Analysis of Atlas Shrugged

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Critique of Atlas Shrugged

The novel, Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, is a book about the importance of the mind to man's existence. It is the story of what may happen if man ceases to employ reason in his life. Set in the United States, in an unknown future, the heroine is Dagny Taggart, vice-president of Taggart Transcontinental railroad. Power-hungry bureaucrats implement socialist legislation, causing the country to fall into a depression. Throughout the story, Dagny fights to keep the "looters" from destroying her railroad. She struggles to find "the destroyer," the one who is convincing the "men of mind" to disappear. In the end, after he and the other strikers have won, she realizes that the destroyer is truly the embodiment of what she thinks an ideal person should be. Dagny demonstrates the motif that gender does not limit human greatness. She is an example of a domineering woman shown in a positive leadership role.

Dagny leads Taggart Transcontinental from behind the scenes. She is vice-president, and her brother, James Taggart, is president. Dagny exhibits many traits characteristic of a good leader, and without Dagny's leadership, the railroad would collapse. Unlike Dagny, James Taggart has no leadership skills. James wants to buy rail from Orren Boyle because he is James' friend; whereas (1) Dagny wants to buy rail from Hank Rearden because he is reliable. She does not want to sacrifice herself and her business merely for the sake of her brother's friend. James won't listen to Dagny, however, and orders the rail from Orren Boyle's company, Associated Steel. Orren Boyle fails to deliver the rail on time, so Dagny ignores her brother's instructions, and () orders rail made of a new, better metal, called Rearden Metal, from Hank Rearden.

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When deciding what sections of railroad to repair, and where to lay new rail, Dagny decides to repair and expand the Rio Norte Line in Colorado, in order to transport the products of a local industrial boom. James wants her to lay new rail on the San Sebastian Line in Mexico, not based on reason, but because he thinks that the people of Mexico need it. () She rejects his ideas, and does what is best for Taggart Transcontinental.

James meets with three other men in a bar, discussing the future of business in the country. Here, James learns that Dagny has moved north of the Mexican border every piece of equipment that she can find, leaving only one decrepit, old train that is useless for moving any freight. (4) She does this to save Taggart Transcontinental from losing money if the People's State of Mexico nationalizes the rail. James is furious about this and tells her, "Just wait until the board meeting next month... you're going to have to answer for this." Dagny responds by saying, (5) "I'll answer for it." This illustrates the degree to which Dagny is more confident than James as a leader. James is a man, yet he has no confidence in his ability to lead other men. Conversely, Dagny is a woman, yet she has great confidence in her ability to lead other men.

The National Alliance of Railroads passes the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, forcing the Phoenix-Durango railroad to shut down. The closing of the Phoenix-Durango eliminates the only competition to Taggart Transcontinental in Colorado. The loss of the Phoenix-Durango railroad upsets Ellis Wyatt,owner of Wyatt Oil, and he arranges a meeting with Dagny. He tells her that he will not accept poor service merely because Taggart Transcontinental has no competition, and Dagny tells him, (6) "You will get the transportation you need, Mr. Wyatt." Dagny is confident that she can lead her company more effectively than her brother, and meet Wyatt's demands.

Having promised Ellis Wyatt transportation, Dagny needs to receive the Rearden Metal rail, originally scheduled for delivery in twelve months, in nine months. She meets with Hank Rearden to discuss this. During their meeting, they discuss the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule. Rearden says to Dagny, (7) "When I heard about that Anti-dog-eat-dog business, it made me sick. But don't worry... You and I will always be there to save the country from the consequences of their actions." This conversation introduces us to the male equivalent of Dagny Taggart, Hank Rearden. It illustrates that although Dagny is a woman, she can still be as great a man as Hank Rearden.

(8) Dagny goes to the Rio Norte Line to lead construction herself, because the foreman is incompetent. When the foreman fails, and then appeals to Dagny that he did his best, she tells him, () "I've hired you to do a job, not to do your best." This supports the motif that gender does not limit human greatness, showing that Dagny is more capable than the foreman, despite his being a man.

