Character Analyses

The following character analyses delve into the physical, emotional, and psychological traits of the literary work’s major characters so that you might better understand what motivates these characters. The writer of this study guide provides this scholarship as an educational tool by which you may compare your own interpretations of the characters. Before reading the character analyses that follow, consider first writing your own short essays on the characters as an exercise by which you can test your understanding of the original literary work. Then, compare your essays to those that follow, noting discrepancies between the two. If your essays appear lacking, that might indicate that you need to re-read the original literary work or re-familiarize yourself with the major characters.

John Galt

Galt is the hero and main character of Atlas Shrugged, because his principles drive the action and the conflict of the story. The book explores what occurs when the thinkers go on strike. Galt conceives of the strike, initiates it, sustains it, and carries it to a successful resolution. Part of the fascination of Atlas Shrugged is that its dominant character works behind the scenes, his existence unknown to the reader, for the first two-thirds of the novel. The question invoking his name lends a legendary quality to his character, as if he were, in part, a mythological being. In a universe populated with giants, his is the character of greatest stature. The mystery shrouding the story’s unfolding conflict results from the choices he makes. The strike is necessarily secretive, so the disappearance of the world’s great thinkers must be a mystery to everyone outside of Galt’s circle.

Galt realizes, during the implementation of communist principles at the Twentieth Century Motor Company, that the only hope of ending the mind’s exploitation is by means of a strike. His insight has the potential to usher in a new historical period—to be “epoch-making.”

Ayn Rand presents Galt as a man of epic proportions. She stated that the goal of her writing was the presentation of an ideal man, and that goal is reached with the figure of John Galt. He is a man of prodigious intellectual gifts—a physicist who brings about a revolution in man’s understanding of energy, a philosopher who defines a rational view of existence, and a statesman who leads a strike that transfigures the social systems of the world. Two characteristics make possible the enormity of his intellectual achievements. One is his unique genius. The other is a trait that men can replicate: his unswerving rationality. Galt describes himself as “the man who loves his life,” which is accurate. But above all, he is the man who perceives reality—the man who allows nothing to interfere with his cognitive apprehension of the facts. He is characterized by reference to his “ruthlessly perceptive eyes”—the eyes that honor facts and see reality for what it is, regardless of Galt’s feelings about that reality.

In a signature scene, Galt tells Dagny—the woman he has loved and watched for years—what he did and felt upon learning that she was Hank Rearden’s mistress. He went to observe Rearden at an industrialists’ conference. Rearden had everything that Galt wanted and could have had if he hadn’t chosen to strike. Rearden had his mills, his invention, his wealth, his fame, and his love relationship with Dagny. For one moment, Galt felt a tearing sense of loss. He saw what would have been his if he hadn’t abandoned his motor. But Galt felt that loss for only a moment, because he then recognized the full set of facts defining the situation. He saw the burdens that Rearden carried, the impossible demands, and the forces stifling and enslaving him. He saw Rearden struggling in silent agony, striving to understand what Galt alone had understood. He saw Rearden for what he was—the symbol of the strike, the great unrewarded hero whom Galt was to liberate and validate. The scene that he describes to Dagny provides the key to understanding Galt’s character. He feels intense emotion and suffers when he experiences loss, but he doesn’t permit his emotions to interfere with his cognitive grasp of reality or with his actions based on that cognition. He knows that the strike is right, and no pain resulting from its consequences can defile the purity of his cognition.

What makes Galt unique is his method of using his mind—his unflinching commitment to facts, even if they are unpleasant, painful, or frightening. He functions rationally, holding an undeviating allegiance to reality that his most honest judgment grasps. Galt’s life embodies a proactive eagerness to seek out truth and an inviolable willingness to accept it, no matter its content. He recognizes that man can only achieve success and happiness by revering reality. He doesn’t consider facing reality a duty or something that requires tight-lipped stoicism. Instead, he celebrates reality, joyously recognizing that consistent adherence to reality is at the core of self-interest. He knows that a willful departure from reality is the essence of self-destruction.

John Galt is a hero representing the best of modern civilization—its science, its medical research, its technological progress, and its application of intellect in service to human life. He embodies the novel’s essential theme: Only by means of the mind can human beings achieve prosperity on earth.

Because of the towering achievements of his intellect, it’s easy to overlook the other aspects of Galt’s life: his light, effortless way of moving; his passionate love for Dagny; the tenderness and concern he shows for his lifelong friends, Francisco d’Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld; and his respect for his teacher/spiritual father, Hugh Akston. The special bond that Galt shares with these four people shows Rand’s rejection of the conventional split between reason and emotion, which holds that an individual can be either rational or emotional—he cannot be both. The poignant, understated intensity of Galt’s relief on seeing Ragnar after a year of ceaseless dangers is a simple but eloquent example of a rational man’s emotional life. Because Galt values the mind and its achievements, he must give his love to exalted individuals. A man of reason cannot look unmoved upon such noble souls as Francisco, Ragnar, and Dagny. A true man of the mind experiences the most intense emotional bond to such individuals because he is a man of the mind. In the character of John Galt, Ayn Rand shows that reason and emotion can and should be integrated in the human being’s life.

