Atlas "Shrugged"

            This week’s reading of Atlas Shurgged was very interesting and I feel like it revealed a lot. Every week’s reading gets more interesting and more interesting. Now that I know the meaning of it, I think the book’s title could not have been chosen better. The story of Atlas carrying the weight of the world fits perfectly with what is going on in the novel – that the good business people are carrying the world. But, I feel like adding the word “shrugged” adds so much more to the title because it really shows the lack of care there is in trying to fix what is happening to the world and its people in the novel. Any other word would not have given the same neglectfulness that the word “shrugged” gives. I think the title is really on point. I also really like the irony that arises in this week’s reading. Francisco confesses that he has actually not slept with any of the girls that he is seen with, and that he just wants to be thought of as a playboy. He says he is still in love with a girl from years ago – Dagny. He says this to Hank, who, in this reading, admits to having an affair with Dagny and I think he is slowly realizing that he is in love with her. I find this ironic because Hank and Francisco do not know that they are both “in love” with the same girl. Francisco also talks to Hank in depth about sex, saying people who have sex with people they do not love and admire do not have good morals, and people who do it with people they do love and admire, have good morals. In these chapters, I feel like a more sensitive side of Francisco is slowly emerging. Hank and Dagny are also faced with extreme hardships in these chapters, because Hank’s shipment of copper was not delivered therefore he could not get it to Taggart Transcontinental, Hank is blackmailed, and Dagny’s railroad, the John Galt Line, is officially going to be closed down. From all these things occurring, I can tell that the reading is only going to get more interesting and intense.