Atlas Shrugged
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Atlas Shrugged is a long book by the Russian philosopher Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. It was a very important book which sold a lot. It was her last fiction book she wrote before beginning to write non-fiction.
[change] Subject
Atlas Shrugged says that if people cared about themselves, the world will be better.
If we did not make other people give up what they want for what we want, the world would be better.
[change] Plot
Atlas Shrugged is a philosophical novel in the form of an exciting mystery and romantic love story. Its main protagonist is Dagny Taggart, a young woman who actually (although not in name) runs the country's pre-eminent transcontinental railroad. The story takes place before the era of commonplace air travel, when trains were the main means of interstate commerce and travel.
Dagny becomes alarmed to find that the country's great minds are disappearing. The men who are the giants of industry and science are abandoning their fields and physically vanishing. She sets out to find out who "the Destroyer" is, the man she believes is seducing them away from their lifes work. She begins searching for him.
During her search, the state of the country and of the world declines greatly. Without the men of genius, industries grind to a halt. The economy falters and recedes.
Finally Dagny finds the man who she had termed the Destroyer. In reality he is a man of high integrity and principle. He lured the industrialists and scientists away from their work by convincing them that working for a world which despises them, and which takes their efforts without adequate compensation, is not only counter-productive but immoral as well. He has formed a secret community with them, in a hidden valley.
In the end, Dagny is won over to this view. She joins this man (his name is John Galt) both philosophically and romantically. Their goal is to bring down society as it exists, so that a new society can be reborn which truly respects genius, hard work, and integrity. Signs are seen at the end of the novel that people are slowly realizing, as the old world crumbles around them, the virtue of living a life of responsibility and respect for the ideas and hard work of others.
