Atlas Shrugged Critical Analysis

Atlas Shrugged is centered around several key protagonists and antagonists. Dagny Taggart is the hero of the novel. She is the productive Vice President of Operations at Taggart Transcontinental, a railroad empire. Incompetence and excuses are all around her, but she keeps her head down and works hard, spending most of her time cleaning up the messes of others. Specifically, her brother James. Although she had worked for the railroad since she was a teenager, James inherited the business. He resents the accomplishments of others, plunders investments, and does it all because of “charity.” James and the men like him are the antagonists of the novel. Men like Dr. Ferris, Wesley Mouch, Mr. Thompson, Orren Boyle, and Dr. Stadler. Dr. Ferris is …show more content…
In an abandoned factory, Dagny discovers the plans and prototype for a revolutionary motor. It would make power almost free and unlimited, and Dagny made it her quest to recreate it. So she set out on a journey to find the engineer. This journey led her to a small diner in the mountains, where she met a cook who gave her a cigarette with a gold dollar sign on it. The cook was Dr. Atkinson. Dagny refused to give up on her quest to recreate the motor, so she hired an engineer to secretly work on the project in an abandoned laboratory in …show more content…
He toured her around the hidden valley, where she saw all of the industrialists and competent men who had disappeared. He explained that they were on strike from the looters, and they would only return on their terms. She stayed there for one month, then returned to the real world, with the offer from Galt and others that she could return when she would commit to the strike. This required taking their oath: “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” Mr. Thompson announced that he would give an address to the nation on the state of the crisis. At the time scheduled for the address, Mr. Thompson and his goons were surprised and horrified when a strong signal cut off their own. They tried to block it, but failed. Then, broadcast to every radio in the nation, John Galt’s voice delivered his manifesto. After he was finished, Mr. Thompson realized that Galt was the man they needed to save the economy. Dagny accidently led the government to Galt, and they held him in a hotel trying to negotiate his help. Mr. Thompson offered Galt everything from money to tyrannical power, but Galt refused. The one thing Galt wanted, that Mr. Thompson would not provide, was for the government to lift restrictions and give back economic and individual freedom. Galt wouldn’t resist, and told the looters that he would follow every specific