In a brief conversation with my aunt (a fan of Ayn Rand) she mentioned that Ayn Rand even more so than many other authors, has the tendency to directly portray her ideas through her characters. As I was reading the part about James’ wedding I realized what she meant. Rand uses Francisco’ s speech about money being the root of all good to show the reader how she feels about money and its purpose in the world.
I tend to agree with Rand, especially when she says that money is nothing more than a tool for men to trade with and her seemingly complex idea that “money is the barometer of a society’s virtue.” I interpret this statement to mean that in order to measure a society’s success, one must measure how it handles money. As Rand puts it, the “mind must match the money”, a person/persons with a lot of money and little sense of how to use it are worthless, and that is what Rand uses the Twentieth Century Motor Company and all of its failed owners to prove.
Lastly, Rand takes this opportunity to condemn all the “Washington boys” who are essentially destroying the world by trying to protect the weak. I like to think that Rand is making the point that the market works and that survival of the fittest is good because it weeds out the weak and foolish and allows only those who work hard and create their own wealth to survive. The force of the market is unstoppable and trying to stop it will only bring chaos.
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