Dagny Taggart

Dagny is the heroine and primary narrator of the story. Her great stature comes from the combination of characteristics that she possesses. Her knowledge of engineering and industry enables her to expertly run a transcontinental railroad. Her understanding of physics allows her to identify the virtues of Rearden Metal. The independence of her judgment lets her stand by the metal and her railroad in the face of virtually unanimous social opposition. Her dauntless determination drives her to build the John Galt Line. The qualities that make Dagny a towering character are the same qualities that make real-life individuals such as the scientist Marie Curie and the innovative educator Maria Montessori great heroines. Like these women, Dagny has an unswerving dedication to truth, regardless of social opinion. The dedication to truth supports her ability to discover new knowledge and create new products.

The same attributes that make Dagny great also make John Galt great—and Aristotle, Michangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Isaac Newton. Rand dramatizes a crucial point in Dagny’s character: Human greatness equals rational achievement irrespective of gender. Great human beings employ their intellectual ability to create the values on which human life depends. Stature of character is not gender-specific.

A reader may question why Rand portrays Dagny as an engineer—as a genius specifically in the field of heavy industry. If Rand’s purpose is to portray a woman’s intellectual prowess—to show that a gender-based difference between a woman’s cognitive functioning and a man’s doesn’t exist—why not present her as a great writer, mathematician, theoretical scientist, composer, or artist? Why does she portray her as a brilliantly creative industrialist? In addition to the relevant plot considerations, Dagny’s career path makes a philosophical point: If intellect is more life-giving than brawn, then women can run machinery, create new physical products, invent, innovate, oversee heavy industry, raise the material standard of living, and so on. The human intellect, regardless of gender, shapes the physical environment in order to meet human survival requirements. Ayn Rand doesn’t believe that faith can move mountains. However, in the character of Dagny Taggart, Rand shows that a rational woman can create and deploy the technology to move mountains just as effectively as a rational man.

Like Galt, Dagny is much more than a pure intellect. Her emotional life is equally as intense as Galt’s, and for the same reason. The men of the mind value man’s life on earth; they love the industry, technology, and science that promote life. They feel enormous admiration and attraction for the giants among mankind who are responsible for progress. This admiration and attraction is why Dagny falls to her hands and knees, dirty and disheveled, shaking with excitement and screaming for Rearden, when she realizes the nature of the abandoned scrap of a motor she finds in a junk pile. This same admiration and attraction is why her body aches with a desire for Galt that verges on physical pain when she is in his home in the valley, and is why she races desperately back to New York when she hears the news of the Taggart Tunnel disaster. Dagny has committed mind, body, and soul to man’s life on earth—and to the achievements and achievers that make life on earth possible.

Hank Rearden

Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism stresses the virtue of productivity—the ability of human beings to create the goods and services necessary for survival on earth. Hank Rearden is the embodiment of this virtue. In his early teens, Rearden pushed himself to herculean efforts in the ore mines, refusing to acknowledge pain and exhaustion as legitimate grounds to stop working. Later, he bought the mines and worked virtually 20-hour days to build a vast, steel-producing empire. Through 10 years of prodigious effort, he created a new metal alloy far superior to steel. His productivity is legendary, even among the other industrial giants in the valley. Andrew Stockton, owner of the country’s best foundry, says that Rearden would put him out of business if he ever joined the strike and entered the valley: “‘But boy! I’d work for him as a cinder sweeper. He’d blast through this valley like a rocket. He’d triple everybody’s production.’”

Productivity is the adaptation of nature to man’s survival needs. It involves the creation of goods and services that human life requires. Because nothing is given to man on earth—and all must be created—productivity is a major moral virtue. The mind is the source of all wealth, the means by which man creates economic value and reshapes the physical environment. Consequently, productivity is an expression of the principle of mind-body integration, the ability of the mind to create material abundance for the purpose of enjoying life on earth. But Hank Rearden holds, through much of the story, a mistaken premise that prevents him from recognizing his own moral greatness. He believes the theory that mind and body are split. This viewpoint is known as the mind-body dichotomy—the belief that the mind or soul belongs to a “higher” world superior to this one, and that earth is ruled by the “low” instincts of the body. Rearden’s liberation from this way of thinking transforms his character.

Because Rearden initially regards the body as base or ignoble, he devalues all of its activities. He initially berates both Dagny and himself for their passionate lovemaking. He also says to her, in the context of discussing the unlimited potential of Rearden Metal, “We’re a couple of blackguards, aren’t we? We haven’t any spiritual goals or qualities. All we’re after is material things. That’s all we care for.” Early in the story, he isn’t able to recognize the great virtue that his productivity or his relationship with Dagny represents.

