The Myth of Atlas

The title Atlas Shrugged was perplexing; it seemed to have no correlation with the rest of the novel. I took guesses about the nature of the title but Ayn Rand finally revealed its true meaning through a conversation amongst Francisco D’Anconia and Hank Rearden. Francisco is trying to explain to Rearden how the world that they live in takes good men and use their virtues to harm them. It takes their love and twists it to manipulate them into doing their bidding. Francisco say  “If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"   Rearden had no answer to Francisco’s question so Francisco says “shrug.” I look up the story of Atlas. Atlas was a god who led the titans against Zeus. His punishment was to hold the world or “heaven” on his shoulder for the rest of his life.  The only thing that kept him holding the earth was his love for it, if he had no virtues, he would have shrugged and let the world die. Francisco is implying that the industrialists are the Atlas of the world, they hold the world aloft and the public uses this love for their business to destroy them. Finally the industrialists are taking a stand and shrugging, letting the world fall into chaos without them. Then when the world sees that they need them, there was be a second “renaissance” and the world will be reborn into an era of innovation and industry.