James Taggart does not trust his own judgment; rather, he makes decisions based solely on public opinion and political pressure. He refuses to use rail made of Rearden Metal Because of public opinion that the metal is unsafe. (10) Dagny responds by saying that she will leave Taggart Transcontinental, form her own company, and build a new railroad line, called the John Galt Line, by herself; then she will sell it to Taggart Transcontinental. By doing this, Dagny takes full responsibility for her own judgement, and James does not have to take any risks. Despite all of the public opposition, Dagny completes construction of the John Galt Line. (11) She asks for volunteers to run the first train, and, as a testament to her ability, every engineer volunteers.

When James Taggart is describing his sister's effectiveness concerning the building of the John Galt Line, he tells the Board of Directors, (1) "Oh yes, you may feel full confidence. My dear sister does not happen to be a human being, but just an internal combustion engine, so one must not wonder at her success." When a delegate from the Union of Locomotive Engineers tells Dagny that they won't allow her to run a train on rail made of Rearden Metal, she tells him to (1) "Get out of here." Dagny will not allow another person to dictate either her thoughts or her actions under the mask of her consent.

Due to the number of volunteers, Dagny will draw a slip of paper with an engineer's name on it from a pile of paper containing every volunteer's name, to determine who will drive the train. When she draws the name, she tells Eddie Willers to (14) "Tell him that I'm going to ride with him in the cab of the engine on that run." An old engineer responds, (15) "I thought you would, Miss Taggart." Dagny's employees feel a high level of admiration for her, and place a high degree of trust in her ability as a leader.

While giving a press conference before the first run on the John Galt Line, Dagny is unapologetic about her success, and asks a reporter if he would please quote her as saying, (16) "Miss Taggart says -- quote -- I expect to make a pile of money on the John Galt Line. I will have earned it. Close quote." During a photo shoot after the press conference, a reporter asks one of the brakemen, "Do you think you'll get there?" To which the brakeman responds, "I think we'll get there, and so do you brother." (17) This is an example of the train crew's confidence in Dagny's judgment. When Dagny is asked, "What's going to support a seven-thousand ton train on a three thousand ton bridge?" She replies, (18) "My judgment." Dagny has absolute confidence in her judgment, so much that she is willing to stake her life on it.

Dagny begins looking for the inventor of a new kind of motor. Her search takes her to Wyoming, where she has a conversation with a short-order cook in a diner, and is shocked to learn that the cook is Dr. Hugh Akston, a retired world-renowned professor of philosophy. During their conversation, Dagny asks Dr. Akston to work as head chef on one of her dining cars, and he refuses. In an effort to persuade him to work for her, Dagny says, (1)"I'm so sick of them, I'm so hungry for any sight of anyone who's able to do whatever it is he's doing!" When Dagny returns from Wyoming, she is upset that bureaucrats have passed the Preservation of Livelihood act. (0) Dagny refuses to submit to this new law, or any of the profligate deals that the looters try to make with her, and she fights to continue leading her company. Dagny proclaims to the statue of Nat Taggart, (1) "I won't surrender it to the men of blood and rust -- and I'm the only one left to guard it." Dagny is willing to lead the entire world through the depression.

Upon realizing that she will never find the inventor of the motor, Dagny seeks a scientist who can rebuild it, but none of the applicants is acceptable, and () Dagny orders them all out of her office.

Dagny attends her brother's wedding. At the wedding, James Taggart's new wife, Cheryl Taggart, approaches Dagny and tells her, "I'll put you in your place. I'm Mrs. Taggart. I'm the woman in the family now." Dagny responds by saying, () "That's fine, I'm the man." This is another incidence of the motif that gender does not limit human greatness, by showing that a woman can have the traditionally male role of greatness.

When a railroad worker questions Eddie Willers in the terminal cafeteria about the ability of Dagny Taggart, Willers responds by saying, (4) "Oh yes, you bet she's a smart woman!" Eddie is devoted to Dagny, and admires her great productive ability. When Dagny attends a Taggart Transcontinental board meeting, (5) the other members of the board have so much confidence in her ability that they assume that she can do the impossible, and when she tells them that she cannot, a board member says, (6) "We know that you have the ability to find some way to do it." Dagny also exhibits confidence in her ability, and when Dagny speaks with a childhood friend, Francisco d'Anconia, and he tells her that she will have to endure much injustice alone if she fights the strikers, she says, (7) "I'm glad I'll have to do it myself." Dagny is confident that she can lead the entire world out of a depression completely by herself.