Rearden’s friendship with Francisco teaches him that material production is an intellectual process and a sublime virtue. His relationship with Dagny teaches him that sex involves the expression of an individual’s deepest beliefs and values; he is attracted to her because she represents the same values of rationality and industrial productivity that he cherishes. Only when Rearden throws off the idea that the body and its concerns are low is he able to recognize his own superlative value.

Francisco d’Anconia

Francisco is one of John Galt’s two closest friends and an indispensable ally in the strike. He takes on the role of squandering playboy as cover for his two real activities. One of these is to gradually obliterate all assets of the world’s wealthiest corporation—d’Anconia Copper—and in so doing, to help destroy other industrial concerns, such as Taggart Transcontinental. His other purpose is to recruit great thinkers for the strike. More than anyone else, Francisco helps liberate Hank Rearden from the shackles of the self-sacrifice ethics, enabling Rearden to recognize the virtue and necessity of the strike.

The swashbuckling gaiety and enthusiasm that define Francisco’s character result from his view of the world—a view that Ayn Rand terms the benevolent universe premise. This theory holds that reality is open to the achievements of rational men. Human beings who recognize that rational thought and productive effort alone advance their lives, and who don’t place their whims above facts, can expect to attain their goals and live in happiness. Francisco’s recognition of this truth is expressed in the two refrains of his childhood. “Let’s find out!” was his way to motivate Dagny and Eddie to embark on a new adventure. “Let’s make it” was his call to engage in acts of construction. The first expresses an explorer’s premise, the second a builder’s. Both represent a man to whom reality is open, an individual for whom all roads are cleared and green lights stretch to the horizon.

Even Francisco’s characteristic mockery, his use of irony and biting derision, is always benevolent and positive. He always directs his mockery at the irrational, never at the good and never at strangers. He laughs openly at people like James Taggart, because he knows that man can and should be much better. While James Taggart uses derision as a weapon of destruction, Francisco uses it as a means of destroying the destroyers, thereby clearing the road for the creative. His trademark mockery always supports his values. A scene from his childhood proves this point. When a professor of literature saw Francisco on top of a pile in a junk yard, happily “dismantling the carcass of an automobile,” he said, “‘A young man of your position ought to spend his time in libraries, absorbing the culture of the world.’” Francisco replied, “‘What do you think I’m doing?’” He didn’t intend to needle or insult the professor. He intended to expand the meaning of the term “culture” to recognize the profound value of technology and industrial production. Even at such a young age, Francisco focused on making a positive point.

Francisco’s life-giving benevolence is shown in his love for Hank Rearden. The injustice of Rearden being enslaved and exploited by his family and the looting politicians is deeply moving to Francisco. He undertakes the long process of teaching Rearden to check his moral premises—to reject both the mind-body dichotomy and the self-sacrifice ethic. He receives both insults and a physical blow from Rearden but brushes them aside. He tells Rearden that if he saw Atlas straining with his last ounce of strength to support the world for a final instant before he expired, he would tell him to shrug, to release the self-sacrificial responsibility, and to recognize his own right to live.

Francisco does more than save Rearden’s life during the assault on the mills; he shows him the reality of a new life. Francisco’s unceasing campaign bears fruit when Rearden understands the senseless futility of cannibalizing the productive and virtuous for the sake of vicious moochers. Francisco’s work is complete when Rearden throws off the shackles of guilt and servitude binding him to the parasites and joyously recognizes his own inestimable moral value. Francisco, recruiting agent for the strike, wins his greatest conquest.

James Taggart

Taggart is the president of Taggart Transcontinental, Dagny’s older brother, and the novel’s most prominent villain. He is far worse than a corrupt businessman seeking wealth by parasitical means. Like his soulmate Lillian Rearden, Taggart is riddled with hatred for the good. His goal in life, which dominates his actions even when he doesn’t recognize it explicitly, is to disfigure and destroy the men of the mind. He is a nihilist, one who seeks destruction of the good, and this characteristic dominates all aspects of his life.

Nihilism explains why Taggart hates Francisco, Dagny, Rearden, and Wyatt. It explains why he wants to hear Galt scream. It’s also his primary motive for cannibalizing the Phoenix-Durango Railroad and destroying Dan Conway. To wound Hank Rearden is Taggart’s sole reason for having sex with Lillian. To destroy the innocent hero-worship of Cherryl Brooks is his sole reason for marrying her. Taggart wants to celebrate the announcement of Argentina’s transformation into a “People’s State” not because of his anticipated profit, but because of the nationalization of d’Anconia Copper and the resulting financial destruction of Francisco d’Anconia.

