“Who is John Galt?” The opening line for the novel is
repeated on five separate occasions throughout the first three chapters. This
unanswerable question is regarded as nonsense by the three characters whose
points of view are given. And they become unexplainable tense and anxious when
they hear it. There must be some deeper meaning in this question that explains
its origins and its purpose.
I feel like there is definitely something more to
this mystery than meets the eye. This question of “Who is John Galt?” is just
as alarming to me as it is to the characters in the novel. Since the first time
it is spoken by the beggar to Eddie it has been inescapable in these early
chapters, culminating in Dagny’s outburst near the end of the third chapter when
she makes it clear that the reader is not the only one who is out of the loop.
This question seems related to several other events that occur in the beginning
of the Novel. The man on the train who whistles Richard Halley’s “non-existent”
Fifth Concerto. Despite her efforts to learn more about this concerto, Dagny is
unable to determine anything whatsoever, even after contacting the Music
Publishing Company. The details surrounding Owen Kellogg’s quitting from his
job at Taggart Transcontinental go entirely unexplained.
These mysteries along
with the legislature’s disapproval of Rearden metal and the situation it Mexico
with the possible nationalization of the San Sebastián Mines seem to form web
of unanswered questions somehow related to the central question of Who is John
Galt?
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