D’Anconia and Rearden were presented as sort of enemies in
the beginning, each with their own ideals, ways, and success. Later in the book
it is shown that they have more in common than their differences are worth, and
so their interactions are inevitable. Rearden doesn’t hate D’ Anconia but he
despises the brain Frisco is wasting on being a millionaire playboy, but maybe
D’Anconia is a lot more than what meets the eyes. Slowly, D’Anconia has been
influencing Rearden to care even less about other people than before, which
seemed almost impossible. By telling Rearden to just shrug if Atlas was
struggling to hold the world, D’Anconia is telling Rearden to just watch the
world struggle to survive without moving a muscle because people have bashed
him for all his success from his work, and so the world doesn’t deserve the
help of someone so powerful that was always hated. Rearden takes this all in
and it sort of becomes his motto to be to people as they are to him. He finally
stands up to his family that has been treating him like dirt and telling him he
doesn’t do anything for them even though he puts a roof above their head and
food on their plate. He declares what he’s been feeling for all of them and
admits that he could care less about them because it’s not like they really
care about him, so D’ Anconia’s influence mutual treatment is shown in Hank’s behavior. Also, as I stated in the last post, Lillian
finds out Hank has a mistress, but she doesn’t know who it is, which I believe
to be a lie and that she’s just denying her subconsciously known truth.
I agree with Luis and his initial thoughts on Francisco and Hank's relationship. To me, it did seem like they despised one another. However, Hank soon realized how brilliant Francisco was and even decided to invest in his company. I'm not sure if Luis has read this far, but Francisco later reveals that he was destroying his own company on purpose. it's for this reason that he got so angry when Hank told him about the investment. Nevertheless, Hank gave in and handed Rearden metal over to the government. Also, the comment Luis makes about people bashing Hank for his success is true. People love nothing more than to see a successful person fall. In one way or another, by showing the evil's of communism, Rand is also portraying how the succesful businessmen are all falling and giving up. It seems as if all their work has been for nothing, Additionally, i don't think Hank acted truthfully towards his family because of Francisco's influence. I think Hank was just tired of being miserable and having to deal with these people day in and day out; you don't choose your family. J think Hank just wanted to finally be happy, or enjoy most of what's left of it anyways.
ReplyDelete