Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, Chapter 3

White Blackmail.

Francisco

Dagny and Hank discuss Francisco.  Neither can figure him out.  They think that they should hate and despise him, yet they like him and are drawn to him.

Rearden: “Yes… yes, like the Wyatt fire.  But, you know, I don’t think I care too much about that.  What’s one more disaster? Everything’s going anyway, it’s only a question of a little faster or a little slower, all that’s left for us ahead is to keep the ship afloat as long as we can and then go down with it.”

Dagny: “Is that his excuse for himself?  Is that what he’s made you feel?”

Rearden: “No.  Oh, no!  That’s the feeling I lose when I speak to him. The strange thing is what he does make me feel.”

Dagny: “What?”

Rearden: “Hope.”

Caught

Lillian catches Hank cheating.

During their conversation, Lillian says that she’s known he wanted a divorce since the first month of their marriage.  He responds by asking why she stayed.  She says, “It’s a question you have lost the  right to ask.” He agrees, and thinks that there is “only one conceivable reason, her love for him, could justify her answer.”

Hank still believes that it her love for him that keeps Lillian around.  Hank is still naive and believes Lillian loves and cares for him, and wants the best for him.  I think that Lillian sticks around for the status and power.  She gets to be the wife of the great Hank Rearden, and all their friends know how he comes home late and doesn’t treat her like a queen.  She gets to hold this over his head.  She holds power over Hank.

She confirms this when she says, “Do you suppose I will allow your romance with a floozie to deprive me of my home, my name, my social position?”

Cafeteria Man and the Destroyer

Eddie meets with the unnamed man in the cafeteria. He discusses Danagger and how Dagny fears the destroyer will soon reach him.  The stranger seems interested.  We still don’t know who this man is or what role he plays in the novel.

In the next section of the chapter, Danagger announces that he will retire, after a mysterious visit from an unknown man.  Are the two events connected?  Why else would Rand put them side by side in the chapter?  Is the mysterious man in the cafeteria some how connected to the destroyer?  Could he be the destroyer?

Dagny and Danagger are saying their goodbyes.  Dagny asks him if he will return.  He says, “No.  You’re going to join me.” What could he mean by this?  Will the destroyer come after Dagny?  If these men are leaving happily, willingly, is he really a destroyer?  What is his goal?

Hank’s Response

“Could I now reclaim a single hour spent listening to my brother Philip and give it to Ken Danagger? Who made it our duty to accept, as the only reward for our work, the gray torture of pretending love for those who rouased us to nothing but contempt?  We who were able to melt rock and metal for our purpose, why had we never sought that which we wanted from men?”

Hank regrets not befriending Danagger, a man he respected and loved. And, regrets giving what could have been Danagger’s time to his worthless brother, Philip.

“Closing his eyes, he permitted himself to experience for a moment the immense relief he would feel if he, too, were to walk off, abandoning everything.  Under the shock of his loss, he felt a thin thread of envy.  Why didn’t they come for me, too, whoever they are, and give me that irresistible reason which would make me go?”

Hank is slightly jealous.  He understands walking away.

To Shrug

Francisco comes to see Hank.

“Mr. Rearden,” said Francisco, “if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling, but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders — what would you tell him to do?”

“I… I don’t know.  What…. could he d? What would you tell him?”

“To shrug.”

When the weight of the world is upon your shoulders, you shrug it off and move on.

Things to think about/discussion questions/journal entries

1. Both Dagny and Rearden think they should hate Francisco, but don’t.  Why do you think this is?  How do they feel about him?  How do you feel about Francisco?

2. Discuss what you think about the destroyer. Who is he?  What characters has he taken? Why do you think they leave willingly? What is he doing?  What characters could he be connected to?  Why did he have a cigarette with the golden dollar sign?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, Chapter 2

The Aristocracy of Pull.

Numbered Days

“Your days are numbered, it had seemed to say — as if it were marking a progression toward something it knew, but she didn’t.”

The numbered days draws from chapter one, where Eddie tries to remember the phrase, and helps build suspense, pushing the characters and readers toward the end.

Cigarette

The cigarette Dagny got from Akston “was not made anywhere on earth.”  Where could the cigarette have come from and what could the gold dollar sign on it mean?

The Money Speech

An online version of the speech can be read here. This is one of the greatest speeches in the book.

“An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has procured.”

“Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor.”

“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek…”

“But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it.  Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not be rich for long.”

“… Watch money.  Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue.  When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by  compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see that money is flowing to those richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed…”

From these quotes we learn that a good and honest man:

-doesn’t live beyond his means

-give value to money

-prefers the gold over paper money

-doesn’t expect money to buy him happiness, intelligence, or morals.

Discussion question/Journal entry

1. What else do we learn from the money speech?  What other qualities does an honest man have?  What qualities does a looter have?  What does Francisco say of money?

2.  Read the last quote above. If money is the barometer of a society’s virtue, what does America’s current economic crises (and the governments alleged solutions) say about us?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 10

Wyatt’s Torch.

