John Gault In Atlas Shrugged

“Who is John Gault?” Shall this phrase be considered as a figure of speech, or even a rhetorical question? Yet while read on, readers come to realization how the expression has a more simple meaning with the answer; that John Gault is an actual man who plays an important part in the story of Atlas Shrugged. In this book, we get the answer to said question in the beginning of Part 3. Here, a lady named Dagny Taggart crashes her aircraft into Galt’s Gulch of Colorado; and meets John Galt in person. Spoiler alert: here in the book will be where all of the collected pieces of information shall connect together; for John Galt was the motor’s inventor, the man whom was making the industrialists disappear, the pupil of Robet Stadler and Hugh Akston… …show more content…
Many readers have a difficult time absorbing the idea that Galt is an individual. To most new readers, Galt will be considered an enigma. Although, this would not be from a lack of characterization. Rather; it may be from the nature of the artistic expression. As we all know, literature traditionally grows out of the reader’s imagination. An author always supplies clues or details to the basics of a written character, to help the reader understand what should be seen. However Galt will be harder to grasp as a real person; for with the little information given, imagination is difficult. (This, incidentally, will be a big challenge—and opportunity—of film adaptation, of which has no choice but to make John Galt real, giving the viewer what a reader’s imagination may not be able to …show more content…
Noticing how the character arc ends, we can venture back and take a look at the essence of his development. In response to his introduction with Dagny, Galt’s character undergoes an unexpected change: he becomes the sensible narcissist who throws out his personal plan for the sake of a moment, and declares his readiness to perish for love. But while this being a development for Galt’s character, ‘tis not especially an alteration. This will be what makes Galt’s character more interesting: he will still be a rational egoist; still being rational for he understands and accepts any consequences of taking what he desires, and clearly understands importance of desire within the context of all other values. He is still an egoist, in Ayn Rand’s sense, because of the pursuit of spiritual values; for example romantic love is as important to him as the pursuit of material