There has been a good amount of parallelism between
Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart throughout the length of the novel and I am still attempting to figure out the
meaning behind it. Rand introduces us to two very similar characters, one male,
one female, and using these blog posts as my proof, we find ourselves rooting
for them the most. What I find even more interesting is that, in my case,
whenever I feel annoyed with one character, I simultaneously find strengthened
love for the other, and vice versa. It is as though Rand is juggling my
emotions between the two in order to keep me enthralled- good move on her part,
it is a good method.
One can argue that
they are different, and in some ways, I do agree- I never said they were
identical, but admit it, they are similar. Hell, there is this one point in
Part III where if you have not already figured out that they are supposed to be
parallels of each other, Rand basically slaps you in the face with that one.
Jim tries to guilt Dagny into helping him out, claiming that it is her duty as
his younger sister to make sure he is happy, and that her biggest failure would
be letting him live an unhappy life- what quality
argument, Jim. Dagny reacts as expected. With almost no time to breathe in-between,
we find Rearden in the same exact
situation with his own brother, Phillip, who comes crawling to Rearden for
a job, or so he says, and naturally, Rearden reacts as expected. The
comparisons are clear: they are both socially misunderstood, misjudged, and supposedly
hollow geniuses who have more passion for rolling pieces of metal than themselves,
but have just enough to spare for each other for a good portion of the book. So
why does Dagny fall out of love with someone she is so perfect for? Maybe she
feels too similar to Hank to actually be in love with him, maybe she has no idea
what love is, maybe Rand does not even have a point to make with this and I am
over analyzing it- but hey, over-speculation makes great writing material.
Still, I want to
believe there is a point behind all of this sleeping around and those lengthy
proclamations of love. I wish I could make an educated guess, but the truth is
there could be so many ways to go with it. Love is as volatile and corrupt as
the government and economics? Maybe, but I cannot make a quality assumption
until I finish this paperweight.
I think that you pose a great point in their commanalities here but throughout the book, Dagny has grown in a different way that Rearden has. Dagny was always deffiant of her brother, while Rearden's journey was mostly about becoming deffiant of his own family. Dagny, well I guess it appears that her journey was John Galt (as much as I hate to say that). But then again- I suppose that Francisco- in some ways could be Rearden's John Galt. It depends how you view that.
ReplyDeleteI think that Dagny slept around a lot to show us that she isn't just a woman in a suit, but she still had desires, desires that I suppose some could say were strong in a way usually associated with men. Men are typically the ones people will say are always thinking about sex, Dagny is constantly thinking about sex. So this could either make her more of a man or less of a man depending on how you view it.
Another theory to the high focus of Rand on Dagny's love life is the fact that Dagny isn't expected to be the girl who gets to be with Prince Charming (even though that story arch is long past overused). Some things that hint this are her mother's feelings about her, and struggles to see her daughter be more feminine. Maybe Ayn Rand wanted to show us that a girl could be feminine and badass (even though in my opinion she didn't do such a great job).
I'm not sure if any of these theories are correct- but it is possible- Rand had a plan- but got too caught up in the romance that it lost meaning. It would have deffinitely been a shorter book if it didn't have all the silly romantic aspects to it.
I completely agree with Melanie in her idea that there is a definite parallelism between Hank and Dagny's characters. Both characters are socially misunderstood, that is true, and, like Melanie, I do not understand why Rand made Dagny fall out of love with Hank. The two of them are so perfect for each other that it is slightly ridiculous. Hank is completely head over heels for Dagny, and Dagny seems to take advantage of that to some extent. I cannot say that I necessarily liked them together, and in no means did I think they would stay together, but the notion of them as a couple is pretty romantic. They are the mirror images of each other, they found love and passion in each other when they could find neither of those things anywhere else. They became a united front and it meant something, or at least I like to think it did. Then again, it is difficult to tell with Rand. She is always leading us in one direction and then jerking us in another at the last minute. Reading Atlas Shrugged, I feel like I have been on an extremely long roller coaster ride that I will never got off of. I like Melanie's theory of what Rand is trying to say about love- that it is as volatile and corrupt as the government itself. A noble idea, and one that makes sense, but I guess Rand is the only one who really knows what she meant for her writing to encompass.
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