Atlas Shrugged

Being the last novel of Ayn Rand, she must have given it her best. No wonder it was the longest of all her four novels. Ayn considered it as the peak of her career and no wonder it contains her most extensive objectivism remarks than any other of her works of fiction. She is keen to show the role that the brain of man carries in existence. She was advocating for reasoning that keeps one put to his principles. Many nations and societies want to follow the successful industrialists. They end up abandoning the nation fortunes, and this leads to a catastrophic collapse of the most vital industries. Rand was inspired to write this book after she had a conversation with a friend in 1943. The friend encouraged her that she needed to write about her philosophy for the sake of her readers. From then she started to think of if there was a strike. Everyone was on a strike and there was no contribution for anything. This was the title she had in mind until her husband one day suggested the title “Atlas Shrugged”.

Contemporary Reviews

After the year 1957 when the book had been published, it received a lot of criticism. It became a very popular book but was disliked by many of those criticizing it. Many renowned people wrote their review and feeling about the book. These were a showdown of those that were for the book and those that opposed it. After its release, Gore Vidal wrote a review of the book that said that its philosophies were no better than the immorality in them. Many of the people said that the book was written out of hatred. This was also backed by the New York Times Book Review. The National Review said that the book was remarkably silly and that calling it a novel would be devaluing that term. There was however people that believed the book were a good piece of work. Most of Rand’s admirers shot back to the negative reviews with very strong words. Alan Greenspan wrote a letter to New York Times Book Review saying the Atlas Shrugged was a celebration of real life happiness. He was keen to note only creative people enjoy life and are happy of their achievements.

Influence and Legacy

Due to its popularity and the large fan base, Atlas Shrugged book led to the creation of Ayn Rand Institute. It donates close to half a million books to high schools. In a survey done in 1991, Atlas Shrugged was ranked second after the Bible as the book that made most differences in the life of the people.

Professional 👍 essay writing service - get your essays written by expert essay writer.


See Also


#