Money In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

By the conclusion of the story Anthem, Equality 7-2521 has changed his mind and become very judgmental of the leaders of his society, denouncing them in many terms. Because of what the leaders made equality do, his actions were very understandable. The way they controlled his life and made him do things he did not want to do were very harsh. I feel as if equalities actions were correct. And here are some reasons why.

“One must never fail to pass a moral judgment”. This statement is huge because this is a thing that happens all the time. People will pass a moral judgment and that is what they did in the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand. “There was no pain in their eyes and no knowledge of the agony of their body. There was only joy in them, and pride, a pride holier than it is fit for human pride to be.” While he watches the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word burn at the stake in Chapter II, Equality 7-2521 makes this observation about the Transgressor’s stoicism. The word the Transgressor has spoken is “I,” a concept forbidden in the society because everyone must work for the good of his or her brothers and any thought that occurs in private is necessarily evil. The

In her essay, “How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?” Ayn Rand said, “By pronouncing moral judgment, one protects the clarity of one’s own perception and the rationality of the course one chooses to pursue”. Ayn Rand also wrote the book Anthem, which is the story of an “irrational society” (“How”) that terminated moral judgement. Equality 7-2521 slowly rediscovers judgement, and individuality. Equality was free of error in condemning the leaders of the society that he left.

The message of “Francisco’s speech” from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, is that money is beneficial. Money is a symbol of hard work, it gives aspirations, and trains people to become stronger. Obviously, money is not given to the lazy, money is a symbol of hard work because it is a reward. This concept was explored in “Francisco’s speech” by reading “Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit”(Ayn Rand 1). Money is a symbol of hard work because it is a reward, and the harder people work is equal to the money they receive.

When Equality 7-2521 begins the novel by saying, “It is a sin to write this.” he has a different moral assessment of writing than at the end of the novel. Throughout Anthem, Equality’s actions affect how he views his society and the people around him. By the end of the story, Equality begins to realize that the government and society that he lives in might not be so perfect, and it might not be a sin to write. Equality’s eventual moral assessments of his sins are correct and are supported by; his growth throughout the story, the themes of independence developed in the novel and Ayn Rand’s concepts concerning communism. These are the three ideas that will be developed and explained in this paper.

We, the Society will form an order of how the society will stay and think as one. As we choose the steps of the future, we ask that we all accomplish what we are assigned to do. The future, we plan for. The present, we live for, and the past we will never speak of. We all have a job to do, and as we achieve them, we need to learn our ways there and back. Forget the past, and look forward to the future. We of all people need to respect and obey what we choose for society, to make it a place where we feel comfortable and safe. We all will establish to be in The Council of Scholars, the Home of the Peasants,The Palace of Mating, The Council of Vocations and more jobs. Though, we the people may be forgiven for

“What is not thought by all men cannot be true” is the common belief in the totalitarian world of Anthem (73). In this post-apocalyptic and altruistic society people can only exists through the service to their brothers, and individual thoughts and actions are shunned upon. Equality 2-72521 is brilliant, using technologies he found from before the “great rebirth” to formulate new conclusions about the virtually unexplored world of his time. With individualism shunned, personal thought is prohibited as well. Idiosyncrasy of anyone is looked upon as evil because it is different from other brother men, so people are bred to be and think the same. Science and technology are advanced upon with the thought of individuals coming up with new hypothesis

Vision a lifestyle where one perceives it as a sin to comprehend data more efficiently than of one’s peers; a felony to long for things that others do not wish upon. Where floods of white tunics and austere minds obliterate the Earth. A colony built upon leaders who asphyxiate anyone from infatuation of any object or significant being; moreover, a world suffocating in collectivism. Through exasperated transcription, Anthem brings about such a community; nevertheless, a world of black and white. Ayn Rand does not overemphasize the effects of totalitarianism, but amplifies it so that it is more effortless for one to enlighten he or she’s notion on the particular proposal. First, by analyzation of “Equality 7-2521”, and

“When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer.”

A dystopian government is a government where everything leads to death. It is an antonym for a utopia which is a place, in which the society is chosen by the people, causing it to become what the people want it, to be “perfect”. An example of a dystopian government is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. In Atlas Shrugged, the government intervenes to take control over big businesses. Another work of literature that contains a dystopian society is The Hunger Games series.

In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Francisco d’Anconia, a highly intelligent and extremely perspicacious industrialist, makes his moral values clear and known throughout the book. From d’Anconia’s first encounters with Dagny Taggart as children to his speech about money at James and Cherryl’s wedding, Francisco never tried to hide what he thought about the world and what the looters were doing (Rand 90, 380). Even when everyone seemed to be turning against him, he continued to do what needed to be done; prove the point that money encourages people and is needed as a crucial part of modern exchanges.

Francisco points out that money is a tool which one can use to satisfy his wishes, which includes

Earning money in modern economic is a expression of proficiency and virtue it helps deal with his ethics. His argument is that “more and more money” is not happiness and ultimately it is “absolutely irrational.” Olaudah Equianos and Benjamin Franklin both use their arguments to express their point, however Olaudah uses facts and Benjamin uses his intellect.

Ayn Rand’s huge readership came through her philosophy and her philosophy came through her past. Her past consisted of her fleeing he home in Russia in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution, her immigration to the industrialized United States, and through the authors that reimagined her philosophy to keep her works popular in current times. Ayn Rand's philosophy can be traced through her past where she fled from Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. Not only was Ayn Rand’s philosophy traceable through the fleeing during the Bolshevik revolution, but also through her immigration to the United States and the changes that influenced.

Money can cause people to change. In The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Kino finds a pearl with a tremendous value, but after finding the pearl Kino’s mindset changes from being wholesome to being greedy. In “Ladies and Gentlemen” by Joyce Carol Oates, the Children use to have everything they wanted, but as they got older all wanted they was money. Both authors use motifs and characterization to reveal the theme, money can cause people to change. John Steinbeck uses motifs throughout his story support the theme.