Who Is I

A detailed Summary of Who Is I

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand provides a well-written explanation of objectivism in a monumental novel about those who hold the world on their shoulders. Her characters are a myriad of individuals, ranging from the highest achievement possible: a human, to one of the most horrid creatures on this planet: a once-human imbecile. She gives the reader insight into the psyche of society and the motivations behind our actions. In this novel, Rand's most righteous characters are those with the most internal conflict. They must shed their conditioning that has been imposed on them by the earth's people and leave behind what they value as most precious. There is one character that is held higher than the rest. A man of morality, introspection, and enigma, he begins the book and finishes it. So, who is John Galt?

John Galt is Rand's brilliant character that blends imagination and intelligence. John Galt can be described as having the same opinion on life that Henry David Thoreau does. They both believe you shouldn't carry the world on your shoulders; they realize that in fact by giving things to the needy (Rand would use the word

Because Galt, like the rest of Atlas's people, has a passion for his work and moralistic code, he is torn by this love of industry and his idealistic hope for the future of the world. A new world without looters and moochers that can begin again with Atlas's people populating and driving it. In order to leave behind the old world and begin anew, he must stop the motor of the world; he must destroy it. He must do two things: understand the looters' moralistic code and annihilate all he holds dear in a calculating manner. To do this, he recruits his two best friends: Francisco d'Anconia and Ragner Danneskjold. These three prodigies, the "Climax of the d'Anconias," the "golden-haired pirate," and the "Face without Pain or Fear or Guilt," would lead the rebellion to destroy all that is most important in order to save it from those who would ruin and plunder it. Galt is very determined. So determined that he is able to abandon his most ingenious achievement, a motor than runs on static electricity, and desist from working. When he does this, he eliminates the possibility for the motor to run a world where there is no cause of movement. He unravels the secret to the world's destruction.

"John Galt was...fighting the worst storm ever wreaked upon the world, when he found it [Atlantis]... It was such a sight of such a kind that when one had seen it, one could no longer wish to look at the rest of the earth. John Galt sank his ship and went down with his entire crew. They all chose to do it" (Atlas Shrugged, 149). This quote is from a fable that arose from the saying, "Who is John Galt?" Rand gives this account and the story of Prometheus, the Greek mythological character that made man, and upon seeing their stupidity and suffering, gave them the sacred forbidden fire. After doing so, Prometheus was punished by being chained to a rock and suffering new pain everyday from picking vultures. He endured this until one day he reclaimed fire from man. These tales are all different translations of John Galt's story; all are metaphors for Galt standing up to society's expectations by giving up, by letting go of his conditioned guilt and weighted shoulders, only to leave the earth barren until he could reclaim it again. In the Atlantis tale, the men of his "crew" are the ones whom he recruited. Those like Henry Reardon, Hugh Akston, and Ellis Wyatt. When Wyatt torched his oil fields and lit "Wyatt's Torch," it served as a message of hope and continuation as well as a beacon for the return of Atlas's people someday.

"Atlantis was a place where hero-spirits lived in a happiness unknown to the rest of the earth. A place which only the spirits of heroes could enter...because they carried the secret of life within them... They never stopped looking for it, because they knew that that was what they had to find" (Atlas Shrugged, 149). Atlantis is Galt's Gulch. It is a functioning sanctuary that keeps the earth's depravity away from Atlas's peopl

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Approximate Word count = 2004
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People