Explore Atlas Shrugged, Session 12

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 3, Chapter 1

• Part 3, Chapter 1: Atlantis

Or:

• Pages 699-751 in the larger Hardcover or Softcover
  
• Pages 651-699 in the smaller Mass Market Paperback

Podcast

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64:55 minutes

Download This Episode

• Enhanced M4A File (30.6 MB)
  
• Standard MP3 File (29.8 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 3, Chapter 1: Atlantis

Section 1 (701-733)

• What does Dagny see in John Galt on first meeting him?  Is it possible for a person to see that much in another on first meeting?  (701-2)  
  
• What critical information about Galt does Dagny learn about him on their way to his house and then at the house?  What does she think of him? (701-16)
  
• What is the attitude of the inhabitants of the valley toward their past work in the world and their present work in the valley? In what way are all the strikers simply "living" in the valley?  (713-27)
  
• Why does Mulligan's car rent for a rate?  Why doesn't Mulligan allow Galt to use it as a courtesy?  (714)
  
• Why is Dagny penniless in the valley?  Why won't the strikers sell her any gold?  (717-8, 727-8)
  
• Why is Dagny suprised that Andrew Stockton ruined a competitor?  What does that tell us about the values of the valley?  Why do the strikers regard competition as a positive good?  (724-5)
  
• What is Dagny's response to seeing the powerhouse?  Why does it matter so much to her?  (730-3)
  
• What is Galt's oath?  What is its meaning and significance to him and the other strikers?  (731)

Section 2 (733-751)

• What does Dagny want from the other industrialists in the valley?  Should she care about their approval?  (734-6)
  
• Why does Dagny think that the strikers have given up?  Why don't they think that?  (737-8)
  
• What is the essential meaning of and motive for the strike?  (738-41)  Why did each of the men at the dinner party go on strike?  Were they right to do so?  How are their stories similar?  How are they different? (741-46)
  
• Why can't Dagny embrace the valley, even though she has found everything that she ever wanted in it?  Is Dagny's choice either-or, as John Galt says?  (748-9)  Is Galt right to say that Dagny must destroy him if she chooses the world?  (750-1)

Whole Chapter

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