Going Out With a Flicker

I find myself more disappointed than I should be for the end of Part One, likely because it feels I have just finished the story of Dagny and Rearden, which is likely because I have taken a peek at Part Two and it begins with new characters. I know that Part One is likely not isolated from the rest of the book, but I cannot help but feel robbed by Rand. An entirely irrational reaction, I will admit, but regardless. I wanted subtlety, closure perhaps, I wanted the objectivists to flaunt their victory, and for some reason I very badly wanted to see Jim Taggart happy.
Before I had read the whole interaction between Jim and Cherryl, I recall thinking that Jim is never happy, and while the perspective so graciously granted to us by Rand should make us not want to see him happy, I found myself thinking about how he tries so hard to do the right thing for his company and for his friends, but because he is in the world of Ayn Rand he doesn't DESERVE to be happy. So when Rand finally gave him the chance to be happy, I was quite angry to find out that she had spoiled it for me. This nice young girl, finally a smiling face in the miserable life of James Taggart, was only smiling at him because she was a young objectivist in love with objectivists. I have not kept my criticisms of Rand's heavy-handedness secret to say the least, but it hurt me as a James Taggart sympathizer to see the one light he had tainted with objectivism. To address some flaws in my statement I must say that I do not mean to imply that the success of his sister brought him sadness, but rather a sense of worthlessness, knowing that he was in the way the entire time and just is not strong enough to succeed. Furthermore, I do not mean to say that objectivism is inherently bad, simply that EVERYTHING in this book is about objectivism and I would have liked for this moment to be free of it, but then again this is essentially propaganda.
I promise I have some original statements to make, but I do want to take a moment and reflect upon Part One of Atlas Shrugged. When I started this book I remember thinking how everything I heard about it was wrong; the first 40-50 pages didn't feel like propaganda. Sure, you can point to some moments vaguely involving objectivist ideals but for the most part it all felt to innocent. I went back to refer to my first post and the very last sentence is "I'm looking forward to seeing what other parts of her philosophy made their way into Atlas Shrugged, maybe it is indeed full of blatant propaganda and I have only scratched the surface.". How ignorant I was. Little did I know that every page thereafter would be bogged down with objectivist education, little did I know that I HAD only scratched the surface, and this book was intended to be propaganda.
But is it propaganda? In the past few years there has been debate in the video game community as to what constitutes a propaganda game. It has since been basically concluded that a propaganda game is not one that makes heinous acts objectives to be rewarded, but rather by making the player think it is okay to perform these acts without hesitation. Point is, propaganda is supposed to convince you of something without you being aware of it. Who is not aware of all the objectivism in this book? Who is convinced by this? By the end of the year will one person in this class be a hardcore Ayn Rand objectivist? Somehow I doubt it.
I am clearly rambling so I think I should just get to my conclusion. Overall I think I enjoyed Part One of Atlas Shrugged, despite how frustrating Rand's heavy-handedness was, I enjoyed the story. I like how it ended with a conflict and another disappearance, and I appreciate how Rand wanted it to end with an intense scene, but she failed to do so- or at least I think she did. You could have had it all, Ms. Rand- it could have been spectacular- but I could taste the propaganda on the air as I flipped the last few pages. Maybe its just me, but I did not enjoy the final moments of Part One because of Rand's overuse of propaganda. For me, it took me out of the story, disrupted the momentum and atmosphere that could have been there, and instead of Wyatt's Torch ending this section in a burning oil fire, it ended it with a flicker. I hope the next part is not disrupted in the same way but for some reason my hope feels a little pointless.