The downward spiral prompted by the new government-issued directives has shown the true identities of several characters in this novel. It seems, for the majority, that everyone is to blame, yet nobody is to blame. Each person seems to have someone to blame other than themselves. The only people in this novel that seem to posses any sense of clarity regarding the situation are Dagny Taggart, Hank Reardon, and Francisco D’Anconia. The rest of the people, from workers to government officials, are just looking for someone else to blame. For example, when a harsh winter hits the country, government officials state that the weather is to blame for the impending economic crisis, when in reality the majority of the society does not have fuel to warm their house because there is simply no supply available as nearly all of the companies have gone out of business. This situation shows that in difficult times, nobody is really interested in looking beyond the façade of the situation naming the fortunate as culprit when in reality, they are not truly the ones at fault. It is sad to see a society so distorted by what the government and media has told them that nobody is willing to find the source behind the disasters happening daily. The three protagonists of this story seem to be the only people with clear heads on their shoulder as they can see behind each situation to what exactly caused it almost always leading back to the government directives restricting free enterprise.