Because man cannot live with the conscious realization that his purpose in life is destruction, Taggart is forced to evade understanding his true motives. He lies to himself endlessly, trying to convince himself that he seeks to gain wealth, to protect the interests of his railroad, to help “friends” such as Orren Boyle, or to serve the “public welfare.” The truth is that Taggart doesn’t value wealth, life, the railroad, success, Boyle, or the public. If “value” means to have a strong positive commitment to some life-enhancing person, object, or process, Taggart values nothing. On the contrary, he hates people capable of achieving values and living successfully. He is riddled with envy, which Ayn Rand defines as “hatred of the good for being the good.” Only one thing compels him: to wreak such devastation that the good have no chance to survive. This is why, during a meeting that leads to the passage of Directive 10-289 (the laws designed to enslave productive men), Taggart involuntarily screams, “If we are to perish, let’s make sure that we all perish together. Let’s make sure that we leave them no chance to survive!”

Taggart’s wanton destruction of Cherryl leaves him shaken because it brings his true motivation too near to the surface; the fabric of lies designed to protect him from the truth is in danger of crumbling under the strain. When he has Galt—the ultimate example of man’s capacity to live and the symbol of all that he hates—in his power, his kill-lust peaks. He doesn’t merely want to hear Galt scream; he wants Galt to die. When that realization bursts through into his explicit awareness, the motivation for his entire existence stands naked before him. No man can withstand the recognition of his own utter moral depravity. Taggart has evaded this recognition his entire life, and realizing this dreaded knowledge causes him to lose his mind.

Taggart endorses the doctrines of altruism and collectivism because they enable him to attack and enslave the productive men that he hates. He recognizes that the consistent application of these theories leads inevitably to national socialism and communism, which are totalitarian dictatorships that imprison and exterminate the independent minds that he loathes. The acts of mass destruction wreaked by such collectivist murderers as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, and Pol Pot are chilling real-life examples of the same nihilism that drives the actions of James Taggart. In Taggart’s character, Ayn Rand lays bare the underlying premises of mankind’s most evil representatives.

Critical Essays

On the pages that follow, the writer of this study guide provides critical scholarship on various aspects of Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. These interpretive essays are intended solely to enhance your understanding of the original literary work; they are supplemental materials and are not to replace your reading of Atlas Shrugged. When you’re finished reading Atlas Shrugged, and prior to your reading this study guide’s critical essays, consider making a bulleted list of what you think are the most important themes and symbols. Write a short paragraph under each bullet explaining why you think that theme or symbol is important; include at least one short quote from the original literary work that supports your contention. Then, test your list and reasons against those found in the following essays. Do you include themes and symbols that the study guide author doesn’t? If so, this self test might indicate that you are well on your way to understanding original literary work. But if not, perhaps you will need to re-read Atlas Shrugged.

The Role of the Mind in Human Life 117

The Role of the Common Man in Atlas Shrugged: The Eddie Willers Story 120

The Role of the Mind in Human Life

All the main positive characters in Atlas Shrugged are great minds. Dagny Taggart is a brilliant businesswoman/engineer who runs a transcontinental railroad superbly. Hank Rearden is a productive genius of the steel industry and an extraordinary metallurgist who invents a new material that’s vastly superior to steel. Francisco d’Anconia is a prodigy who masters every task as quickly as it’s presented to him, independently develops a crude version of differential equations at age 12, and invents a new kind of copper smelter. Ellis Wyatt is an innovator of the oil industry who creates an advanced method of extracting oil from shale rock. Ragnar Danneskjöld is a brilliant philosopher, and Hugh Akston, his teacher, is the last great advocate of reason. Above all towers John Galt, a philosopher, scientist, inventor, statesman, and man of superlative genius and accomplishment who, in real life, can be compared only to the greatest minds of human history. The heroes in Atlas Shrugged all dramatize the novel’s theme: The mind is mankind’s tool of survival.

In Atlas Shrugged, every advance that makes human life on earth possible is a product of the reasoning mind. The creation of the John Galt Line requires Dagny’s engineering knowledge, the creation of Rearden Metal requires Rearden’s understanding of metallurgy, and the invention of Galt’s motor requires his command of physics. All inventions, breakthroughs, and innovations are creations of the mind, including the production of items that human beings require for day-to-day survival. Atlas Shrugged reminds us that the ability to successfully grow food involves knowledge of agricultural science; building houses relies on comprehension of architecture, engineering, and mathematics; and curing diseases requires knowledge of medicine. If man is to resolve various forms of mental illness, he must know psychology. If he is to establish a free society, he must understand the principles of political philosophy. If man is to avert war, or even personal conflict, he must be able to negotiate his differences, which requires reason. Every value that human life depends on is a product of the reasoning mind. This idea is Ayn Rand’s thesis in Atlas Shrugged.

The villains in Atlas Shrugged avoid rationality and production, seeking survival instead by looting the producers. The villains attempt to live by brute force, not by reason. However, man is not a tiger or a shark; he can’t survive the same way animals do. Animals survive by devouring each other, and nature equips them to battle for survival by
exclusively physical means. Each species possesses its survival instrument. Birds have wings, lions have claws and fangs, antelopes enjoy speed, elephants utilize size, gorillas showcase their strength, and so on, but man can’t survive by these means. He lacks wings, claws, great size, strength, or speed. Nature endows man with but one instrument by means of which to survive—his mind.

