Thanks
to Ayn Rand, every single book I read from this moment on will be relatively
short. I remember sitting in class the first day of school and thinking to
myself, “Why do we need an actual Atlas for this class?” After that I did not
think much of it until Mr. Shapiro said that we were going to read this entire
book by the end of the first quarter. When I heard these words I immediately
opened Atlas Shrugged and saw its diminutive letters and extra thin pages. Saying
I was intimidated is an understatement. To be honest, I did not think I would
ever finish the entire book. It just seemed like way too much, and it was.
Nevertheless, I am proud of myself for actually completing it.
The
book itself caused me to feel numerous emotions. The first reading assignment,
the first forty pages were not bad. It was a sort of introduction to the
setting and the characters. I expected this because most books start in this
way, by allowing the reader to get comfortable with the reading. However, I never
expected this to last for so long. I
mean, usually this takes up no longer than a couple of pages. At this point in
time, it can be said that there I had absolutely no sense of excitement towards
the reading of the book. In fact, I had to force myself to read.
It wasn’t
until Rand began to talk about Dagny’s past and her childhood relationship with
Francisco that I became engrossed by the book. It wasn’t like I couldn’t put
the book down or anything though; I just enjoyed it when I was reading. I did not mind reading; I took pleasure in it
because it made me think. Many of the things Rand talked about we discussed in
class, such as Obamacare or the real meaning of altruism. As a whole, I really
enjoyed the book because it was different than anything I had read before, and
although it didn’t have much action, it was always tense, suspenseful and entertaining.
One
aspect of the book I disliked was that its realistic aspect, at least in my
eyes, did out in the end. The creation of Project X, Dagny’s plane crash, and
The Valley were in a way, too much. For starters, the book was written about
fifty years ago and to my knowledge, there has never been an invention, except
for a nuclear bomb that destroys everything in sight with invisible rays. Also,
Dagny being the only survivor of such a terrible crash is not very believable. If
the pilot or anyone else was rescued as well as her, then it would make more
sense. Not to mention, why didn’t Hank’s plane crash too? He flew over the same
area as her, endured the same turbulence, but nothing happened to him or his
plane. Could it have been faith? Lastly, a protective undetectable shield over
a large area is something only seen in movies. I understand Galt is a genius,
but I just do not believe that he was that smart. For the purpose of the story, I completely
understand how these events make sense and are necessary for the development of
the book, but for some reason, I would have like it better if all those things
were actually possible. Although many other aspects of the book are extremely exaggerated
and would not really take place, I can picture a nation being taken over by a
couple of communist men. Yet, I cannot imagine a futuristic weapon capable of massive
destruction or a magical protective shell over a man made city.
Since
the day Dagny found out who Galt was, the ending could have been predetermined.
It was obvious that Hank, Francisco, Ragnar, and Dagny were going to team up
and destroy the looters in some way.
What I did not expect was that Dagny would kill an innocent guard. Maybe
if it had been Mouch, Morrison, even her own brother Jim, then I would not have
been so shocked. But the fact that Dagny possessed the ability to murder an
innocent person is astonishing. All of us who have read the book know that
Dagny is a powerful person, but I’m pretty sure none of us expected for her to
end someone else’s life. I guess the power of love and her determination to
save the guy she has waited her whole life to fall in love with was enough for
her to commit this act.
If I could add one more thing to
the book, I would elaborate on the ending. I would have liked to know more
about what happened to Jim, Mr. Thompson and the rest as well as to how Galt
was going to fix the world.
Jose Novas
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