He had to live

“He had to live, didn’t he?  He was no worse than anybody, only smarter.  Some get caught at it and some don’t — that’s the only difference…. That’s the only way anybody ever gets rich in this world”–  he glanced at the [Rearden’s] black car — “as you ought to know.” …. “What I can’t stand,” said Mayor Bascom, “is people who talk about principles.  No principle ever filled anybody’s milk bottle.  The only thing that counts in life is solid, material assets….”

Mayor Bascom (and many other people in the novel and today’s world) believe that principles do not matter, that all money is ill-gotten, that all rich men are dirty… This idea makes the everyday person more comfortable in their sins.  If the rich man down the street got their through evil means, then it’s okay to be evil.  Maybe one day you will be a rich man.

Rearden

“Then no rightful cause was left, and the pain of anger was turning into the shameful pain of submission.  He had no right to condemn anyone — he thought — to denounce anything, to fight and die joyously, claiming the sanction of virtue.  The broken promises, the unconfessed desires, the betrayal, the deceit, the lies, the fraud — he was guilty of them all.  What form of corruption could he scorn? Degrees do not matter, he thought; one does not bargain about inches of evil…”

Since Hank has been seeing Dagny, he has felt ashamed.  Not only that, but he feels he can no longer look at Lillian’s faults.  Who is he to cast the first stone?  He can no longer claim virtue and it eats him alive.

The Banker

“The rewards I got were not of a kind that people of your class, Miss Taggart, would appreciate. The who used to sit in front of my desk, at the bank, did not sit as you do, Miss Taggart.  They were humble, uncertain, worn with care, afraid to speak.  My rewards were the tears of gratitude in their eyes, the trembling voices, the blessings, the woman who kissed my hand when I granted her a loan she had begged for in vain everywhere else.” Eugene Lawson

Earlier, Mayor Bascom said “See that woman, for instance? They used to be solid, respectable folks.  Her husband owned the dry-goods store.  He worked all his life to provide for her in her old age, and he did, too, by the time he died — only the money was in the Community National Bank.”

Lawson, ‘the banker with a heart,’ lent too much money and the bunk went bust.  When it did, the people lost everything they had.  Lawson brags about the people he helped.  What about the people he ruined?

Birthright and Entitlement

In the chapter 5 post, I discuss the d’Anconcia way — that you are not born one, but expected to become one.  This contrasts to Lee Hunsacker’s belief: “We were going to do just as well as they did. Better.  We were just as important.  Who the hell was Jed Starnes anyway? Nothing but a backwoods garage mechanic — did you know that that’s how he started? — without any background at all.  My family once belonged to the New York Four Hundred.  My grandfather was a member of the national legislature…. Nobody wanted the place, nobody would bid on it.  But there it was, this great factory, with all the equipment, all the machinery, all the things that had made millions for Jed Starnes.  That was the kind of setup I wanted, the kind of opportunity I was entitled to.”

Hunsacker believes that his family name entitles him to these things. And, that Starnes — a lowly mechanic — didn’t deserve his factory.  Hunsacker believes in the birthright, he shouldn’t have to work for anything, he shouldn’t have to earn it.  He’s entitled to it.  Somebody else, like Starnes, has the tenacity to build his life, while Hunsacker sits on his behind and claims entitlement.

Sad Irony

Hunsacker later says, “We had started right in manufacturing the particular type of motor that had been his [Starnes] biggest moneymaker for years.  And then some newcomer nobody ever heard of opened a two-bit factory down in Colorado, by the name of Nielson Motors, nad put out a new motor of the same class as the Starnes model, at half the price!  We couldn’t help that, could we?  It was all right for Jed Starnes, no destructive competitor happened to come up in his time, but what were we to do?  How could we fight this Nielson, when nobody had given us a motor to compete with his.”

The motor that could set the world on fire was sitting in the factory’s research department.  But nothing in life is to be given, it’s to be earned through blood, sweat, and tears.

Marxism

Ivy Starnes summed up their idea for the factory: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need… Rewards were based on need, and the penalties of ability.”

More than hoped

On her quest for the maker of the motor, Dagny runs into Hugh Akston, the old philosopher and professor of Francisco, Danneskjold, and another unnamed student.  Dagny asks him who the third student was, and he says, “His name would mean nothing to you.  He is not famous.”

She then asks him if  he is “proud of the way these three have turned out.”  He replies, “More proud than I had ever hoped to be.”

Wyatt’s Torch

“Ellis Wyatt, stripped of the right of self-defense, left without voice, without weapons, and worse: made to be the tool of his own destruction, the supporter of his destroyers, the provider of their food and of their weapons — Ellis Wyatt being choked, with his own bright energy turned against him as the noose — Ellis Wyatt, who had wanted to tap an unlimited source of shale oil and who spoke of a second Renaissance…”

Dagny thinks Ellis is about to disappear and rushes to Colorado.

