagny, even at her young age, knows what it is...to be in charge of a railway company. Rand is an atheist, but when she does talk about religion (the Christian religion) she tries to point out that God would want people to reach for the heights, not cower in the darkness because they are sinners. Next, Eddie arrives at the huge building that is Taggart Transcontinental. Taggart is a transportation conglomerate, run by, as we are about to see, Jim Taggart, Dagny's brother. Eddie pauses to admire the building...much like that oak tree of his childhood. It's different than the other buildings, no crumbling edges, no broken windows. "It would always stand there, thought Eddie Willers." is the last sentence of that paragraph. More foreshadowing... James Taggart Author Ayn Rand has her character's appearance reveal their innermost thoughts... James Taggart...had a small, petulant mouth, and thin hair clinging to a bald forehead. His posture had a limp, decentralized sloppiness, as if in defiance of his tall, slender body, a body with an elegance of line intended for the confident poise of an aristocrat, but transformed into the gawkiness of a lout. Eddie Willers enters his office, and informs him that the Rio Norte line is failing. There are accidents, either minor or major, every day. The tracks need to be relaid, but Taggart insists on waiting for steel from an incompetent businessman, Orren Boyle. Taggart attempts to deflect blame by pointing out that his company is not the only one having problems. "It's a national condition - a temporary national condition." Taggart refuses to deal with Rearden Steel. Hank Rearden is one of the main protagonists of Atlas Shrugged. He has created a new steel process, but is having trouble getting buyers because no one wants to risk his new process. Taggart explains his obstinance this way: "I resent your attitude. Orren Boyle will deliver that rail just as soon as its humanly possible. So long as he can't deliver it, no one can blame us." And Eddie's answer is typical. "Jim, what are you talking about? Don't you understand that the Rio Norte line is breaking up-whether anybody blames us or not?" Another character is mentioned, Ellis Wyatt, owner of the Wyatt oil fields. Reading Rand's description of Wyatt's accomplishment is interesting, in hindsight, compared with what goes on today with oil fields... It's blood, thought Eddie Willers, because blood is supposed to feed, to give life, and that is what Wyatt Oil has done. It had shocked empty slopes of ground into sudden existence, it had brought new towns, new factories to a region nobody had ever noticed on any map. New factories, at a time when the freight revenues from all the great old industries were dropping slowly year by year; a rich new oil field, at a time when the pumps were stopping in one famous field after another, a new industrial state where nobody had expected anything but cattle and beets. Eddie, who is a confirmed capitalist, thinks this about oil: It's blood, thought Eddie Willers, because blood is supposed to feed, to give life, and that is what Wyatt Oil has done. It had shocked empty slopes of ground into sudden existence, it had brought new towns, new factories to a region nobody had ever noticed on any map. New factories, at a time when the freight revenues from all the great old industries were dropping slowly year by year; a rich new oil field, at a time when the pumps were stopping in one famous field after another, a new industrial state where nobody had expected anything but cattle and beets. and his opinion of Ellis Wyatt, oil millionaire. "Ellis Wyatt is a greedy bastard who's after nothing but money. It seems to me that there are more important things in life than making money." Taggart continues to express the world view of socialists/communists: "I'm not so sure that his oil fields are such a beneficial achievement. It seems to me that he's dislocated the economy of the whole country. Nobody expected Colorado to become an industrial state. How can we have any security or plan anything if everything changes all the time?" and "Yes, I know, I know, he's making money. But that is not the standard, it seems to me, by which one gauges a man's value to society. And as for his oil, he'd come crawling to us, and he'd wait his turn along with all the other shippers, and he wouldn't demand more than his fair share of transportation-if it weren't for the Phoenix-Durango. We can't help it if we're up against destructive competition of that kind. Nobody can blame us." "Does it matter that nobody blames us-when the road is falling apart?" Eddie leaves Taggart's office, defeated. There'd been some more foreshadowing. Taggart mentions that things will work out when their Mexican branch begins to pay off... this angers Eddie who walks out --- we don't yet know why this should anger him. In the anteroom, Eddie has a discussion with Pop, who merely reiterates the atmosphere that Rand had established at the beginning of the book. Businesses are failing, new products like typewriters don't last, etc. James Taggart is one of Rand's characters who exhibits