Explore Atlas Shrugged, Session 11

These discussion questions and podcast were prepared by Diana Hsieh for ExploreAtlasShrugged.com for people interested in creating their own Atlas Shrugged Reading Groups, as well as for anyone wishing to study the novel in more depth. They may be freely used for the study and discussion of Atlas Shrugged, provided that this paragraph remains intact in any reproduction.

Readings

Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, Chapters 8-9

• Part 2: Chapter 9: The Face without Pain or Fear or Guilt
  
• Part 2: Chapter 10: Sign of the Dollar

Or:

• Pages 633-697 in the larger Hardcover or Softcover
  
• Pages 591-650 in the smaller Mass Market Paperback

Podcast

Listen Now

79:51 minutes

Download This Episode

• Enhanced M4A File (37.6 MB)
  
• Standard MP3 File (36.6 MB)

Learn More

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, also available in hardcover
  
• Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, edited by Robert Mayhew
  
• Atlas Shrugged Reading Groups of Front Range Objectivism
  
• AtlasShrugged.com, produced by by the Ayn Rand Institute

Discussion Questions

(Note: The listed page numbers are for the larger edition, softcover or hardback.)

Part 2: Chapter 9: The Face without Pain or Fear or Guilt

Section 1 (633-648)

• What is Dagny's state of mind when she returns to work after the tunnel disaster?  How and why has her attitude toward her work changed?  (633-4)
  
• What is the basic disagreement between Dagny and Francisco? How does that relate to the "man of ability"?  How and why are Francisco and Dagny enemies now? (635-7)
  
• What does the revelation of Hank and Dagny's affair mean to Francisco?  Why does it mean so much to Francisco?  Why is there such a dangerous potential for violence between the two men?  (638-9)
  
• Why is Dagny driven by a sense of justice to reveal to Hank that her first lover was Francisco?  Why is that a worse blow to him than his slap of Francisco?  (641-2)  Why is their sex after so violent?  What momentous choice does Hank face? (642-3)
  
• Why has Quentin Daniels quit?  What does Dagny want him to do instead -- and why? (644-5)

Section 2 (648-653)

• What is Eddie's response to his discovery that Hank and Dagny are lovers?  Why does he respond as he does?  Why does he lie to Dagny? (650, 652-3)
  
• What critical information does Eddie reveal to the railroad worker? How does the worker respond to the news about the motor -- and why? How does he respond to the news about Dagny's relationship with Hank -- and why?  (652-3)

Whole Chapter

• What is the significance of the title of this chapter?

Part 2: Chapter 10: The Sign of the Dollar

Section 1 (654-672)

• What is Dagny's attitude toward the world and toward her work now? How and why has it changed since the scene when we met her? (654-6, 12-17)
  
• How does Dagny respond to the tramp, Jeff Allen?  Why? What does his initial conversation with her reveal about the state of the world?  (656-60)
  
• What is the basic story of the 20th Century Motor Company?  What is the moral principle on which it operated?  What does the story reveal about the real-life effects thereof on the company's products, profits, employees, and community?  Does it matter that it was voluntarily enacted -- and how so or not? (660-72)
  
• Why did the workers of the 20th Century Motor Company support the scheme of the Starnes heirs? Are those the main reasons why people support altruist-collectivist schemes? What were the motives of the Starnes heirs themselves?  (666-8)

Section 2 (672-697)

• What is the response of the passengers to the frozen train? How and why are Jeff Allen and Owen Kellogg different? What is Dagny's response to the frozen train and its passengers? (673-679)
  
• How does Dagny interact with the night dispatcher in Bradshaw to get the Comet moving again? Why is that necessary? How does that differ from her dealings with the crew during the signal light outage?  (685-8, 12-18)
  
• What is the significance of the fact that Dagny has so little to do in the world if anything happens to her plane?  What does she think of the world now? What matters to her? (690-7)

Whole Chapter

• What is the significance of the title of this chapter?

Whole Part

• What is the significance of the title of this part?