Explore Atlas Shrugged, Session 20

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 9 - Part 3, Chapter 10

• Part 3: Chapter 9: The Generator
  
• Part 3: Chapter 10: In the Name of the Best Within Us

Or:

• Pages 1126 - 1168 in the larger Hardcover or Softcover
  
• Pages 1035 - 1074 in the smaller Mass Market Paperback

Podcast

Listen Now

63:46 minutes

Download This Episode

• Enhanced M4A File (30.1 MB)
  
• Standard MP3 File (29.2 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 9: The Generator

Section 1: 1126-1133

• What is Dr. Stadler's purpose and state of mind as he drives to Project X?  (1126-8)  What does he find at Project X?  What happens -- and why?  (1128-33)

Section 2: 1133-1139

• What is the response of the looters to Galt's exposure of the gun at the banquet?  What do they plan to do?  Why is that significant?  What does Dagny now understand about their motives?  (1133-6)
  
• What is the significance of Dagny's response to the destruction of the Taggart Bridge?  How is that one last test for her?  (1137-8)

Section 3: 1139-1146

• What is the Ferris Persuader?  How does Galt react to its use on him?  How do the looters react? 
  
• How does Galt respond to the breakdown of the Ferris Persuader?  How do the looters react?  (1139-46)
  
• Why does Jim Taggart collapse?  What does he understand about himself?  How do the other looters respond -- and why?  (1145-6)

Whole Chapter

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

Part 3: Chapter 10: In the Name of the Best Within Us

Section 1: 1147-1160

• Why does Dagny confront the guard in the way that she does?  What choice does she offer him -- and why? Why does she shoot him when he refuses to choose?  (1147-8)
  
• How do Dagny, Hank, Francisco, and Ragnar deal with the guards?  What is the significance of that?  What is the significance of the guards' reactions to them?  (1147-54)
  
• Why does John Galt say that he had to be the one tortured?  How does that serve the strike?  (1155)
  
• Why were so many men of the valley willing to assault the State Science Institute to free John Galt?  Why does he mean so much to them?  Was that self-sacrifice?  (1157)

Section 2: 1160-1167

• What is Eddie Willers' state of mind when the Comet stalls? What does he learn? (1160-7)
  
• Why does he refuse to join the wagon caravan?  What will happen to him?  Why does he suffer this end?  (1163-5)

Section 3: 1167-1168

• What will happen once the producers return to the world?  How will they re-establish America?  (1168)

Whole Chapter

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

Whole Part

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

Whole Book

• What are the most important themes of the novel? How were those conveyed by the events and characters?