When Dagny resigns and retreats to her cabin in the Berkshires, James Taggart appoints a new operating vice-president at Taggart Transcontinental, Clifton Locey. He is completely unlike Dagny, although he claims that he is equally good at operating the railroad. When an emergency occurs, however, he quietly calls Eddie Willers into his office, and (8) "Asks [him] -- casually... what Miss Taggart used to do in such an emergency." When Clifton Locey fails to secure a train for a politician's speaking tour, James Taggart tells him, () "At least when my sister ran the place, I wasn't awakened in the middle of the night over every spike that broke in Iowa...!" This accentuates that fact that Dagny Taggart is a greater leader than Clifton Locey, even though he is a man, which is an example of the motif that gender does not limit human greatness.

While living in Nat Taggart's cabin, (0) Dagny is still productive, despite being far from civilization. She (1) "cooked her meals on a wood-burning stove and gathered the wood on the hillsides. She cleared the brush from under her walls, she reshingled the roof, she repainted the door and the frames of the windows. Rains, weeds and brush had swallowed the steps of what had once been a terraced path rising up the hill from the road to the cabin. she rebuilt it, clearing the terraces, relaying the stones, bracing the banks of soft earth with walls of boulders," () "It gave her pleasure to devise complex systems of levers and pulleys out of old scraps of iron and rope, then to move weights of rock that were much beyond her physical power... she understood that what she needed was the motion to a purpose." While Dagny stays in her cabin, the looters quickly cripple the railroad without her leadership. When James Taggart speaks with Hank Rearden, he says, "It's her duty to come back! It's her duty to work!... () We need her!" Dagny's leadership is indispensable to the success of Taggart Transcontinental.

(4) Dagny tries to stop a man from quitting and joining the destroyer, Dagny's plane crashes in the mountains, and she accidentally finds the valley where the destroyer lives. He blindfolds her so that she will not be able to find the valley again, and flys her out of the valley. When Dagny returns from the valley, she finds that the condition of the country has worsened considerably since she has been away. She sums up her feelings about this when she says that (5) "she kept wanting to approach strangers, to shake them, to laugh in their faces and to cry, 'snap out of it!" Dagny has returned, and the looters once again exhibit over-confidence in her ability, continuing to ask her to do the impossible. She tells them again that she can't do the impossible, but they don't understand that even her exceptional ability can't save them, and her brother tells her that she must do something, telling her (6) "It's your special talent. you're the doer." Dagny insists that her brother be realistic, and understand that some things cannot be done, to which he responds, (7) "You're the realist, you're the doer, the mover, the producer, the Net Taggart, you're the person who's able to achieve any goal she chooses! You could save us now, you could find a way to make things work -- if you wanted to!"

John Galt is the man who invented the motor, the destroyer, and the ideal man. He seizes radio and television stations to give a speech to the American people. After he is finished with his speech, Dagny asks Eddie Willers what would happen if she quit. He tells her that (8) "There would be no Taggart trains within a week. Maybe less," so important is Dagny to the success of Taggart Transcontinental.

When Mr. Thompson is asks Dagny for advice about how to save the economy, she is honest and tells him that it cannot be done. He tells her, () "I trust you, Miss Taggart. You've got more brains than all my boys, you've done more for the country than any of them." (40) "You know, Miss Taggart, I feel better whenever I talk to you. It's because I trust you. I don't trust anybody around me. But you -- you're different. You're solid."

Atlas Shrugged is a flawless novel. Dagny Taggart is a powerful heroine who exhibits the best qualities that humanity has to offer. She is a consummate example of someone possessed of a rational self-interest. James Taggart exemplifies the worst that humanity has to offer, the perfect villain. He is a nihilist who believes in collectivism and altruism. History places him with infamous villains like Adolf Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. He does not want to succeed, he only wants to see successful people punished for succeeding where he could not. He uses the doctrines of altruism and collectivism as means to enslave the productive people he hates. In the end, he inevitably realizes his own depravity and loses his mind. Rand uses the contemporary characteristic of a domineering woman in a positive leadership role to allow her heroine to defeat the looters of society. Throughout the looters' reign of terror, Dagny surpasses even John Galt in her leadership, because she is the only productive mind that did not surrender to villains like James Taggart. Atlas Shrugged is the second most influential book in the United States, after the Bible, and anyone who reads the novel can never forget the example set by Dagny Taggart, and it is difficult not to strive to achieve as she has.

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