Shock Value

Even during current times, decades after the novel was published, as we read Atlas Shrugged it’s hard not to notice how many social problems the novel points out and when we think back to when the novel was first published its amazing to realize how radical the novel was for its time. For example when this book was first published in 1957, the readers probably conceptualized Dagny's role and choices in the world differently then how we do today. The standards held for women have changed drastically. It's no longer shocking to see a female CEO, and currently the front runner for FED chairman is a woman. Even when discussing Atlas Shrugged outside the classroom I hear people claiming that they wish they were Dagny Taggart. But when we look back on Dagny's romantic past we see that she was probably not accepted by most women in the 1950's. She's had sex before she was married, and continued to for years, and then in her next relationship she become involved with a married man, and while still involved with him she fell for another. And I understand that this is what Rand was trying to go for, that she was trying to shock people, but she has spent that whole book preaching about practicality, and I don't see how that's practical. There’s a reason why we don’t see CEO’s bluntly talking about status or decisions of their company, and instead covering them up. It’s not very ethical, but it’s necessary for the business in order to make money.

Rand makes it very easy, and again I believe for shock value, for the reader to hate James Taggart and Lillian Rearden. Both are driven by the same goal of pushing others down in order to make themselves feel tall, and are in fact very similar characters, only their gender placing them in different aspects of society. But what makes it hard for me to call them evil, especially James, is that they are in fact very sad characters. They are driven by the same jealousy that drives little kids to stealing other’s toys. They see Hank’s, Francisco’s, and Dagny’s natural affinity toward being brilliant and successful, and I find natural and human of them to be jealous of this. But unfortunately for the entire world, they grew up in a time when they were not taught by their parents or their teachers or anyone superior how to move past the jealousy, but were in fact only encouraged. James and Lillian are still just children in a grown up world, holding positions of leadership that they should not have.