Hank, Francisco, and Dagny

                After reading this week, I found Hank’s trial to be the most interesting.  At first, I did not comprehend what he was trying to do; I thought he was going to turn himself in, which in my opinion would have been the end to the book. However, he does something completely unorthodox. He admits to have broken the law, but does not defend himself. He lets the public and jurors know that he is in fact a greedy businessman, but he is not going to let the judges turn that into a bad thing. The three judges just give him a fine, because they don’t know what else to do.  Even though he had to pay, he had won this “fight” and most of the public seemed to be supporting him.

                As Anike said in her blog, there is a connection between this week’s reading and our class discussion.  To most of us, being selfish is frowned upon; people see it as bad thing and never think of themselves in this way. Nevertheless, the Fair Share Law and the government’s purpose of spreading the wealth is breaking up companies and causing others to lose their job. It isn’t shocking that those who still have their business and are succeeding are those who are selfish and have been selfish since the beginning.

                In addition, Francisco’s presence after Dagny’s meeting with the board of directors, in my eyes is for only one purpose: he wants Dagny back. He has been repeating how he has never stopped loving one particular girl. I think he tried to ease his way in and support Dagny, when his main purpose, although never mentioned, was to win her back. I feel like sooner or later, this struggle over Dagny is going to create a tremendous brawl between Hank and Francisco. Hank is already furious with Francisco for letting his ships sink and not delivering the copper, so who knows what he’s capable of if he finds out Dagny used to be in love with Francisco.

Jose Novas