Dagny, Rearden, Galt, and the other thinkers live in accordance with their rational nature. Wesley Mouch, James Taggart, Floyd Ferris, and the other villains in the story seek survival by means of force, which is an animal’s method, not a man’s. Consequently, the villains have no more chance to succeed than a bird that refuses to use its wings. The looters can—and, at times in real life, do—destroy the creators. But having abandoned their survival instrument, they lack all chance of achieving flourishing, joyous lives. Once they ruin the producers, they are left to starve. Only the men of the mind can attain prosperity.

In order to fully understand Ayn Rand’s theme in Atlas Shrugged, we must contrast it with its opposites. Objectivism’s claim that the mind is the fundamental means by which man survives contrasts with the claims of the two dominant philosophical schools of modern western culture, Marxism and Christianity. The Marxists maintain that manual labor is the means by which human beings produce economic value: Muscle power, not brain power, creates wealth. Marxists believe that the physical workers create economic commodities and the capitalists exploit the workers. Ben Nealy, the contractor with whom Dagny is stuck after McNamara’s retirement, expresses Marx’s belief succinctly when he claims, “Muscles, Miss Taggart, that’s all it takes to build anything in the world.” Ayn Rand’s answer to Marx is contained on every page of Atlas Shrugged. How much manual labor (muscle power) does it take to create Galt’s motor, Rearden’s Metal, or Wyatt’s innovative process of extracting oil from shale? In real life, how much muscle power was required to invent Edison’s light bulb, design Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings, discover methods for heart transplant surgery, or create Fulton’s steamboat? Obviously, no amount of muscle power is sufficient to create these products on its own, because they first require breakthroughs in knowledge. The mind is fundamentally responsible for these innovations and countless others. Manual labor is part of constructing new products after they’re designed, but the brain performs the original act of design, not the biceps.

Christianity’s view is that man survives by faith in God—that strong, pure faith can move mountains. But Ayn Rand argues that all the faith in the world is inadequate to move one grain of sand one millimeter. If human beings seek to move mountains in order to construct interstate highway systems or transcontinental railroads, they can do so only by means of dynamite, technology, and science. Faith in God cannot enable Dagny and Rearden (or their real-life equivalents) to build railroad lines, invent metals, or design new bridges. Only rigorous thought can reach such accomplishments. The mind—not faith in the supernatural—grows food and cures diseases. Likewise, only societies that are scientifically, technologically, and industrially advanced—such as the modern United States—have high living standards. Places and eras dominated by faith, such as Europe during the Middle and Dark Ages, are backward and destitute. When the mind is absent—whether on strike, as in the novel, or subordinated to faith, as in Medieval Europe—the result is regression into a cultural dark age.

Great creative minds such as Galt’s, by definition, think new thoughts and discover new knowledge. They neither conform to social belief nor obey a tyrant’s command. They follow their own vision and pursue their own truth. In making intellectual breakthroughs, people like John Galt lead mankind’s progress. This idea, too, is part of Ayn Rand’s theme in Atlas Shrugged: The mind must be free. Galt’s strike is a declaration of independence for the intellectual. The strike shows that the mind can’t and won’t function under compulsion. Freedom is required for Rearden to create his metal, for Galt to invent his motor, or for any innovator to discover new truths. The creative mind looks only at the facts, whether of metallurgy, energy conversion, or another field. It does not bow to the whims of a dictator. If people like Floyd Ferris or Wesley Mouch can, by decree, stifle or redirect the research being done by a Galt or a Rearden, they’ve placed a gun between the great mind and the facts that it studies. This explains why the freest countries are the most advanced, and why the brutal dictatorships that proliferate across the globe wallow in backwardness and abysmal poverty. Galt’s strike recognizes that the first right of human beings is the freedom to think and act independently. The result of this freedom is the unshackling of the human mind and a dramatic rise in living standards.

The Role of the Common Man in Atlas Shrugged: The Eddie Willers Story

The heroes of Atlas Shrugged are men and women of great intellect. Dagny, Rearden, Francisco, Ellis Wyatt, and, above all, Galt are superb thinkers—even geniuses. The story makes clear the multitude of ways in which the great minds are mankind’s benefactors. But an honest reader may ask: What about the common man? Do heroism and moral stature require extraordinary intellectual ability, or can individuals of more modest intelligence aspire to these lofty goals? What is the relationship between a man’s intelligence and his moral character? In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand gives her answer to these questions through the character of Eddie Willers.

Eddie lacks the genius possessed by his boss, Dagny Taggart. He is her diligent, able assistant, but he’s not capable of building the John Galt Line, judging the merit of Rearden Metal, identifying the nature of the abandoned motor, finding a scientist capable of reconstructing the motor, or resolving the chaos that the Taggart Tunnel explosion causes. Likewise, he doesn’t possess the ability to run Taggart Transcontinental. He even states, in his forthright manner, that he isn’t a great man. He knows that if the railroad goes, he won’t be able to rebuild it; if such a tragedy occurs, he’ll share its demise.

