Book Review: Atlas Shrugged. Writer: Ayn Rand.
In a world that takes pride in conformity, being
yourself is considered a rebellious act. The world today has enshrined the
Fundamental Freedoms as a way of life, but has the world succeeded in embedding
that virtue? Is the world fundamentally free, and yes, what is ‘freedom’ and
how different is it from being free?
Ayn Rand explores all these questions in the form of a
beautiful story in ‘Atlas Shrugged’, a dystopian novel, depicting what the
world would be like if the very enemies of the ideal of hard work and
productivity, in this case meaning an anti-capitalist Government (in the writer’s
opinion) take over and have all the power in their hands and the intelligent as
well as foresighted capitalists are unable to bear the fruits of their labor.
Dagny Taggart and Henry Rearden are trying their best
to fight this kind of a system as capitalists, who take pride in calling
themselves altruists without engaging in altruism as capitalism is essentially
altruistic in nature because it gives opportunities to the crony opportunists
as well as the fair rationalists. John Galt, an enigmatic, straight forward,
dynamic and fair personality enters this world and turns things upside down.
Ayn Rand’s writings are known to be piercing and eye
opening. Her unapologetic views about things, the attitude of calling a spade a
spade without the fear of hurting people who glorify an ideal just to stand to
ceremony and adhere to conformity is interesting, to say the least. The writer
is a ‘femme fatale’ in the truest sense of the term.
The writer’s limnal of dystopia is worse than that of
Orwell’s ‘1984’ because while the latter talks of a stage where the Government
interferes to the extent of controlling thoughts, the former talks of eviscerating
a man’s most basic right and his most essential duty from him: his hard work. ‘Atlas
Shrugged’ expresses a conflict between capitalism, socialism and communism and
the difference in the attitudes of the people who follow these ideologies. The
fact that everyone who follows these ideologies is well aware of its flaws and
pitfalls but turns a blind eye to it is impeccably portrayed and would
definitely engage the reader.
The primary question in the book is ‘Who is John Galt?’,
because his arrival has made the pseudo-intellectuals assess the veracity of
their claims, the ‘altruistic’ populace to understand the difference between
being kind and being stupid, as well as the charlatans in exposing their true
selves. John Galt believes in the prevalence of meritocracy and that only the
hard working is the truly deserving. It is this authenticity and rationality
that makes him interesting.
The writing exposes the fallacy of other schools of
thought and makes a clear difference between ‘privileges earned by birth’ and ‘privileges
earned by hard work’. For the latter, it also calls out nepotism, and expresses
a very relevant fact that if the progeny of a magnate is incapable of creating
and/or preserving wealth, the status of a ‘magnate’ is sure to be short lived.
The conflict between ideologies and the triumph of a single fact makes the book
striking.
Dagny and Henry are two extraordinary people who find
each other in a world where mediocrity is a virtue, and laziness, a sign of benevolence.
While John Galt is a safe haven for the protagonists, he is also an evangelist.
Ayn Rand supports capitalism openly without shying away from the fact that it
was not the fashion to do so back in her time.
The reader may not agree with the writer’s ideology,
but he would definitely be all adulation for her undaunted spirit to stand up
for what she believes to be true. ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is a fictional dystopia
closest to a non-fictional reality. It embodies the legal doctrine of ‘res ipsa
loquitor’, meaning a thing that speaks for itself. In the writer’s opinion,
only a few things have spoken for themselves such as hard work, determination
and merit. The author, while expressing her opinion through a story does not in
any way demean the ones who are not in a position to uplift themselves.
‘Atlas Shrugged’ is bold, fierce and daunting. The reader is sure to love the 75
page long speech given by John Galt in which he reveals his identity and takes
everyone, including Dagny and Henry by surprise.
The book is a must
read for the ones who proscribe the capitalist ideology, just to understand a
different point of view. The book is a must read for everyone in general
because the clairsentience of the writer combined with her intrepidity and the
sheer rebelliousness of being herself no matter what everyone else thought of
her is brilliant.
‘Atlas Shrugged’ is
an asset to the bookshelf as well as a treat to the reader’s intellect.
Tempting❤ going to add this one for my own list of dystopian classics soon...
ReplyDeleteNicely pointed out vairous ideologies and their attributes. .Review is well scripted
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