“In a break between mountains, lighting the sky, throwing a glow that swayed on the roofs and walls of the station, the hill of Wyatt Oil was a solid sheet of flame… Later, when they told her Ellis Wyatt had vanished, leaving nothing behind but a board he had nailed to a post of the foot of a hill, when she looked at his handwriting on the board, she felt as if she had almost known that these would be the words: ‘I am leaving it as I found it.  Take it.  It’s yours.'”

Dagny is horrified to see the flames… Ellis is the first man to make a statement before vanishing.  All the other people vanished silently.

Discussion Questions/Journal Entries

1.  Think about Mayor Bascom’s words.  What do they mean?  Can you think of any rich people who earned their money an honest way?  Can you think of any rich people who got their money by wrong-doing?

2.  Reread Eugene Lawson’s words and think about his philosophy.  He lends money to those who won’t be able to pay it back because they deserve it.  Is this philosophy seen today?  Could it be part of why the economy crashed?

3.  Akston states that he more proud of his three students than he’d ever hoped to be.  Look at what the two students believe and do and at what Akston believes.   How could he be proud of them?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 9

The Sacred and The Profane.

Cherryl Brooks and Jim Taggart

Cherryl Brooks is introduced in this chapter.  She is a young woman working at a dime store.  Jim befriends her for his own perverted pleasure.

There are numerous things in their conversations that contrast these two characters.  Jim has had the benefit of a rich family and a great education, while Cherryl is from a poor family and little education.

On his way into the dime store, he thinks that soon it will go out of business.  This thought gave him pleasure.

Cherryl believes and says to Jim that “nobody’s really good enough for you.”  This leads her to all types of trouble.  She believes that Jim is a great and powerful man and deserves the best of the best.

She later tells him about her family and the poor: “We were stinking poor and not giving a damn about it.  That’s what I couldn’t take — that they didn’t give a damn. Not enough to life a finger…”  She believes in hard work and personal responsibility.

Jim defines a human: “A weak, ugly, sinful creature, born that way, rotten in his bones — so humility is the one virtue he ought to practice.  He ought to spend his life on his knees, begging to be forgiven for his dirty existence.  When a man thinks he’s good — that’s when he’s rotten.  Pride is the worst of all sins, no matter what he’s done.”

Cherryl asks, “But what if man knows that what he’s done is good?”

Jim: “Then he ought to apologize for it.”

Cherryl: “To Whom?”

Jim:  “To Those who haven’t done it.”

Cherryl: “I…. I don’t understand.”

Jim later goes on to say that “unhappiness is the hallmark of virtue.”

Owen Kellogg

Mr. Mowen, of the Amalgamated Switch and Signal Company, stood outside, watching and talking to a transient worker. The worker turns out to be Owen Kellogg.  Kellogg was a competent man who worked for Taggart.  Dagny was planning on promoting him.  But, he quit.  He refused all of her offers and wouldn’t offer a reason for his leaving.  Now, we find him working at a transient laborer.  Why?

When Mr. Mowen asks him what he thinks is going to happen to the world, he replies, “You wouldn’t care to know.”

The Motor

While Dagny and Rearden are on vacation together, they go to the Twentieth Century Motor Company.  While there, Dagny finds a motor that “would draw static electricity from the atmosphere, convert it and create its own power as it went along.”  The motor is in bad shape and the manuscript is half gone.  The motor could have “set the whole country in motion and on fire.”

Odd Metaphor

“She had stood there silently, watching, without interest or purpose, like a chemical compound on a photographic plate, absorbing visual shapes because they were there to be absorbed, but unable ever to form any estimate of the objects of her vision.”  Describing the pregnant woman in the town by the Twentieth Century Motor Company factory.

Discussion Question/Journal Entry

Owen Kellogg is one of the men of ability that disappeared.  Why has he reappeared?  What does it mean?  Why is he working as transient labor?  What philosophies and beliefs are seen from he discussion with Mr. Mowen?  Where are all of the other men of talent?  What is happening to them?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 6

Chapter 6. The Non-commercial

Characters

Hank Rearden

Lillian Rearden

Wesley Mouch

Dr. Pritchett: head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University

Balph Eubank: considered the ‘literary leader of the age’

Mort Liddy: composer, Lillian’s friend, part of the elite crowd

Bertram Scudder:editorial writer for The Future

Betty Pope

Claude Slagenhop: President of Friends of Global Progress

Dagny

Francisco

Hugh Akston: Francisco’s professor

Ragnar Danneskjold: Pirate

Philosophy of the Great Minds

Dr. Pritchett

This chapter is the first time we see and hear what the great thinkers and respected men in society think and believe.  These men include Dr. Pritchett, Balph Eubank, and Bertram Scudder.

“The purpose of philosophy is not to help men find the meaning of life, but to prove to them that there isn’t any… ” Dr. Pritchett believes that there is no significance in life, that it does not matter if he lives and dies.  To Dr. Pritchett, man is just a sum of chemicals.

“Reason, my dear, is the most naive of all superstitions… You suffer from the popular delusion of believing that things can be understood.  You do not grasp the fact that the universe is a solid contradiction… The duty of thinkers is not to explain, but to demonstrate that nothing can be explained… The purpose of philosophy is not to seek knowledge, but to prove that knowledge is impossible to man.”  Dr. Pritchett

Balph Eubank

When asked what the real essence of life is, Eubank responds, “Suffering… Defeat and suffering.”