the problems of the world then, and the world today. He will not take responsibility for his own actions, he hopes for change rather than doing anything to bring that change about. We will learn more of his character in subsequent pages. Dagny Taggart The chapter then segues to the main character, Dagny Taggart, brother of James Taggart, whom we have already met, and "shining light", "mentor" and "best friend" to Eddie Willers. Rand starts out the first two paragraphs describing her physical appearance, clothing, attitude, and so on. She kept her hands in the coat pockets, her posture taut, as if she resented immobility, and unfeminine, as if she were unconscious of her own body and that it was a woman's body. She is seated in a train, it is night, she is listening to an uplifting symphony. It was a symphony of triumph. The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought that had ascent as its motive. It was a sunburst of sound, breaking out of hiding and spreading open. It had the freedom of release and the tension of purpose. It swept space clean, and left nothing but the joy of unobstructed effort. That is Rand's philosophy in a nutshell. Music should be uplifting, man's ability to create is constructive and should be constructive, not destructive. Turns out, Dagny is not actually listening to the symphony itself, it has only seemed that way in her mind, because she is so familiar with the work of its cmposer, Richard Halley. But she suddenly realizes that though it is Halley's music - his type of music is instantly recognizable - it's not something she's every heard before...and yet Halley had supposedly retired from scoring music nine years ago. The tune she'd been listening to had been whistled by a brakeman. She talks to the man. He says it's Halleys Fifth Concerto. She points out Halley only wrote four. "Of course," he says, quickly. "I was forgetting." Then Rand gets back to Dagny and her purpose. She, like Eddie Willers, is a driven character. She will not procrastinate, she will not delay. She had not slept for two nights, but she could not permit herself to sleep; she had too many problems to consider and not much time: the train was due in New York early in the morning. She needed the time, yet wished the train would go faster; but it was the Taggart Comet, the fastest train in the country. Dagny does indeed fall asleep, and when she wakes up its to find the Comet stopped. Turns out the train has been switched to a siding, and the train drivers and people stand and talk at the red light for an hour, instead of trying to figure out what the problem is. Meantime, the rest of the passengers are accepting the wait apathetically. The conductor spoke up. "I don't think we had any business being sent off on a siding, that switch wasn't working right, and this thing's not working at all." He jerked his head up at the red light. "I don't think the signal's going to change. I think it's busted." "Then what are you doing?" "Waiting for it to change." and an engineer points out the problem: "We're not taking any chances. Whoever's responsible for it, he'll switch the blame to us if we move. So we're not moving until somebody tells us to." Dagny orders the engineer to start up the train and proceed cautiously to the next station. They want to know who she is, and she, surprised, tells them her name. They recognize it immediatley. It is not until after this scene that we learn who Dagny is. "That's who runs Taggart Transcontinental. That's the Vice President in Charge of Operations." Even in 1957, one would assume the engineer would have a radio to communicate with the nearest station to find out what's going on. However, although Rand doesn't actually say it, I give her the benefit of the doubt! Obviously, the engineer had tried to radio ahead, but whoever was supposed to be manning the station was probably out having a coffee break. And, of course, there were no cellphones in 1957. Dagny returns to her compartment, as the train continues. Rand continues to provide insights into Dagny's character: She would give his post to Owen Kellog... She had always looked for sparks of competence, like a diamond prospector in and unpromising wasteland. and, although the situation is desperate, Dagny is enjoying it. Through the dry phrases of calculations in her mind, she noticed that she did have time to feel something: it was the hard, exhilarating pleasure of action. Dagny and James Taggart The scene shifts to Dagny, having arrived in New York, talking to her brother, James. Dagny has been on a fact-finding mission all along Taggart's rails, and has not liked what she's seen. All the rail needs to be replaced, but they can't afford it. So they're going to start with just a certain section. And they're going to use Readen metal, because they can no longer wait for Orren Boyle to deliver. Dagny is clearly a woman of action, James clearly a man who has to block her at every turn. Eddie is also in the meeting. "His title was that of Special Assistant to the Vice President in Charge of Operations, and his main duty was to be her bodyguard againt any waste