Analysis of Ayn Rands Novel Atlas Shrugged - Book Report/Review Example

 There are two phrases that stand out in Ayn Rand’s novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’, and these two phrases also speak volumes about the novel’s philosophy. These two phrases are “Who is John Galt?” and “Business as usual.” ‘Atlas Shrugged’ tells us a story that is set in a dystopian society, a society that lives and breathes solely because of the industrial sector but also resents the code that rules the industrial sector of society. With industry, there is no space for sympathy or friendship or charity. There is only efficiency, competitiveness, and innovation. There is only business. While it is because of the people who live by the code of industry that such human wonders as the Taggart Intercontinental Line or the Wyatt Oil are made possible, those who do not work to create or to improve but rather play the game of politics which simply depend on knowing the right people resent the power held by people such as Dagny Taggart, Vice-President of Taggart Intercontinental, and Ellis Wyatt, founder of Wyatt Oil. This resentment bloomed to the point where, in their desire for control and power, those who were not part of the industrial sector began to use their political power to take those which they did not work for – the businesses of the very entrepreneurs who had labored to provide goods for the people. The reasoning behind this movement to seize private businesses was that it was considered unfair to have individuals garner so much wealth from their businesses when there were many who were starving in the streets. It was also deemed unfair that these private entrepreneurs could choose whom they wanted to do business with. Thus, the government began to pass laws that allowed certain businesses to produce only a certain amount of goods (to give other less productive businesses a change at the market) and also began to seize private businesses and turned them into public industries. This results in a strike by the industrialists, which occurs through the slow but steady disappearance of each competent worker of various companies that formed the industrial sector of society. And as society is drained of its able-minded members which formed the backbone of its existence, its structure slowly begins to disintegrate, and the looters began to realize the grave error that they made. We return to the phrase ‘Who is John Galt?’, a phrase that is meant to connote helplessness and despair within the novel. While initially uttered after the disappearance of a gifted engineer named John Galt, it became a widely known and uttered saying. In the beginning of the novel, when the Taggart Comet was stopped due to technical difficulties (though not of the train), the engineer on board simply stated that ‘someone’ will fix the problem, making it clear that that someone would not be himself, while shrugging his shoulders and saying ‘who is John Galt?’. This question that has almost become a motto in the dystopian society presented by the novel takes the form of a challenge for many of the industrialists, especially for Dagny Taggart. The despair in which these words are uttered bothers Dagny immensely, and seems to drive her to prove the helplessness behind the words wrong. For Dagny Taggart, what mattered was that the Taggart Intercontinental line run, and run at its best. Despite the growing movement to tear down industrial empires and to nationalize their businesses, Dagny strove to keep the train line functional and efficient. Like most of her industrial cohorts, she prides herself in her ability to deliver the goods which she has promised, and her ability to create something that fulfills the human potential within her. In fact, Dagny Taggart is the epitome of what an entrepreneur should be. She is capable of stepping into uncharted territories (after careful study) that can help put her train line at an advantage as in the case of the use of Rearden Metal for tracks in the Colorado Taggart line. She is also capable of taking risks, as in the case of the bridge which she had built with Hank Rearden, owner and founder of Rearden Ore. More importantly, she takes pride in her work and sees it as one would see an arm or a leg – she sees it as connected to herself and runs it with the same dignity and efficiency as she upholds within herself. It was these qualities that allowed Dagny Taggart to continue working despite the barriers that were being created by the government that kept her from running her company at its full potential. But the joy that she derived from seeing the accomplishment that was Taggart Intercontinental, which had humble beginnings but grew to serve under the motto “from ocean to ocean” and which she also considers a true product of the greatness of mankind, kept her from giving up. Instead, she stayed on to run the company even though most of the other industrialists began to slowly disappear, leaving their companies barren and unproductive. The disappearance of the industrialists was later revealed to be a strike, a withdrawal of not just the goods offered by the industrial sector of society but also a withdrawal of their abilities. While most of the industrialists continued to work despite the fact that most of their assets were being seized by the government, one by one they slowly realized that those who have the power to dictate the policies of the country were not themselves men of honor. Instead, they were sharks or leeches who sought to make money by taking it from those who have earned it through honest labor. And while they have prided themselves in their ability to do business despite harsh circumstances, they all (separately) reached the conclusion that there could be no other way but to withhold the goods and services that were the bloodlife of the country. The phrase “who is John Galt” takes on a whole new meaning for the industrialists as they find out for themselves who John Galt really is. John Galt, the young engineer who left his life’s work after realizing that all his work would be at the mercy of moochers and looters, was the first to go on strike. His best friends, Francisco D’Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjold, followed suit, although they remained in the public scene by actively working to bring down those who sought to make profit through the work of others – Francisco by setting up the failed copper mines in San Sebastian and Ragnar by becoming a pirate of the seas. However, their very nature prevents them from becoming unproductive despite being on strike. Instead, they escape to a private island which they called Galt’s Gulch that was hidden with an advanced cloaking technology where they began their own self-sufficient community. Within the community, industrial magnates such as Ellis Wyatt worked at simple jobs that were required by the community. But what is important is that they gave as much energy into these simple jobs as they did in running their companies. They also took as much pleasure from it, and strove for productivity in doing farm work as they did in manufacturing metal or drawing oil. Perhaps the motto that drives the industrialists and continually upsets the looters is the saying ‘business as usual’. For every barrier that the looters create, for every productive business decision that was overturned, it was the simple need to get back to business that kept so many industrialists going, despite the fact that they were also beginning to despair. But it was in their businesses that they derived pleasure from, from the simple act of doing. The phrase also speaks of a certain personality makeup. The looters, such as James Taggart, accused the industrialists as being ruthless, inhuman, greedy, selfish, and arrogant. However, the industrialists merely refrain from honoring the idea of granting someone compensation for nothing or of granting compensation based on need. Rewards are meant to be earned, and are given out based on merit and never on charity. They do not offer their respect to those who expect to be given special treatment simply because they are underprivileged. Rather, they offer their respect to those who continuously seek to create, to invent, to work. In this sense, we could say that they paid their respects to the dollar, because it was a way to measure their industry and productivity. As Hank Rearden put it after the government pulled his own company from under him ‘back to business as usual’ and he promptly returned to making a profit. If we try to take the ideas presented in ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and attempt to study our own existing society through its ideals, we shall find that it will pose a troubling problem. In a society, that is our society, which puts so much emphasis on carrying the underprivileged as part of the responsibility of being privileged, to have an ideal which states that it would be a disservice towards the underprivileged to be treated as such is somewhat disturbing. It has the cold calculating feel of business, of everything being treated as a transaction. But does it not have merit to a certain degree? Do we not hold those who are wealthy within their own means guilty for the poor and poverty which they did not cause? In adhering to such an ideal as generosity without cause, are we creating our own society’s downfall and the future destruction of our industrial sector, of our creative minds? While the strike that was conducted by the industrialists in the novel does not seem plausible when viewed through our existing society, Rand’s dystopian society mirrors our reality enough that these questions are important and also disturbing. However, we can only hope that there will be people in our reality who are also capable of such dedication and love for their work and the ultimate human potential for creation that society will be kept afloat despite the many looters and moochers that are already all too visible on the media. Bibliography Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. New York: New American Library, 1957. Read More