When asked what there is to live for, he replies, “Brother-love.”

Scudder and Slagenhop

“Property rights are a superstition.  One holds property only by the courtesy of those who do not seize it.  The people can seize it at any moment. If they can, why shouldn’t they.” Scudder

“They should. They need it.  Need is the only consideration.” Slagenhop

What we Learn

Looking at these comments made by what are considered the greatest minds in society, what do we learn?  We learn that man cannot be held accountable for what he does, that he is insignificant and does not matter.  We learn that reason and knowledge do not exist, or at least not to man.  We learn that everything is a contradiction and logic is useless.  We learn that life is nothing but suffering and defeat, and we live for nothing but brother-love.  We learn that property rights do not exist, that the land and property should be seized by the people or the government.  And, we learn that nothing matters but need.  “Need is the only consideration.”  When hiring someone, their ability and competence do matter.  The job does not go to the most capable man, but to the one with the most need. We see what these men think and know that they influence government policies and public opinion.

The Realization of an Ideal

During the party, Jim confronts Francisco about the San Sebastian Mines.  Francisco replies, “I thought you would consider the San Sebastian Mines as the practical realization of an ideal of the highest moral order… I thought you would be gratified to see me acting in accordance with your principles… I thought you would recognize it as an honest effort to practice what the whole world is preaching.  Doesn’t everyone believe that it is evil to be selfish?  I was totally selfless in regard to the San Sebastian project.  Isn’t it evil to pursue a personal interest? I had no personal interest in it whatever. Isn’t it evil to work for profit? I did not work for profit — I took a loss.  Doesn’t everyone agree that the purpose and justification of an industrial enterprise are not production, but the livelihood of its employees? The San Sebastian Mines were the most eminently successful venture in industrial history: they produced no copper, but they provided a livelihood for thousands of men who could not have achieved in a lifetime, the equivalent of what they got for one day’s work, which they could not do.  Isn’t it generally agreed that an owner is a parasite and an exploiter, that it is the employees who do all the work and make the product possible? I did not exploit anyone.  I did not burden the San Sebastian Mines with my useless presence; I left them in the hands of the men who count.  I did not pass judgement on the value of that property.  I turned it over to a mining specialist.  He was not a very good specialist, but he needed the job very badly.  Isn’t it generally conceded that when you hire a man for a job, it is his need that counts, not his ability?  Doesn’t everyone belie that in order to get the goods, all you have to do is need them?  I have carried out every moral precept of our age.  I expected gratitude and a citation of honor.  I do not understand why I am being damned.”

Earlier in the chapter, Philip damned Rearden, saying, “He didn’t dig that ore single-handed, did he?… He had to employ hundreds of workers.  They did it.  Why does he think he’s so good?”  When a business is successful, the success isn’t the businessman’s, but the workers he employs.  When Francisco’s venture fails, he is to blame.  Francisco followed the beliefs of the day — he gave the jobs to those who needed most, without considering ability, he didn’t seek a profit or any self-interest.  He didn’t worry about the business.  The San Sebastian Mines proved that the theories and beliefs will not sustain a people, they will not be profitable or successful.

Forced to be Free

When asked about the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, Pritchett responds, “I am in favor of it, because I am in favor of a free economy.  A free economy cannot exist without competition.  Therefore, men must be forced to compete.  Therefore, we must control me in order to force them to be free.”

This morning, I discovered that Rousseau first said “forced to be free.”  I’ve never taken a philosophy class and found most of the articles discussing Rousseau to be way over my head.  This one wasn’t.  Quoted from it: “By subjection to the general will, the individual becomes free. In those famously sinister words, “whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than he will be forced to be free.” The general will should not be opposed – those who do so are in effect mistaken about their own best interests.”

I’m still not how to connect Rousseau with what Pritchett said.  Check out the article and see what you think (while reading it, please remember that America is a republic, not a democracy).

Betty Pope: The Average Person?

While she may be a wealthy socialite, Betty Pope represents the average person.  She says, “I don’t see why there’s so much fuss about that Equalization of Opportunity Bill. I don’t see why businessmen object to it.  It’s to their own advantage. If everybody else is poor, they won’t have any market for their goods.  But if they stop being selfish and share the goods they’ve hoarded — they’ll have a chance to work hard and produce some more.”   Betty is thinking about the Bill, but doesn’t grasp the consequences of it.  She also believes, “we don’t know anybody who owns more than one business.”  Just a page later, Betty realizes that Hank owns more than one business.

Betty Pope understands what the Bill does, but doesn’t clearly understand how it will impact the businessmen or anyone else.  She cannot connect the philosophy of the Bill to real life.  She hears what the great minds say and believes what they believe.

I Want to Understand You: Hank and Francisco Meet

This is one of the most important (and possible confusing) part of the chapter.  When Francisco introduces himself, he does so with “a tone of authentic respect.”  Francisco tells Rearden that he wants “to understand you.”  Francisco wants Rearden to admit to everyone that he works for himself, he wants Rearden to stop carrying and supporting all of the people who mooch off of him.

