Atlas Shrugged | Topics & Themes

Atlas Shrugged Thematic Overview

Unlike the majority of popular fiction, Atlas Shrugged explores a number of serious themes, from the role of the creator in society to the very nature of reality itself. The book contains all of the tenets of Objectivism, and like the rest of Rand's novels, it is fiction designed to provide a framework to explain and illustrate her philosophy.

Rand's central concept in this work is the denial of self-sacrifice, a staple of conventional morality. She denies that the good of others should be a person's primary concern, and, in John Galt's radio speech says, "We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's happiness is evil." According to Rand, it is irrational to place the good of others ahead of oneself, although this is a creed preached, oddly enough, by both Christianity and Communism.

Rand opposed both, and in this work, reached...
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