Book Review: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

A couple of years ago, as I was reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand written in 1957, I couldn't believe that I kept turning another page.     I knew someone else who had read it, and decided that if he read it, there was something to it.  You be the judge.

There are several themes running through this book. The author believed that there is value in hard work, and that profits earned represented hard work. Therefore people working hard , earning their way fulfilled the social needs of the community. Rand expressed these beliefs through conversations between the straw characters on both sides of the argument.  On one side were those who believed that hard work was important.  Opposing them were those who believed that people were poor through no fault of their own, and needed assistance from the rich, hard-working misers.  The protagonists  believed in hard work , but eventually lost their business to the evil government.  After government take-over businesses less capable and less honest folks took charge.

There were many interactions recorded between Rearden, the hero of the story, and his family members, who despised him.   For example, Rearden’s mother once came to his office unannounced to demand that he give his lazy brother, Phillip, a job, even though Phillip had no skills p. 195-196.

Rand also allowed her readers to eavesdrop on conversations between those who espoused the belief that socialism worked.  One of the strongest proponents of government-enabled socialism was Dagny Taggart's brother, James.  Together they owned the largest transcontinental railroad in the United States.  While Dagney, the book's heroine, worked tirelessly to keep the railroad lines open and the business afloat and moving forward with the times, brother James, in cahoots with government officials, told her, “Need comes first – above your profits.”  p. 494  James Taggart.  

Despicable government committee member, Lawson, commented, “It’s intelligence that caused all the troubles of humanity… Those who are big are here to serve those who aren’t. If they refuse to do their moral duty, we’ve got to force them.” p. 498  Prior to being a member of powerful committee, Amalgamated Labor of America, Eugene Lawson headed a bank that collapsed, ruining the lives of hundreds of innocent customers. (Not a high recommendation to her abilities - intimating that is how governmental positions are filled.)

The "good folks" in the book were busy working and having joyful, serial sex.  They delighted in solving their problems, waging war against the nasty socialists who wanted to deprive them of the joys that their well-earned wealth afforded them.  They always rose above all their troubles.

"What I feel for you is contempt.  But it's nothing, compared to the contempt I feel for myself.  I don't love you.  I've never loved anyone.  I wanted you from the first moment I saw you..." Rearden p. 238

'When he stopped she burst out laughing... "I am much more depraved than you are:  you hold it as your guilt, and I - as my pride.  I'm more proud of it than of anything I've done, more proud than of building the Line.  If I'm asked to name my proudest attainment, I will say:  I have slept with Hank Rearden.  I had earned it."  Miss Taggart pgs. 239-240.

Later Dagny dropped Hank Rearden, her second love, when she met her third and REAL love, John Galt.  Of course, Rearden knew it was coming, and had no feelings of jealousy or anger.  That's sarcasm, in case you didn't recognize it.

In spite of the fact that all the characters were as flat as the paper on which they were written, I read the entire 1069 pages of 5 point type.  My friend tells me that I like to argue.  Maybe that is why I put myself through the torture of finishing a book that seemed so poorly written to me, although it is a classic.  I argued with the characters that they weren't considering all the points of view, and that if all the hard workers were suddenly taken out of the world, that the world would not collapse, but others would rise to the occasion.  I wanted to ask the author, "In what world does every hard-working person cooperate perfectly with every other hard-working person to create John Galt's Utopia?"

I wondered if Ayn Rand could have written Atlas Shrugged any differently given the time it was published, and the fact that she was Russian.  In 1957 my dad created a bomb shelter in his basement darkroom, and at school we all had to practice lining up in the hallways crouched on the floor with our arms covering our heads in case of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union.  Could Ayn have written anything remotely socialistic in that climate?

So, this poorly written book caused  me grief, and I finished it, and thought about it for months.  I wrote about it, and talked about it with my friends. Don't be fooled into thinking, "Oh I saw the movie, so I know what the book is about."  This is one book for which the movie didn't begin to capture even its plot.  I went to the first movie, and it laid the book to rest for me.  It took any redeeming quality the book might have had, and squelched it.

This book, written in the 1950s, fit the late 1950s.  Taken out of context, it has almost been worshipped as the Bible of the Conservative Party.  From  the the enormous resurgence in the popularity of this classic novel it seems to me that party supporters have forgotten some of its other values decried in this book.  

As for its usefulness in the  Common Core classroom, I think it is way too long to be absorbed and analyzed by the general student.  An advanced student might be encouraged to read it by their English teacher, but would the English teacher understand the history of the times enough to bring that dynamic into the analysis?  A history teacher would never have time to devote this much reading to the time period unless the school had a semester class specializing on the Cold War time period.  So my advice is for teachers to read it during the summer when you really need something to do.  Stay away from the movies.  Then let's chat!  :)

So what do you  think about Ayn Rand and her book?  What do you think about her other books? Did you cheer during the first movie, or want to throw up?  Did you see the second?