But the issue of Eddie’s character is of greater importance. He is as constant in his devotion to the railroad as Dagny. He works the same long hours willingly; he stands at her side through every crisis; he is equally shocked and outraged at the behavior of James Taggart and the looters. Eddie has known, from early childhood, that the railroad is his life. In response to James Taggart’s snide reference to him becoming a feudal serf tied to Taggart Transcontinental, Eddie states, “That’s what I am.”

Like Dagny, Eddie reveres the achievements of Ellis Wyatt, Hank Rearden, and the unknown inventor of the motor. Eddie is, in the words Rand uses to describe Dagny, a child of the Industrial Revolution. He recognizes the benefits to human life from inventions like Rearden Metal and Galt’s motor, from new methods like Ellis Wyatt’s process for extracting oil from shale, and from industrial production, like that attained by Rearden Steel. In his lifelong devotion to the railroad, Eddie demonstrates his commitment to industry and technology, to the scientific research necessary to create them, and to the mind’s role in
promoting human wellness on earth. The theme of Atlas Shrugged is the life-giving nature of rationality, and Eddie is as dedicated to the mind as any of the great thinkers in the story.

Eddie doesn’t possess the brainpower of Dagny, Rearden, or Galt, but he is as fully rational as they are. Galt explains that rationality is a commitment to the facts—an inviolable willingness to face reality, no matter how painful, frightening, or unpleasant the truth may be in a specific case. Rationality means never placing any consideration above one’s honest grasp of the facts. Eddie practices this method as fully as Galt. His rationality is shown throughout the story, but his early dialogue with James Taggart regarding the Rio Norte Line is a specific example. Eddie tells Taggart that there’s been another wreck, the track is shot, and the Phoenix-Durango provides superior service. Eddie also says that the railroad can’t wait any longer for Orren Boyle to deliver new rails. Taggart argues that if his company can’t get the rail because of unavoidable delays at Associated Steel, nobody can blame him for Taggart Transcontinental’s shoddy track or poor service. Eddie seeks to fix the track, but James Taggart only looks to avoid blame. Where Eddie is concerned with the facts, Taggart’s sole regard is for public opinion. The difference between their specific concerns reflects the deeper difference between their cognitive methods. Taggart’s thinking is ruled by the opinions of others; facts rule Eddie’s thoughts.

Eddie’s character demonstrates the difference between intelligence and rationality. Intelligence is intellectual ability, whereas rationality is a method. Intelligence is a capacity for understanding, but rationality is a means of using one’s mind. Robert Stadler, for example, has incomparably greater intelligence than Eddie, but Eddie is far more rational. Stadler has the genius to make significant advances in theoretical physics, but when dealing with men, he often evades or denies important facts. Stadler tries to convince himself that Galt is dead—”he has to be,” he says—and that no connection exists between the prodigy he taught at Patrick Henry University and the man of whom the entire world speaks. Most important, Stadler tries to deny the truth of John Galt’s words, though he knows that all of Galt’s words are true. He repeatedly pushes aside the realization that, in aligning himself with the brutes, he has betrayed the mind. Unlike Stadler, Eddie refuses to push facts aside no matter how painful or frightening they are. He doesn’t deny that the economy is collapsing; that, when the railroad goes, he’ll go with it; or that Dagny, the woman he loves, is sleeping with Rearden. Eddie faces reality at all times. He merely possesses limited
intellectual ability with which to do so.

Atlas Shrugged shows that intellect is necessary to promote man’s prosperity on earth. The achievements of Rearden, Dagny, Galt, and the other thinkers dramatize the claim that reason is the primary cause of progress. But intellectual ability isn’t within a man’s volitional control. The ability of his brain is something that a man is born with, but he chooses whether he uses it. Eddie’s consistent choice to accept the responsibility of thinking is the hallmark of a virtuous man. An individual can be judged only by what is subject to his control. On issues that are open to his choice, Eddie is a man of great stature.

Morality, according to the theme of Atlas Shrugged, involves an unbreached commitment to the rational requirements of man’s life on earth. Eddie exhibits such commitment to the end. For example, when the Taggart Comet breaks down in the Arizona desert, the passengers and crew abandon it for a covered wagon, but Eddie refuses to leave the train. “We can’t let it go!” Eddie says fiercely. At some level, he knows that he means more than the Comet and the railroad. Eddie won’t abandon industrial production, technology, science, and progress; he refuses to revert to primitive modes of transport or living. He’ll fix the train and restore transcontinental service, or he’ll die trying. He is loyal to the achievements of modern civilization and the minds that make them possible. This loyalty is the essence of his moral stature.