Rearden: There is only one form of human depravity — the man without a purpose.

Francisco: That is true.

Rearden: I can forgive all others, they’re not vicious, they’re merely helpless.  But you — you’re the kind who can’t be forgiven.

Francisco: It is against the sin of forgiveness that I wanted to warn you.

When Francisco parts, Rearden asks, “What did you want to learn to understand about me?”  Francisco tells him that he has learned it.

A Chain and a Bracelet

When Dagny arrives at the party, she is wearing a “diamond band on the wrist of her naked arm” that “gave her the most feminine of all aspects: the look of being chained.”

Dagny hears Lillian say, “Why, no, it’s not from a hardware store, it’s a very special gift from my husband.  Oh, yes, of course it’s hideous.  But don’t you see? It’s supposed to be priceless.  Of course, I’d exchange it for a common diamond bracelet any time, but somehow nobody will offer me one for it, even though it is so very, very valuable.  Why?  My dear, it’s the first thing ever made of Rearden Metal.”  Dagny removes her diamond bracelet and offers it in exchange.  Lillian trades the Rearden Metal bracelet for Dagny’s diamond band.

Dagny “liked the feel of the weight against her skin.  Inexplicably, she felt a touch of feminine vanity, the kind she had never experienced before: the desire to be seen wearing this particular ornament.”

To Lillian, the Rearden Metal Bracelet is a sign of greed and materialism and it chains her to her husband.  To Dagny, the diamond bracelet is a sign of materialism and becomes a chain (to what? society?).  Dagny loves the bracelet of Rearden Metal.  To her, it symbolizes everything Hank wanted it to — human ingenuity, production, ability, progress, prosperity, innovation, and hard work.

Legend of John Galt

This is the first time we hear a story about who John Galt is.  A woman tells the story that John Galt discovered the lost city of Atlantis.  Dagny does not believe it.  Francisco tells her that “The joke is on that fool woman.  She doesn’t know that she was telling you the truth.”

Ragnar

Ragnar is a pirate who seizes relief ships sent to other countries, such as the People’s State of France. The combined navies of the world cannot stop him.

Philosophy of the Great Minds

The following three quotes are from unnamed people at the party, the first two are repeating what they read/heard.  This shows us the influence the great minds have on society and the individual.

“I read an article.  It said that the times of trouble are good for us.  It is good that people are growing poorer.  To accept privations is a moral virtue.”

“We must not worry.  I heard a speech that said it is useless to worry or blame anyone.  Nobody can help what he does, that is the way things made him.  There is nothing we can do about anything.  We must learn to bear it.”

“What’s the use anyway? What is man’s fate?  Hasn’t it always been to hope, but never to achieve?  The wise man is the one who does not attempt to hope.”

Possible Discussion Questions/Journal Entries/Things to Think About

Wow.  This is a long chapter that raises a lot of questions.  Most of these questions cannot be answered — you can only speculate and guess.

1. What is the philosophy of some of the great minds?  How does it influence society and what are the consequences of that type of thinking?

2.  Do you think that Dr. Pritchett and Rousseau are connected? Why (not)?

3. What do you think about what Francisco tells Jim about the mines?

4. Do you believe that Betty Pope represents the average person?  What is her role in this chapter?

5. Reread the conversation between Francisco and Rearden.  What do you think Francisco wanted to understand?

6. If you discussed the bracelet in previous chapters, reevaluate the discussion and add to it.  How has the bracelet changed and what does it mean to each person?

7. What do you think of the John Galt story?  What about what Francisco tells Dagny about it?

8. What about Ragnar?  Why does he rob the relief ships?  What does he do with the goods he seizes?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 5

Chapter 5. The Climax and the d’Anconias

Characters

Eddie

Dagny: called Slug by Francisco

Francisco: called Frisco by Dagny

Jim

Jim and Dagny’s unnamed mother

Francisco’s father is referred to

The Nature of Francisco

Much of this chapter discusses the childhood of Dagny, Francisco, and Jim.

We find out that as a child and young man, Francisco always won.  He was successful, capable, and competent.  There was nothing he couldn’t do.

Francisco told Eddie that “The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of use has ever been permitted to think he is born a d’Anconia.   We are expected to become one.”  Francisco is expected to learn, to work, to earn the title of d’Anconia before he can work in the family company.  This contrasts with Jim, who is given the title of President because it is tradition for the first-born son to take over.  Jim did not have to prove himself, did have to earn it.

Jim v. Francisco

We see the difference between Jim and Francisco when Dagny thinks, “But Francisco seemed to laugh at things because he saw something much greater.  Jim laughed as if he wanted to let nothing remain great.”  Francisco has the ambition to create great things, while Jim only wants to destroy them.

Dagny

“They dislike me, not because I do things badly, but because I do them well.  They dislike me because I’ve always had to best grades in class.”

