Personality Changes in Dagny Taggart

While reading the first couple of pages of Atlas Shrugged, the only impression I got from Dagny Taggart was that Taggart Transcontinental was her everything. She loved this job and knew she wanted to be in the family business since she was sixteen years old. Throughout the book, Dagny and Jim constantly argue about what will be done about certain situations regarding the company, and Dagny always seems to know exactly what she has to say to her brother Jim to get things her way. Even in risky situations you always find Dagny saying that she will take complete responsibility for whatever happens, as long as she can handle the situation in her own ways. Even though Dagny has set this whole image of herself as a strict business professional, a little further in the book we are able to see that she thinks and worries of other things besides the Taggart Transcontinental. For example, when she is in her apartment and picks up the newspaper with Fransisco d'Anconia's picture on it, she is hesitant to read it because they have not talked in a long time and she does not know what to expect from this article. Once she reads the article and reads all about Fransisco's affair, she drops the newspaper on the ground, and continues to listen to richard Halley's fourth concerto. For the first time in the book we can see Dagny having feelings towards a man and something other than the family business and all that  relates to it.