The Socialist World: A "gray light seeping through a soggy sky" covered by a "chalk of clouds" (Meagan Adler)

            In this week’s reading I was particularly interested in the metaphorical approach Rand utilizes to vividly depict the devastating and self-destructive socialist society ruled by artificial tyrannical leaders with absolute power.  Whether it is expanding on the comparison of Dagny as a scab, trying to protect the “stream of blood” (pg.833) that “runs from a wound, draining the last of a body’s sustenance and life” (pg. 833) or describing a socialist leader as having a “fat blank face and the eyes of a killer” (pg. 793), we are clearly exposed to the catastrophic state of a society that is on the verge of collapsing.  Rand communicates the severity of the decaying society as she describes Dagny looking at a “gnat” that is “struggling for some frantic purpose of its own” in “specks of dust” (pg.779); in my opinion, the idea that this gnat is Dagny shows that at this moment Dagny questions her purpose in being this scab, trying to heal the bleeding societal wound as she sees that her efforts might be insignificant. In addition to Dagny, Rand also demonstrates the rotting socialist society through the character, Cherryl who is confronted by the appalling realization that her husband, one of the disgusting socialist officials is a “killer… for the sake of killing” (pg.827); here, Rand directly exposes the artificiality of the elite group of corrupt and nontransparent socialist officials.  Also, Cherryl sees the distortion of the high end of the social hierarchy that she used to see as promising as full of “tombstones” (pg. 829); this realization underscores the idea that the people in the society are the living dead, figuratively killed by those in absolute power.  The leaders, such as Jim, refuse to confront clarity but rather want to destroy it as he demonstrates when he throws and breaks the “Venetian glass” with a “transparent body” (pg. 817).  Another way in which Rand communicates the clear corruption of power in the society is when she describes how Cherryl feels like a “dog” in “somebody’s laboratory” that is “trapped in a maze with no exit” (pg. 830); by comparing the society to a lab, Rand communicates that the fraudulent officials are experimenting with and destroying a real life world.  Whether it is describing Dagny’s thoughts as she feels as if her brother is plunging a “knife into her back” (pg.834) as he begs her for protection or describing Cuffy Meigs carrying “an automatic pistol” (g.859) we clearly see that the tyrannical officials are figuratively killing their subjects. Other powerful comparisons in this reading were that of the diamond Dagny wears that flashes like a “military cross” (pg.873) and the way Dagny sees Galt holding a lantern on the tracks, looking like the “Statue of Liberty” (pg.881).  The way Rand describes the diamond as a military cross conveys that Dagny is a leader fighting in a war against the government and the way she describes Galt as the Statue of Liberty shows that Dagny sees Galt as a symbol of freedom from the filter of distortion she is trapped in. Overall, I was intrigued by the way Rand vividly details the socialist world as an opaque world of distortion, defined by a “gray light seeping through a soggy sky” covered by a “chalk of clouds” (pg.831).