In almost every class I’ve had, when a test or paper is passed back and the professor announces the highest grades, congratulating the students, there is at least one other person in the class that whispers something like, ‘I hate her,’ or ‘b*tch.’  The rest of the students give her ugly looks.  Why?  Why does it matter what the highest grade is?  Why does it matter who made it and why does it make them hated?  Those who cannot get the highest grade (or are not willing to work for it), degrade those who are.

Aristotle’s Theory of the Immovable Movers

Chapter four is titled ‘The Immovable Movers.’  I didn’t realize, until Francisco said it in this chapter, that it is a theory of Aristotle.  It is a philosophical concept described “as the first cause that sets the universe in motion” (Wikipedia).  Check out the Wikipedia article on the immovable movers, or check out this more complex article.

Riding on the brain

While discussing the San Sebastian Mines and the stockholders, Francisco tells Dagny, “I don’t give a damn about your brother James and his friends.  Their theory was not new, it has worked for centuries.  But it wasn’t foolproof.  There is just one point that they overlooked. They thought it was safe to ride my brain, because they assumed that the goal of my journey was wealth…”

Jim and his friends staked large about of money on those mines, simply because it was Francisco who owned them.  They didn’t question the investment, they didn’t ask any questions about the mines.  They tried to use Francisco’s knowledge and success for their own monetary gain.

Quotes

“To him [Francisco], the Taggart children were not Jim and Dagny, but Dagny and Eddie.”

“Francisco, it was said, was to be the climax of the of the d’Anconias.”

“…Now the planners are asking their people not to blame the government, but to blame the depravity of the rich, because I turned out to be an irresponsible playboy, instead of the greedy capitalist I was expected to be.  How were they to know, they’re asking, that I would let them down? Well, true enough.  How were they to know?” Francisco talking to Dagny.

Possible Discussion Questions/Journal Entries/Things to Think About

1. While this chapter answers the questions about Francisco’s past and his relationship with Dagny, it asks many more questions.  What is it that Dagny is not ready for?  Why is he doing what he’s doing?  What is the truth about the Vail scandal?  If the Vail scandal is a lie, are the articles about his parties lies too?  In this chapter, we see the many layers of Francisco.  What questions were answered?  What questions still need answering? What do think of Francisco?  What are his motives?

2. Now that you know about Aristotle’s theory of the immovable movers, go back to chapter 4.  Why do you think Rand named the chapter after the theory? How does the chapter and the theory work together?

3. Dagny distinguishes the men she met at the ball and Francisco.  What is the difference?  Why doesn’t she those men?  How would you describe them?  Are there are other characters that, like Francisco, don’t fit in with the men she met at the ball?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 4

Chapter 4.  The Immovable Movers.

Characters

McNamara: contractor

Eddie

Dagny

Richard Halley: Dagny enjoys listening his Concerto 4

Francisco: appears in a newspaper article Dagny reads

Jim

Betty Pope: Jim’s girlfriend

Dan Conway: president of the Phoenix-Durango

Ellis Wyatt: shows up at Dagny’s office

Hank

Where are all the people going?

McNamara quits.  As the best contractor in the country, Dagny was depending on him to finish the Rio Norte Line.  He walks out on his contract, on all his contracts, and nobody knows or understands why.  Many questions arise.  Why did he quit? Where did he go?  Why are all of the capable people disappearing?

Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule

The Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule was voted on and passed by the National Alliance of Railroads.  The rule would put Dan Conway’s Phoenix-Durango Line out of business within nine months.  “They did not like the Anti-dog-eat-dog rule; they had hoped it would never be brought up.  But when it was brought up, they voted for it… There were only five dissenters who voted against it.  Yet when the chairman announced that the measure had passed, there was no cheering, no sounds of approval, no movement, nothing but a heavy silence.  The last minute, every one of them had hoped that someone would save them from it.”  If this is the case, why did they vote for it?  It harkens back to what Boyle said at the beginning of chapter 3, “When people are unanimous, how does one man dare to dissent?”  The passing of this rule marks the first official rejection of capitalism in the book.

Dagny goes to see Dan Conway and convince him to fight it.  But, he won’t. He agreed to do what the majority voted and will stand by his word.  Rand is showing the mistake of falling for the majority rule.  It’s “nothing more than a mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people my take away the rights of the other forty-nine” (Thomas Jefferson).

Hank and Dagny

Dagny meets with Hank to see if he could her the rail in just nine months. They discuss the Rule and what is going on in the  world, along with their jobs and lives.  It is obvious that there is a rare connection between the two.  The chapter ends with Rearden telling Dagny that “Whatever we are, it’s we who move the world and it’s we who’ll pull it through.”

Quotes

“While it was true that such areas offered little economic incentive at present, a public-spirited railroad, it was said, would undertake to provide transportation for the struggling inhabitants, since the prime purpose of a railroad was public service, not profit.”  National Alliance of Railroads meeting to pass the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule.

“It is proper, it is noble, that he should have endured suffering, injustice, abuse at the hands of his brothers– in order to enrich their lives and teach them to appreciate the beauty of great music.” Said of Richard Halley.  He retired the next day.

