Devyani Gonzalez

AP English Language and Composition

Mr. Stephens

August 8, 2019

The meaning of “earn”

In ​Atlas Shrugged​, a novel by Ayn Rand, the question that everyone asks is, “Who is

John Galt?” However, there are more interesting and enthralling themes that this amazing novel

explores, than the identity of the man who stops the motor of the world. One of the most unique

and interesting relationships in the novel is that of Hank Rearden, the creator of the best thing

since steel, and Dagny Taggart, the underappreciated mind that runs Taggart Transcontinental

behind the scenes. Hank and Dagny begin as the typical “work only, no nonsense” associates

whose only interest is in proving to the world that it is wrong. However, as the story progresses,

Hank and Dagny have an affair that proves to be one of the only things that seems right in this

novel. Both Dagny and Hank have distinct ways of thinking, and as the novel continues to

unravel, both of the characters evolve with it. Through Hank and Dagny’s affair, the reader can

see reflected the major themes of the novel, such as the “Morality of Life”, which John Galt, so

passionately fought to show everyone.

Both Dagny and Hank have differing perspectives of their relationship. Dagny is an

intelligent, hard-working woman, who sees everyone but herself as insolent. It is not that she

believes she is better than everyone else, but she knows that they don’t understand her. She

doesn’t find any men appealing, except those who she sees as a male reflection of herself. This is

why she states, “‘If I'm asked to name my proudest attainment, I will say 'I have slept with Hank

Rearden. I had earned it.’” Dagny realizes that she is always immersed in work, and she feels as
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if all her hard work is justified as long as she has the pleasure of having slept with a man she

believes is worthy of her. She sees Hank as an equal and she knows that he sees her as his equal

as well, which is something all men in her life lack. This is why Dagny feels as if she’s earned

sleeping with Hank.

Hank on the other hand, sees their affair in a different manner. Similar to Dagny, he isn’t

understood by those around him. He is also hard-working, intelligent, and misunderstood by

those around him. Hank’s wife, Lillian acts non-materialistic, she never gets tired of telling her

husband how uncaring he is and how he gives all his time to his job. Lillian, however, doesn’t

love Hank, she is just with him because of the status and reputation that she has built as his wife.

He also covers all her expenses and lets her waste money through her pointless parties. Similar to

Lillian, his family always hounds down on Hank for never being home, and for talking about

work when he is. Hank’s relationship with his family is that of an owner and his pets; he

provides for them, he makes sure that they never need anything, but he is absent most of the time

because of his love for his work. Due to this, Hank subdues his affair with Dagny as him giving

into his “primitive” instincts. He hates himself for wanting to find pleasure in women, and for

seeing them as objects in a way. As the novel progresses, this slowly starts to change and Hank

falls for Dagny, but for the purposes of the themes shown in the novel, we will use the initial

thoughts each had of the affair.

Dagny’s attitude of having earned her pleasure and the right to be with a man, can be

connected to the way that all the strikers feel as if they have earned the right to leave everything

behind as long as it means that they can find happiness. Dagny’s affair with Hank, becomes the

only thing that keeps her happy in the novel, it’s her way of allowing herself some rest from
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devoting herself and her work to the looters and society in general. Hank on the other hand,

seeing his pleasure as “primitive” and seeing Dagny as his, he isolates their relationship from the

world, while hating any man that dares get close to Dagny. As Ayn Rand discusses in her essay,

Of Living Death​, the idea that this primitive instinct of man’s sexuality is seen as or regarded as a

sin in itself, emitting evil, relates to the theme that the world of the looters is evil, and that

anything following something that is not the morality of life, is evil. This contrasts with Dagny,

whose view of their relationship feeling that she has earned the right to sleep with Hank, actually

follows the morality of life which states that one shouldn’t devote oneself to anyone’s happiness

but to one’s own. This was the only thing that Dagny allowed herself to give herself and for her

happiness, while Hank saw their affair as evil. This results in the affair to be a representation of

John Galt’s morality of life, and ultimately as the whole idea that there should be looters and

strikers to get rid of all the evil in the world.

In conclusion, it is clear that through Hank and Dagny’s affair, the main theme of the

novel that one should strive to follow the morality of life as much as possible, is portrayed many

chapters before the novel actually dives deep into the strikers and looters, and before John Galt

bluntly explains what the point of the whole novel was. Ayn Rand does a prodigious job at

demonstrating her theme of the Morality of life and how there is good and evil in societies, in all

aspects of her novel. So the question remains, “Who is John Galt?”

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Bibliography

- “Of Living Death.” ​ARI Campus,​ Nov. 1968, courses.aynrand.org/works/of-living-death/.

- Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. New York :Plume, 1999.