This past reading of Atlas Shrugged
was my favorite. I got to know the characters much better and discovered things
about them I did not know before. James Taggart for example, surprised me when
he had a talk with the girl he met at a restaurant. I noticed I grew used to
Dagny and Rearden’s way of thinking, which is based solely on personal profit.
When James started talking to the young girl in his apartment however, I got to
know a side of him I did not know before, and a side I liked very much. He
mentioned how people like Dagny and Rearden do only things for themselves and
nothing for the public, and how the public fails to see that. James says that
instead of celebrating people like them, society should praise people that do
things for the good of others. It was then that I realized the intensity of
Dagny’s greed, and the rational thoughts behind James’ way of behaving.
Other than the talk James had with the young girl, I also really enjoyed
the part of the novel when Dagny was on the train on the way to cross the
bridge for the first time. It was the first scene where everyone was happy.
Dagny’s reflection on sight and touch, and on the spirit and the body was very
interesting. At the time I agreed with everything that crossed her mind, but
after getting to know her brother better, I started disliking Dagny. I
appreciate her determined and ambitious personality but she is too greedy.
Even though most of the characters
have different ways of thinking, I feel like they are all unhappy. Whether
their main priority is work, money, sex, themselves, or others, I don’t think a
single character of the book is happy. They have their happy moments, but the
moments are short lived. Everyone has pessimistic views of society and of the
future and that brings me down a little. Hopefully as the novel continues
people change their way of thinking and start looking at the good side of
things rather than the bad.
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