“I do not make terms with incompetence.”  Ellis Wyatt to Dagny, demanding the Rio Norte Line to be running smoothly by the time the Phoenix-Durango Line is shut down.

Possible Discussion Question/Journal Entry/Things to Think About

1. What does the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule do? What does the National Alliance of Railroads hope to accomplish?  What type of economy does it create? What are the implications of this Rule? Do you think Rearden is right when he says that it is just temporary or do you think similar rules will be passed throughout society?

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 3

Chapter 3.  The Top and The Bottom.

Characters

Dagny Taggart

Jim Taggart

Orren Boyle

Paul Larkin

Wesley Mouch: Rearden’s Washington man

Francisco d’Anconia

Nathaniel Taggart: founder of Taggart Transcontinental, present in the form of a statue

McNamara: contractor who will lay the Rio del Norte rail

Man in the cafeteria that Eddie eats and talks with

Newstand man, cigarette collector

Who is John Galt?

When asked “who is John Galt,” Dagney replies, “He’s just a meaningless phrase!… I don’t like  that empty piece of slang.  What does it mean? Where did it come from?… Why do people keep saying it? Nobody seems able to explain just what it stands for, yet they all use it as if they knew the meaning…”

The Meeting

The meeting in the beginning of the chapter shows the values and beliefs of some of the characters.  The meeting involves Jim, Orren Boyle, Wesley Mouch, and Paul Larkin.  Jim claims that ‘disunity’ is the cause of the society’s problems. Boyle agrees, “No business enterprise can succeed without sharing the burden of the problems of other enterprises.”   Boyle goes on to say, “The only justification of private property is public service.”   The men agree that the steel industry as a whole must survive.  Boyle’s failing business must not fail.  The men will use their influence to strip Rearden of his ore mines, and giving them to Boyle.  Rearden Steel, a productive company, must sacrifice for Boyle’s almost bankrupt company.  This is the basic premise of socialism, that the strong must serve the weak.

During this meeting, we find that both Rearden’s friend, Larkin, and his man in Washington, Mouch, are disloyal to him.  Both agree and participate to the plot.

San Sebastian Line

In this section of the chapter, we see that the San Sebastian line wasn’t built for the business, but for the sake of the people.  Dagney cannot understand why so much time and money was wasted on something that will not pay for itself, much less make a profit.  She remembers what those who supported the line said, such as “It is our duty to help an underprivileged nation to develop.  A country, it seems to me, is its neighbors keeper…. Since a man must think of the good of his brothers before he thinks of his own, it seems to me that a nation must think of its neighbors before it thinks of itself.”  These are more phrases that point to socialism.  Dagney fumes over them.  As a capitalist, she cannot understand them.

Eddie in the Cafeteria

The chapter ends with Eddie meeting a friend in the cafeteria.  He doesn’t know the friend’s name or what his job it.  Eddie trusts him, and “could talk as he did not talk anywhere else, admitting things he would not confess to anyone, thinking aloud, looking into the attentive eyes of the worker across the table.”  Eddie sits down to complain about the Rio Norte Line.  The man across the table from him seems interested in Dagny, asking if she ever goes out and what she does.

Possible Journal Entries/Discussion Questions/Things to Think About

1.  By this chapter, it is clear that there is a battle between socialism and capitalism.  What is the difference between socialism and capitalism? What statements represent socialism?  What statements represent capitalism?  Which characters are socialists, which are capitalists?  How can you tell?

2. We learn very little about Francisco.  The conversation between Dagny and Jim leave us with many questions about his past, his true nature, his motives, and his past relationship with Dagny.  What are some of the questions you have about Francisco?  What do you think of him?

3.  What do you think about the man in the cafeteria that Eddie talks to?  Do you think he is a good and bad guy?  What evidence supports this?  As his conversations continue, add and adjust your thoughts.

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 2

Chapter 2.  The Chain.

Characters

Hank Rearden: of Rearden Steel, also called Henry

Lillian Rearden: Hank’s wife

Philip: Hank’s brother

Paul Larkin:  Hank’s friend, failing businessman

Hank’s elderly mother also appears in the chapter, but she is never named.

Mrs. Beacham, a friend of Lillian’s is mentioned.  She came to dinner to meet Hank, but he was late and missed her.

Crossover: Memories

In chapter 1, we learned that Eddie loves memories.  He enjoyed the brightness and sunshine associated with his childhood memories.  “It seemed to him as if a few rays from it reached into his present: not rays, more like pinpoint spotlights that gave an occasional moment’s glitter to his job, to his lonely apartment, to the quiet,progression of his existence.”  Eddie depends on his memories to light up the present and get him through the day.

In chapter 2, we learned that Hank Rearden”despised memories as a pointless indulgence.” Rearden is an extremely hard worker.  He doesn’t make it home for dinner.  He doesn’t have time for hobbies, feelings, or wasted time. He sees memories as pointless.  The past cannot be changed or altered.  It can only be revered, honored, regretted… Rearden doesn’t have the time for such pointless indulgences.

