Character Analyses

Francisco d’Anconia

Francisco is one of John Galt’s two closest friends and an indispensable ally in the strike. He
takes on the role of squandering playboy as cover for his two real activities. One of these is to
gradually obliterate all assets of the world’s wealthiest corporation—d’Anconia Copper—and in
so doing, to help destroy other industrial concerns, such as Taggart Transcontinental. His
other purpose is to recruit great thinkers for the strike. More than anyone else, Francisco helps
liberate Hank Rearden from the shackles of the self-sacrifice ethics, enabling Rearden to
recognize the virtue and necessity of the strike.

The swashbuckling gaiety and enthusiasm that define Francisco’s character result from his
view of the world—a view that Ayn Rand terms the benevolent universe premise. This theory
holds that reality is open to the achievements of rational men. Human beings who recognize
that rational thought and productive effort alone advance their lives, and who don’t place their
whims above facts, can expect to attain their goals and live in happiness. Francisco’s
recognition of this truth is expressed in the two refrains of his childhood. “Let’s find out!” was
his way to motivate Dagny and Eddie to embark on a new adventure. “Let’s make it” was his
call to engage in acts of construction. The first expresses an explorer’s premise, the second a
builder’s. Both represent a man to whom reality is open, an individual for whom all roads are
cleared and green lights stretch to the horizon.

Even Francisco’s characteristic mockery, his use of irony and biting derision, is always
benevolent and positive. He always directs his mockery at the irrational, never at the good
and never at strangers. He laughs openly at people like James Taggart, because he knows that
man can and should be much better. While James Taggart uses derision as a weapon of
destruction, Francisco uses it as a means of destroying the destroyers, thereby clearing the
road for the creative. His trademark mockery always supports his values. A scene from his
childhood proves this point. When a professor of literature saw Francisco on top of a pile in a
junk yard, happily “dismantling the carcass of an automobile,” he said, “‘A young man of your
position ought to spend his time in libraries, absorbing the culture of the world.’” Francisco
replied, “‘What do you think I’m doing?’” He didn’t intend to needle or insult the professor. He
intended to expand the meaning of the term “culture” to recognize the profound value of
technology and industrial production. Even at such a young age, Francisco focused on making
a positive point.

Francisco’s life-giving benevolence is shown in his love for Hank Rearden. The injustice of
Rearden being enslaved and exploited by his family and the looting politicians is deeply
moving to Francisco. He undertakes the long process of teaching Rearden to check his moral
premises—to reject both the mind-body dichotomy and the self-sacrifice ethic. He receives
both insults and a physical blow from Rearden but brushes them aside. He tells Rearden that if
he saw Atlas straining with his last ounce of strength to support the world for a final instant
before he expired, he would tell him to shrug, to release the self-sacrificial responsibility, and
to recognize his own right to live.

Francisco does more than save Rearden’s life during the assault on the mills; he shows him
the reality of a new life. Francisco’s unceasing campaign bears fruit when Rearden
understands the senseless futility of cannibalizing the productive and virtuous for the sake of
vicious moochers. Francisco’s work is complete when Rearden throws off the shackles of guilt
and servitude binding him to the parasites and joyously recognizes his own inestimable moral
value. Francisco, recruiting agent for the strike, wins his greatest conquest.