Ayn Rand deliberately leaves Eddie’s fate unresolved. His friends may rescue him and take him to the valley, where he deserves to be, but it’s also possible that Dagny and Francisco will be unable to find him in the desert and he’ll die. Eddie’s dependence on the strikers is a final example of the relationship between the common man and the creative geniuses. When the great minds are free to act upon their thoughts, they create abundance and the common man flourishes. However, when geniuses are enslaved, they’re unable to generate prosperity, and the common man suffers as a result. Eddie Willers—the moral best of every man—understands this truth. His moral status lies in his veneration of the mind.

CliffsNotes Review

Use this CliffsNotes Review to test your understanding of the original text and to reinforce what you’ve learned in this book. After you work through the quotation identifications, practice projects, and discussion questions, you’re well on your way to understanding a comprehensive and meaningful interpretation of Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

Q&A

1. One of the leading strikers masquerading as a squandering playboy is:

a. Eddie Willers

b. Francisco d’Anconia

c. Robert Stadler

d. Ragnar Danneskjöld

2. The railroad industrialist who builds the John Galt Line is:

a. James Taggart

b. Hank Rearden

c. Dagny Taggart

d. Dan Conway

3. As a means of fighting the looters, Ragnar Danneskjöld becomes a:

a. pirate

b. philosopher

c. playboy

d. politician

4. John Galt abandons his motor because:

a. He must do so to conduct the strike.

b. Nobody wants it.

c. It doesn’t work.

d. The looters forbid its use.

5. Dagny Taggart pursues John Galt because:

a. He is the inventor of the motor.

b. He is the “destroyer” who drains the brains of the world.

c. He is the man she loves.

d. All of the above.

6. John Galt makes a radio address to the country because:

a. He intends to announce and explain the strike.

b. He doesn’t like listening to Mr. Thompson.

c. He wants to sell his motor.

d. He seeks to impress Dagny.

Answers: (1) b. (2) c. (3) a. (4) a. (5) d. (6) a.

Fill in the Blank

1. The theme of Atlas Shrugged is _______________.

2. Dagny Taggart refuses to join the strike because _______________.

3. Lillian Rearden’s purpose is to _______________.

4. Ragnar Danneskjöld gives gold to Hank Rearden because _______________.

5. James Taggart destroys Cherryl because _______________.

6. The strikers move to a remote valley in the Colorado Rockies because _______________.

Answers: (1) the importance of the mind to man’s existence. (2) she is unwilling to give up her railroad. (3) destroy her husband. (4) he wants to serve justice, restoring to Rearden part of the money stolen from him. (5) she is a hero worshipper, and he hates all heroes. (6) the looters’ system will collapse as a result of the great minds’ absence.

Identify the Quotation

1. What can you do when you have to deal with people?

2. Who is John Galt?

3. I’m the man who robs the poor and gives to the rich.

4. The sight of an achievement was the greatest gift a human being could offer to others.

5. Don’t you understand that the Rio Norte Line is breaking up—whether anybody blames us or not?

6. Contradictions cannot exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

Answers: (1) Robert Stadler says this on several occasions. He believes that most human beings are irrational and can be ruled only by force. (2) Many people ask this question. Some ask it ironically, but most pessimistically. The question is an expression of despair and hopelessness. (3) Ragnar Danneskjöld explains to Hank Rearden why he robs government relief ships. Ragnar’s purpose is to restore to the producers the wealth stolen from them by the looters. (4) This is Dagny thinking to herself as she is about to run the first train on the John Galt Line. She realizes that a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers has gathered because an accomplishment of such magnitude is inspiring. (5) Eddie Willers says this to James Taggart. Eddie, who faces facts, drives home to Taggart the actual state of affairs on the Rio Norte Line. (6) This is Francisco speaking to Dagny. (Hugh Akston makes the same point to her.) This quote expresses the author’s viewpoint that reality is intelligible to a rational being. Francisco can’t be both a high-minded man of noble character and a worthless bum. If Dagny thinks he is both, she has made an error in reasoning and needs to examine her assumptions.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do the men of the mind go on strike?

2. What are the reasons for Rearden’s willingness to support the family that seeks to destroy him?

3. Why does a great mind like Robert Stadler’s believe that joining the looters is necessary?

4. In a book whose main positive characters are geniuses, what is the significance of a “common man” such as Eddie Willers?

5. Explain the “sanction of the victim” principle that Hank Rearden identifies and uses at his trial.

6. What are the causes of the Taggart Tunnel disaster?

Practice Projects

1. Stage a meeting between John Galt and the President of the United States. What would Galt say to him? How would the President respond? Create and enact a dialogue between the two. Perform the same activity with John Galt (or one of the novel’s other main characters) and a different world leader.

2. Design a Web site to introduce Atlas Shrugged to other readers. What will you say to interest them in the book’s story and ideas? Invite readers to post their thoughts regarding the novel.