Who is John Galt?

Rearden and his friend, Paul Larkin, are talking.  Rearden asks “What’s wrong with this world?”  Larkin replies with “Why ask useless questions?  How deep is the sea?  How high is the sky?  Who is John Galt?”  Rearden sits straight up, “No,” he said, “No.  There’s no reason to feel that way.”

Rearden will not accept the feelings of futility that the rest of society does.  He is a man of action and will not accept that nothing can be done, that nothing will change.

Symbolism: Bracelet of Rearden Metal

The bracelet is made of the first batch of Rearden Metal.  “The links were heavy, crudely made, the shining metal had an odd tinge, it was a greenish-blue.” It represents ten years of hard work and the product of his creative and industrious mind.  Rearden takes pride in his work.  He loves his job.  He does it because he loves it and enjoys it.  He wants someone to understand and appreciate all the of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into Rearden Metal. Rearden wants to share his love and fruit of his hard work with someone.

On the walk home, he mentions giving the bracelet to his wife.  But, he realizes that he is thinking “of an abstraction called “his wife” — not of the woman to whom he was married.” Rearden wanted to give the bracelet to the abstracted wife, knowing that the abstraction would feel about the way he does, that the abstracted wife would love it, would understand and appreciate it and all of the hard work that went into the bracelet.  However, he realizes the difference between the abstracted wife and his own.  He realizes that his actual wife, Lillian, may not appreciate it, may not understand, and may not care.

When he gives Lillian the bracelet and tells her what it is, she, along with the rest of his family, is demeaning and mocks him.  Lillian says, “Henry, it’s perfectly wonderful! What originality!  I shall be the sensation of New York, wearing jewelry made of the same stuff as bridge girders…” Both his brother and mother call him conceited and selfish.  All three are looking at the bracelet as it actually is, not what it represents and how much it means to Rearden.

At the end of the chapter, Rearden agrees to give money (cash so no one will know it came from him) to one of his brother’s charities.   Larkin believed that Hank shouldn’t have given it to him, to which Lillian responded, “But you’re wrong, Paul, you’re so wrong! What would happen to Henry’s vanity if he didn’t have us to throw alms to?  What would become of his strength if he didn’t have weaker people to dominate?  What would he do with himself if he didn’t keep us around as dependents?…”  She picked up the bracelet, and held it in the light, “A chain,” she said, “Appropriate isn’t it?  It’s the chain by which he holds us all in bondage.”  Now, Lillian shows the belief that the bracelet is nothing more than a chain to tie her to Rearden.  She acts as if they are all held there against their will, that they are his puppets and his slaves.  But, is that the truth?

The Real Hank Rearden

Lillian acts as if she is there against her will, that she is a puppet and slave and Rearden, that he is holding her in bondage.  But, is that the Rearden we see?  Rearden is constantly ridiculed and mocked.  Lillian gets Rearden to commit to being there for a party on December tenth, their wedding anniversary, three months away.  Philip, in a “childishly blatant” hint and insult in one, gets Rearden to donate money to a charity, Friends of Global Progress. Rearden doesn’t donate to help the charity, he donates to see his brother happy.  At home, Rearden is not in control.  His family hints, tricks, mocks, and takes whatever they want.

In this chapter, we learn about the relationship between Rearden and Larkin.  Larkin “came for advice, he asked for loans at times, but not often; the loans were modest and were always repaid, though not always on time… Watching Larkin’s efforts, Rearden felt what he did when he watched an ant struggling under the load of a matchstick.  It’s so hard for him, though Rearden, and so easy for me.  So he gave advice, attention and tactful, patient interest, whenever he could.”

Does this sound the like the conceited, selfish, anti-social man who his family claims he is?  Hank takes the time to help and loan money to a fellow businessman and gets nothing but friendship in return.  It doesn’t advance his business or help him in any way.

Rearden is selfish — he is motivated by own virtues, values, thoughts, beliefs, and happiness.  However, he is not uncaring the others, he is not cruel.  In her nonfiction book, The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand explains the difference between the definition of  selfish and its popular use: “The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word “selfishness” is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual “package-deal,” which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind. In popular usage, the word “selfishness” is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment. Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word “selfishness” is: concern with one’s own interests. This concept does not include a moral evaluation; it does not tell us whether concern with one’s own interest is good or evil; nor does it tell us what constitutes man’s actual interests.” (Click here to read the rest of the online excerpt.)

Possible Journal Entries/Discussion Questions

1. Who is John Galt?  I’ve already read the book once, so I cannot do this.  I wish I could.  Every chapter (or two or three or five or however many), write about your response to the question, “Who is John Galt?” Discuss the meaning of the phrase and how it changes, the rumors around it, the characters who say it and those who refuse to say it.  As the story progresses, the phrase evolves and what we, the readers, think about it changes.  Write every so often to record your change in thoughts and discuss the evolution of the phrase.

2.  The bracelet also evolves and changes.  It symbolizes different things to different people at different times in the book.  Discuss how each character views the bracelet and what it means to them and how this changes throughout the story.