Chapters
3, 4 and 5 of Atlas Shrugged changed my opinion of the book and the characters.
At first I viewed James and Dagny Taggart as powerful siblings working with
somewhat of similar beliefs. In the beginning of the book, I found myself
disliking Dagny and her materialistic ways. I could relate much more to James,
he seemed to me to be a hardworking man who knew what he was doing.
However, the chapters I read
this week completely changed my interpretation on both siblings. I began to
like Dagny much more as I got to know a different side of her.
The
narrator takes us to the past, when Dagny was just a girl and the months she
spent with the then young and ambitious Francisco d’Anconia. I was able to see
how innocent they both were as children, and how James was always reprimanding
them for being zealous and confident. I found myself being able to relate to
their ambitious ways wanting to succeed in life. It also surprised me to see a
different side of the three of them. Dagny showed emotions she had not
previously shown, James showed somewhat of ignorance towards life, and
Francisco displayed pure joy and anticipation for the years to come.
The
concept of joy was one I thought none of the characters truly believed in. Most
of them seemed slightly upset with their lives. The chapters I read this week
told me otherwise, in fact Dagny herself stated, “Joy is one’s fuel”. I
completely agree with this statement and I believe the reason why the
characters of the novel are finding themselves in stressful situations is
because they lack an outlet, an outlet that will free them of the stress, an
outlet like the one Dagny and Francisco once had.
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