Analysis Of Atlas Shrugged

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The motor of the world
Who is John Galt? John Galt is the ideal man. Ayn Rand illustrates the embodiment of the lost virtue—the human mind— in John’s character through his juxtaposition against the modern “man”. In the collectivist society portrayed in Atlas Shrugged, men are punished for using their only method of survival—thinking. John Galt utilizes his mind to create achievements and prosperity. By vowing to live his life only according to his own selfish ends, he earns the right to live freely to delight in this virtue. This highest virtue is the value he holds of his own life—a demonstration of his eternal love to life itself.
As the leader of the strike, John Galt stopped the motor of the world the moment he refused to follow the plan …show more content…

He realized the evil ends of his enemies could only work if he (and the rest of the “strikers”) remained submissive to their powers and accepted the guilt imposed unto him. Through underserved guilt, the antagonists in the novel coerce the protagonists—Dagny Taggart, Hank Rearden, Franciso D’Anconia, Ragnar Danneskjöld, and the rest of the strikers—into complying to their irrational, inhumane demands. John Galt is “the first man of ability who refused to regard it as guilt”.
John Galt marvelously explains the causes and effects of the moral degradation of society during his speech. The reason of the collapse of society therein lies in its inhabitants’ unwillingness to use their mind to survive, trade, and produce. Production of the mind is the pathway to success. What happens when men stop using their mind? Destruction—of mankind itself, resulting in the national collapse of every industry. Men, as Galt explains, where meant to deal with one another through fair trade of the results of their …show more content…

The looters have deliberately turned their backs to reality through indifference throughout the novel, and John Galt unveiled the truth they had avoided to the eyes of society. Reality cannot be changed according to one’s demands, but to the looters every futile attempt to make reality obey their orders, surely backfires. By living in a state of blindness, in a life driven by no purpose, their problems are never solved and their happiness is never achieved. On the other hand, John Galt, demonstrates that life must be experienced through rationality in order to experience delight. Galt has, therefore, declared and proved his love to life by his highest accomplishment—happiness. Every man has a main purpose in life: his own happiness. Everything man does in life should have the aim attain this

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