Atlas Shrugged Analysis

In her book, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand uses a fictional story to critique the end result of several commonplace ideologies. The book most closely deals with the ultimate result that stems from a Marxist slogan, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” The world that Rand creates has few differences from reality at its start, but as the story progresses, real world ideologies are taken to the extreme, and societal collapse appears to be imminent. Much of this is revealed through the thoughts and actions of a character that appears to be Rand’s self-insert, Dagny Taggart. Dagny finds herself alienated from both her peers and those in charge of industry based on her beliefs and her gender. Rand uses Dagny’s struggle …show more content…
In her search for the creator of a static powered motor, Dagny comes across a variety of personalities, including Lee Hunsacker, a man in his forties who lives with two roommates and believes that his autobiography is worth reading. Readers are introduced to Hunsacker with the words, “I never had a chance! . . .Nobody ever gave me a chance. I hope they’re satisfied with what they’ve made of me,” (Rand, 292). Hunsacker represents a darker side to the receiving end of charity; entitlement. He has convinced himself that every bad thing in his life is the result of someone else’s mistake, and anyone who has more than him did not earn it. When he realizes that the woman standing in front of him is the operating vice president of Taggart Transcontinental, he quickly snaps, “I don’t need any of you big shots!” and continues to throw out assumptions and insults, even questioning her conscience. He claims that Dagny and her “people let Jed Starnes grow filthy rich on that factory, but you wouldn’t give us a break!” (Rand, 296). In Lee Hunsaker's eyes, Dagny and other industrialists are the source of all the circumstances that have held him back from the greatness that he believes is entitled to him. Rand uses Hunsacker and characters like him to represent the entitled attitude she encountered while living in a Bolshevik and Lenin controlled Russia. Like a modern American teenager in his rebellious phase, Hunsacker is trying to stick it to the man. A parallel can be drawn from his attitude to that of a person blaming the bourgeoisie or the one-percent for his or her poverty. Dagny does not believe in favors. In her view, transactions should not happen when one party does not receive equivalent value to the other. This is evident in her reaction to her brother James’s plan to essentially nationalize all railroads after her disappearance