FINALLY

At the beginning, I’m not going to lie, I had a panic attack when I saw what book we had to read and I wanted to drop out of AP English. Today, I feel so relieved that I’m finally done. I cannot believe I am actually saying that I finished Atlas Shrugged. I’m so happy/proud of myself and of the entire class for finishing it!!!

The beginning of the novel bored me, but then as I started reaching around page 200 the book got increasingly interesting and now I can say I loved the story. I feel like this is a novel that once you read it, you have to read it again, because there are so many underlying messages and foreshadows throughout the book that you forget by the time you reach the end since the book is so incredibly long.

In my very first blog post, I mentioned that I was a fan of Ayn Rand and her philosophies. In my final blog post, my admiration for her has definitely increased and become stronger. The only other book I had read of Ayn Rand’s was Anthem, in seventh grade, so my memories of her style of writing were very vague. Atlas Shrugged, although very demanding to read, is written in a way that is effectively easy to understand. Even though there is confusion with all of the millions of characters (which is why I think the book should be read more than once), she creates each character to serve the purpose of the story. There are no unnecessary characters in her writing. Her style of writing is very direct; everything goes from one scene to another with ease and I never found myself “lost” for lack of a better word. Yes, I was confused when everybody was disappearing and things of the similar, but I never found myself not understanding what I was reading. She presents everything very clearly, and I really admire her style of writing.

My favorite character was Dagny, throughout the entire novel. The reason why I always loved Dagny was because she was extremely independent and always did what she wanted to do. I really admire that. I admire how Ayn Rand created Dagny’s female independent and defiant character in that time period, to the point where there were moments in which Dagny specifically said “I’m the man” (368). Although she does sometimes get influenced by her lovers (of which she technically had three in this novel…) she always does what she thinks is right. I think the reason why practically every important male character falls in love with Dagny is because of this independence, relentless determination, and confidence that she has. I think Dagny is truly an admirable character. I also really liked Hank and his relationship with Dagny. I feel like on the inside he was always very sensitive, he was just closed to everybody because nobody took the time to appreciate him – everyone just went against him for loving his “business” too much. So, when he finally meets somebody who is like him in some way (Dagny), he falls in love with her and slowly tries to show this to her. An example that really stuck out to me was when he took her out to dinner or when he gave her the ruby necklace and tells her that he likes giving her things not because he wants her to have them, but because he knows she does not need them and he wants her to have them from him. I thought that was really sweet and I like how Dagny pulls out this side of him. She also does this from Francisco though. Francisco also admits that he loves Dagny. Everybody is in love with Dagny! But, it is understandable how Dagny chooses John Galt as her ultimate lover. I like John Galt and his intelligence, but I feel like their relationship went a little too fast.

My least favorite characters were Jim and Lillian. They were the characters that all throughout the novel I just wanted to take them out of the scene because their whininess. They annoyed me – especially when they tried to bring everybody else down because they were too lazy to do anything to help themselves. I really believe in the way of living that if you want something, you have to go out there and get it yourself because nobody is going to do it for you, and these two characters constantly acted contrary to my belief so they got me really annoyed.

I liked the ending. I did not love it, but I liked it. I hate how Eddie was not be able to be saved. I feel like he was such a nice asset to the story, always helping Dagny the second she needed him and whenever he was there she felt a little subconsciously relieved because she knew he could count on him. So, having Eddie be left stranded to figure out how to survive alone was kind of a downer. Also, having Dagny, Hank, Francisco, John Galt, and all his little clan survive and reach Atlantis was a good thing – but what happens from then on? They are just going to rebuild society on their own entirely? It seems a little unrealistic, but I like how the people who really gave their all in the regular world were able to save themselves and be rewarded in Atlantis. I like how the story ends with John drawing a dollar sign symbol in the air, I feel like that was really symbolic. As I was looking back in the story I reread the part where Hugh Akston had given Dagny a cigarette with a dollar sign on it, and this dollar sign kept popping up multiple times in the book, so I thought that was a good addition to the ending.

Overall, throughout all the action in the book, all the foreshadowing and hidden messages, all the characters, and all the rising action till the final reaching of Atlantis and the state of being in that utopia, I really liked the book. Once again, in the beginning I hated it and thought I was never going to get through it, but now that I am finally done I am saying that I enjoyed the book. Also, my final blog post has just as many words as there are pages in the novel.