of time." Dagny is intent on saving the Rio Norte line, that Eddie had mentioned to him earlier. She tells her brother that she has ordered the steel from Rearden, and they'll receive it in two months. Taggart doesn't want the resopnsibility. "I don't think it's proper to make such a decision without giving the Board [of Directors] a chance to express an opinion. And I don't see why I should be made to take the responsibility." "I am taking it." More background on Jim Taggart: Taggart sat looking at his desk. She wondered why he resented the necessity of dealing with Rearden, and whu his resentment had such an odd, evasive quality... There were not many many firms in the country who delivered what was ordered, when and as ordered. Rearden Steel was one of them. If she were insane, thought Dagny, she would conclude that her brother hated to deal with Rearden because Rearden did his job with superlative efficiency; but she would not conclude it, because she thought that such a feeling was not humanly possible. However, it is true, as Rand makes clear in her next dialoge from Jim Taggart. "It isn't fair." "What isn't fair?" "That we always give all our business ro Rearden. It seems to me we should give somebody elsse a chance, too. Rearden doesn't need us, he's plenty big enough. We ought to help the smaller fellows develop. Otherwise, we're just encouraging monopoly." Is this true? Rand doesn't have Dagny even discuss the possibility. "Don't talk tripe, Jim." We next get more of a view of Taggart's personality. He doesn't want to make decisions on his own. Other people must be consulted, thus saving his skin if something goes wrong with a decision he makes. "Well, whose opinion did you take?" "I don't ask for opinions." "What do you go by?" "Judgement." "Well, whose judgement did you take?" "Mine." "But whom did you consult about it?" "Nobody." "Then what on earth do you know about Rearden Metal?" "That it's the greatest thing on the market." "Why?" "Because it's tougher than steel, cheaper than steel and will outlast any hunk of metal in existence." "But who says so?" "Jim, I studied engineering in college. When I see things, I see them." "What did you see?" "Rearden's formula and the tests he showed me." "Well, if it was any good, somebody would have used it, and nobody has." He saw the flash of anger, and went on nervously, "How can you Know it's good? How can you be sure? How can you decide?" "Somebody decidessuch things, Jim. Who?" "Well, I don't see why we have to be the first ones. I don't see it at all." Dagny points out that the consequences of Jim's policies over the last thirteen months have been catastrophic. His waiting on the steel from Orren Boyle which is thirteen months delayed. The San Sebastien Line, a railroad line built into Mexico, to a gold mine. Jim quickly points out that the Board approved both those projects. He said defensively, "I don't see why you're so eager to give a chance to Ellis Wyatt, et you think it's wrong to take part in developing an underpriveleged country that never had a chance." "Ellis Wyattt is not asking anybody to give him a chance. And I'm not in business to give chances. I'm running a railroad." "That's an extremely narrow view, it seems to me. I don't see why we should want to help one man instead of a whole nation." "I'm not interested in helping anybody. I want to make money." Then, Taggart reveals what the world view is like in the 1957 in which John Galt has declared his strike: Selfish greed for profit is a thing of the past. It has been generally conceded that the interests of society as a whole must always be placed first in any business undertaking..." Note that Rand always has Taggart qualifying his sentences, by frequently saying, "It seems to me." After completing her task of telling Jim Taggart what they're going to do, Dagny and Eddie leave Taggart's office. Rand is a woman of her time, and in 1957 few women had positions of power in the corporate world. Rand mentions this: He [Eddie] was the only person who found it completely natural that she should be the Operational Vice President of a great railroad, even though she was a woman. Indeed, some of Rand's critics do comment that she does seem to have little time for women in her books. There's always one central woman, who is a love interest for the main hero, but there are no other "strong" women in the cast of characters. You'll see that as we get further into the book - the only other woman who has "retired from the world" is an actress. Dagny and Eddie arrive at Dagny's office, and Eddie tells her that Owen Kellog wants to see her. Dagny is happy, she wants to see him, to tell him that she wants to promote him. But, he comes to her office to resign, and he won't tell her why. He intends to go on working, but he will no longer work for her railroad, or any othe railroad. She asks "Why?", not of him, but of the world in general. His last words, and the last words of the chapter, are "Who is John Galt?" Please continue to Chapter 2: The Chain. *Thanks to the copyright holders for allowing the use of a variety of passages from the book.