Atlas Shrugged (1957) (edit title/settings)

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Summary edit see section history

Write a summary of the plot or a synopsis of this book.

Characters edit see section history

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• John Galt: The main character of the novel, John Galt is the man who dominates the action, though he doesn't appear until two-thirds of the way through the novel.
• Dagny Taggart: The "real" main character of the novel. She is the de-facto president of Taggart Transcontinental, the dominant railroad in the U.S.
• James Taggart: The President of Taggert Transcontinental Railway. He is Dagny's brother.
• Hugh Akston: Professor and chairman, Department of Philosophy, Patrick Henry University, Cleveland, Ohio. Former teacher of John Galt, Francisco d'Anconia, and Ragnar Danneskjöld.
• Hank Rearden: He is the man who believes in his work and is indifferent to all the adversities forced upon him by the world. The inventor of Rearden Metal (an unprecedented substitute of steel) and one of the most successful industrialists of his time. Dagny Taggart and Hank even went into a relationship.
• Ragnar Danneskjöld: A pirate who seizes or sinks shipments of goods sent to or from governments, or that might benefit governments.
• Francisco d'Anconia: The heir of the d'Anconia copper. As a child he sneaks out to work as a delivery boy for a railroad to understand how the things work there. He's a childhood friend of Dagny and also her first lover. He's one of the strongest character in the book and also one on the three most brilliant students of his generation at Patrick Henry University.
• Mr. Thompson: Head of the State (President of the United States) during the last years of the strike of the men of the mind called by John Galt.
• Dr. Floyd Ferris: Associate Director of the State Science Institute.
• Lillian Rearden: The wife of Hank Rearden.
• Eddie Willers: Dagny Taggart's special assistant and childhood companion.
• Dr. Robert Stadler: Former physics professor at the Patrick Henry University and Director of the State Science Institute.
• Philip Rearden: Younger brother of Hank Rearden. He lives with his brother in Phildelphia.
• Wesley Mouch: Initially Mouch is the Washington lobbyist employed by Henry Rearden. He then becomes the Senior Coordinator of the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources.
• Orren Boyle: President of Associated Steel.
• Cuffy Meigs: United States Director of Unification. Oversaw the Railroad Unification Plan.
• Ellis Wyatt: President of Wyatt Oil Company.
• Midas Mulligan: Banker that originally operated in Chicago, Illinois before joining the Strike.
• Ken Danagger: President of Danagger Coal Company.
• Bertram Scudder: 'The Future' editorial writer. Prominent media icon against business and businessmen..
• Jim Brown: "Morale Conditioner" for the government.
• Richard Halley: Dangy's favorite composer. Ahead of his time, his works were initially rejected. Later joined the Strike.
• Clem Weatherby: Government representative on the board of Taggart Transcontinental.
• Paul Larkin: Friend of Hank Reardon who changes allegiance and later works with James Taggart for Reardon's downfall.
• Dave Mitchum: State-hired superintendent of the Colorado Division of Taggart Transcontinental.
• Horace Bussby Mowen: President of the Amalgamated Switch and Signal Company, Inc. of Connecticut. Supporter of 'the public'.
• Eugene Lawson: Heads the Community Bank of Madison. Later works in finance direction for the bankrupt government.
• Dr. Simon Pritchett: Head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University. Considered the leading philosopher of the age. Also taught John Galt, Francisco d'Anconia, and Ragnar Danneskjöld
• Jeff Allen: Former employee of Twentieth Century Motor Company. Meets Dangy as a tramp and reveals the identity of John Galt.
• Calvin Atwood: Owner of Atwood Light and Power Company before joining the Strike
• Cherryl Brooks: Dime store shop girl who marries James Taggart. Later commits suicide after discovering Taggart's true nature.
• Mayor Bascom: Mayor of Rome, Wisconsin.
• Bill Brent: Chief Dispatcher of the Colorado Division of Taggart Transcontinental who tries to prevent the Taggart Tunnel disaster
• Dr. Blodgett: Scientist that pulls the lever to demonstrate Project X.
• Laura Bradford: Actress and Kip Chalmers' mistress.
• Kip Chalmers: Washington man running for election as Legislator from California.
• Emma Chalmers: Kip Chalmers' mother who gains notoriety after her son's death.
• Gwen Ives: Hank Reardon's secretary.
• Pat Logan: Engineer on the first run of the John Galt line.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “Who is John Galt?”

  The Beggar

• “I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

  Dagny Taggart, John Galt

• “Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned.”

  John Galt

• “For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it.”

  John Galt

• “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”

• “All work is creative work if done with a fully thinking mind.”

  John Galt

• “After a while he went back to his task; he decided that pain was not a valid reason for stopping.”

• “Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence.”

• “Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy.”

  John Galt

• “‘I am, therefore I’ll think.’”

  John Galt

• “It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.”

• “But one form of torture remained untouched by the years, the torture of the word “why?””

  John Galt

• “She could not doubt the fact of what he had been; she could not doubt the fact of what he had become; yet one made the other impossible.”

• “He had the vitality of a healthy human being, a thing so rare that no one could identify it.”

• “The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.”

  John Galt

• “Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other.”

  John Galt

• “Money is the root of all evil?”

  Francisco d'Anconia

• “She had fits of tortured longing for a friend or enemy with a mind better than her own.”

• “Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing buy rational actions.”

• “Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it.”

• “The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.”