3. Stage the following debates:

a. A debate with Galt and the strikers on one side and Dagny and the scabs on the other, regarding the best way to defend the freedom of the mind in a country that’s moving toward dictatorship.

b. A debate between advocates of socialism and admirers of capitalism regarding the most moral and practical political/economic system.

4. Discuss—don’t debate—what human society would be like if Galt’s philosophy was dominant. What if the beliefs of Hank Rearden, as portrayed early in the story, were dominant? What if the looters’ ideas were dominant? Whose ideas, if any from among the book’s characters, are most influential in the world today? What are the practical consequences of these ideas?

5. Hold a simulated Constitutional Convention in which you revise some parts of the United States Constitution (as Judge Narragansett does near the end of the book) in accordance with the principles of John Galt.

6. Write a newspaper editorial defending Galt’s principle of individual rights in opposition to the government’s latest violation of those rights.

CliffsNotes Resource Center

The learning doesn’t need to stop here. CliffsNotes Resource Center shows you the best of the best—links to the best information in print and online about Ayn Rand and works written by and about her. And don’t think that this is all we’ve prepared for you; we’ve put all kinds of pertinent information at www.cliffsnotes.com. Look for all the terrific resources at your favorite bookstore or local library and on the Internet. When you’re online, make your first stop www.cliffsnotes.com, where you’ll find more useful information about Atlas Shrugged.

Books

If you’re looking for more information about Ayn Rand and her other works, check out these publications.

Critical Works about Rand

Letters of Ayn Rand, edited by Michael Berliner, provides a collection of Ayn Rand’s letters on topics ranging from Objectivism to advice for beginning writers. Includes an introduction by Leonard Peikoff. New York: Plume, 1997.

The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z, edited by Harry Binswanger, offers an alphabetically arranged collection of Rand’s writings on her philosophy of Objectivism. New York: New American Library Trade, 1990.

The Journals of Ayn Rand, edited by David Harriman, provides a personal look at Ayn Rand in her own words. Includes Rand’s notes for her writing, essays, and thoughts on Hollywood and communism. New York: Plume, 1997.

The Ayn Rand Reader, edited by Gary Hull, contains excerpts from all of Rand’s novels. Introduces readers to Rand’s writing and philosophy. New York: Plume, 1999.

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, by Leonard Peikoff, offers a renowned Ayn Rand scholar’s explanation of Rand’s philosophy. An excellent resource on Rand and Objectivism. New York: Meridian Books, 1993.

The Ominous Parallels, by Leonard Peikoff, explores the causes of Nazism and the parallels between the thoughts and beliefs in Nazi Germany and the United States. New York: Plume, 1997.

Rand’s Major Works of Fiction

Anthem. 1961. New York: Plume, 1999.

Atlas Shrugged. 1957. New York: Signet, 1996.

The Fountainhead. 1943. New York: Signet, 1996.

We the Living. 1936. New York: New American Library, 1996.

The Early Ayn Rand: A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction. New York: New American Library, 1986.

Rand’s Major Works of Nonfiction

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. 1967. New York: New American Library, 1984.

For the New Intellectual. 1961. New York: New American Library, 1984.

Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Harry Binswanger and Leonard Peikoff, eds. New York: Meridian Books, 1990.

Philosophy: Who Needs It. 1982. New York: New American Library, 1985.

Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. Peter Schwartz, ed. New York: Meridian Books, 1999.

The Romantic Manifesto. 1971. New York: New American Library, 1975.

Russian Writings on Hollywood. Michael Berliner, ed. Marina del Ray, California: The Ayn Rand Institute Press, 1999.

The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism. 1964. New York: New American Library, 1989.

The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought. New York: Meridian Books, 1990.

Internet

Check out these Web resources for more information about Ayn Rand or Atlas Shrugged:

The Ayn Rand Institute, aynrand.org—The Ayn Rand Institute Web site is an outstanding source of information regarding Rand’s life, her books, her philosophy, and applications of Objectivism to current events and issues.

Journals of Ayn Rand, www.capitalism.org/journals/index.html—The unofficial Web site for the Journals of Ayn Rand offers excerpts from the book as well as comments from scholars and readers.

Second Renaissance Books, www.RationalMind.com @md This internet and catalogue marketer features the most complete selection of Ayn Rand’s writings and recorded lectures available anywhere. For a free print catalogue, call 1-888-729-6149.

Next time you’re on the Internet, don’t forget to drop by www.cliffsnotes.com. We created an online Resource Center that you can use today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Films and Audio Recordings

Check out these films and audio recordings for more information on Ayn Rand:

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life. Dir. Michael Paxton. Perf. Sharon Gless (narrator), Janne Peters, and Peter Sands. AG Media Corporation, Ltd. and Copasetic, Inc., 1997. A documentary film based on Ayn Rand’s life.

Love Letters. Dir. William Dieterle. Perf. Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton. Paramount Pictures, 1945. A feature film written by Ayn Rand.

You can find these films and recordings for sale on the Internet or for rent at most local libraries and video stores.

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