• “Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another's values.”

• “Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

  Francisco d'Anconia, page 191

• “There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone?But just pass the kind of laws that can neither e observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on the guilt.”

  Dr. Ferris page 411

• “An issue of guilt, he thought, had to rest on his own acceptance of the code of justice that pronounced him guilty. He did not accept it - he never had. His virtues, all the virtues she needed to achieve his punishment, came from another code and lived by another standard. He felt no guilt, no shame, no regret, no dishonor. He felt no concern for any verdict she chose to pass upon him: He had lost respect for her judgment long ago. And the sole chain still holding him was only a last remnant of pity.”

  Hank Rearden, page 437

• “You can't have your cake and let your neighbor eat it too.”

  Francisco d'Anconia, page 469

• “I know what I'm talking about. That's because I never went to college.”

  Fred Kinnan, page 507

• “At a time like this, we can't afford the luxury of thinking!”

  Jim Taggart, page 785

• “'Logic!' she screamed. 'There you go again with your damn logic! It's pity that we need, pity, not logic!'”

  Hank Rearden's mother, page 903

• “If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose- because it contains all the others- the fact that they were the people who created the phrase "to make money". No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity- to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created.”

• “"It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust, but to know."”

• “John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought fire to the gods, he broke his chains-- and withdrew his fire-- until the day men withdraw their vultures.”

  Francisco d'Anconia

• “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”

  John Galt

• “Whatever he was-- that robot in the Garden of Eden, who existed without mind, without values, without labor, without love-- he was not man.”

  John Galt

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• An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.

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• “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 . . . don’t know. What . . . could he do? What would you tell him?” “To shrug.”

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• “Francisco, what’s the most depraved type of human being?” “The man without a purpose.”

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• “Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

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• “Dagny, there’s nothing of any importance in life—except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It’s the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics they’ll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that’s on a gold standard.

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• “It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.”

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• I SWEAR BY MY LIFE AND MY LOVE OF IT THAT I WILL NEVER LIVE FOR THE SAKE OF ANOTHER MAN, NOR ASK ANOTHER MAN TO LIVE FOR MINE.

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• “So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

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• They professed to love him for some unknown reason and they ignored all the things for which he could wish to be loved.

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• The adversary she found herself forced to fight was not worth matching or beating; it was not a superior ability which she would have found honor in challenging; it was ineptitude—a gray spread of cotton that seemed soft and shapeless, that could offer no resistance to anything or anybody, yet managed to be a barrier in her way.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York City
• Colorado
• Washington
• Minnesota
• Arizona
• California
• Chicago
• Utah
• Wisconsin
• San Francisco
• Mississippi
• Philadelphia
• Wayne-falkland Hotel
• Pennsylvania
• New Mexico
• Nebraska
• Illinois
• Europe
• Cleveland
• Hudson
• Taggart Bridge
• San Sebastian Mines
• Kansas
• Iowa
• Santiago
• Wyoming
• Montana
• Chile
• Argentina
• United States
• Oregon
• Afton
• Buenos Aires
• Spain

Organizations edit see section history

• Taggart Transcontinental: set up by Nat Taggart and now actually being run by Dagny Taggart under the presidency of his clumsy brother James Taggart. It is the biggest railway network across the United States Of America.
• The Twentieth Century Motor Company: It is the corporation that has been crumbled by prioritizing the "needs" of the workers rather than their achievements. John Galt proclaimed that he would stop the motor of the world here. He also developed the machine that would transform kinetic energy into electricity.
• The State Government: Led by Wesley Mouch, the government fails by its own system - collectivism.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Destroyer: Dagny's term for John Galt, before she knows who he is. He is the man, she believes, who talks to businessmen who are besieged by the new policies of the government. They give up and retire, never to be seen again. She comes to believe that he cannot exist, for she leaves Taggart Transcontinental without being visited by "the destroyer".
• Looters: Rand's term for people, usually in the government, who take money away from the businesses which make it. It also applies to their stooges and to people, like Ivy Starnes, who seek to redistribute wealth by their own standards, and exploit the workers who are the best workers to support those in need.
• Objectivism: Ayn Rand's philosophy of personal and commercial freedom, with the achievement of the individual being the paramount moral goal. Objectivism holds that there is an external object reality outside of perception, and bases all rational beliefs from this starting point.
• Producers: Rand's name for people show are efficient and dedicated to their work. It especially applies to people who are the owners or originators of business that create money.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Capitalism: Describe this theme.
• Socialism
• Communism
• work ethic
• Objectivism

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Road, and followed by The Firm.

Preceded by The Golden Notebook, and followed by Portnoy's Complaint.

Followed by The Fountainhead.

Preceded by Five Point Someone, and followed by Hatchet.

Preceded by Bluebeard, and followed by The Metamorphosis.

Preceded by Below the Salt.

Preceded by The Girl Who Played with Fire, and followed by Emma.

Preceded by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and followed by Eldest.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ayn Rand (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Christopher Hurt (Reader)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Prometheus (1983: Hall of Fame Award Recipient)
• National Book Award (Finalist, 1958: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ3.R152 At
• Dewey: 813.52

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › Classics › Rand, Ayn
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( R ) › Rand, Ayn
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Political
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) (IMDb): Starring Taylor Schilling as Dagny Taggart, Grant Bowler as Henry Rearden, and Paul Johansson as John Galt

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history