"For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt?This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who has deprived you of victims and thus has destroyed your world, and if you wish to know why you are perishing, you who dread knowledge: I am the man who will now tell you."
It's Twenty Minutes into the Future. The government is evil and stupid, intent on draining the decent, productive, people dry. The average Joe is clamped hard on the government teat, and happy about it. The people are Les Collaborateurs, busy gaming the system for every drop before it crashes, or self-deluded fools certain they can fix everything with just a LITTLE more control. There is no public resistance.Worse, the few people who are still productive are disappearing, one by one. No one ever hears from them again, and their friends and relatives are left with nothing but a question:"Who is John Galt?"Welcome to the world of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.The title is based on a popular misconception that in Greek mythology Atlas carried the world on his back (he actually carried the sky); as Hank and Francisco discuss during the book, if he ever tired of carrying that weight on his shoulders, all he needed to do was shrug, and it would fall off. The working title for the novel, before its publication, was The Strike.The book is most widely known for its condemnation of religion and altruism, as well as its support of free-market classical liberalism (which Rand called "Capitalism," although Marxists and Anarchists use the term "Capitalism" in a completely different sense). Other themes include its celebration of the individual and the argument that suffering is not a necessary part of the human condition.For those that are interested in the technical details of Rand's ideas, there is a Useful Notes page on Objectivism (warning: RL politics/philosophy ahead).A film adaptation of the book's first part was released on April 15th, 2011 (income tax day) after decades in Development Hell. It has its own page, here.An adaptation of the book's second part was released on October 12th, 2012 and is covered on the same page as the first part.
Aerith and Bob: The Taggart siblings, James and...Dagny.
Almighty Janitor: All of the strikers, including highly capable people, agree to take nothing but the equivalent of minimum-wage jobs in order to avoid contributing their minds to the looters' system. Notably, scientific genius John Galt works at Taggart Transcontinental as an unskilled railroad hand for ten years.
Alternate History: A possible explanation that has been proposed for importance of radios, trains, and the lack of post-WWII technology is that the timeline splits around the '30s when FDR is elected, resulting in decades of stagnation, and major events such as World War II never happened in this universe.
Ambition Is Evil: The book's villains think this. The protagonists repeatedly say the exact opposite: they consider the lack of ambition to be the ultimate evil. The latter point is one of the book's main Aesops.
America Saves the Day: Simultaneously averted and played straight. Averted in that in the world of the novel, the USA is well on track to becoming just like the People's States it regularly sends government aid to (and, by the end of the novel, American society has indeed collapsed). Two heroes (D'Anconia and Ragnar The Philosopher Pirate) are Argentinian and Scandinavian, respectively. Present in that all of the novel's heroes extol (what they refer to as) American values and the majesty of a country founded on the pursuit of individual happiness. By the end of the novel all the productive people are living in lovely Colorado.
Although Rand intended her protagonists to be morally unassailable, even many people who agree with the book's message don't perceive them as pure heroes.
Dagny Taggart and Francisco D'Anconia are somewhere between Type III and Type IV, Hank Rearden is more of a Type II. John Galt is arguably a Type III, albeit only to his enemies.
Arc Words: "How am I to know?","Check your premises", "Who are you to judge/think?", "He'll do something!" "The whole world should know his name!" — "Who is John Galt?"
Atlantis: John Galt's preferred nickname for Galt's Gulch Mulligan's Valley.
Word Of God (i.e. Rand herself) admits that she is the Fishwife in Galt's Gulch.
Rand also referred to her real life husband-at-the-time as "my John Galt".
Author Filibuster: As quote on the Author Filibuster Quotes page says, "Eventually the question you ask stops being 'Who is John Galt?' and becomes 'When will John Galt shut up?'" Atlas Shrugged has one of the longest examples in print, with 60 to 70 pages (depending on printing) of John Galt lecturing the entire world. There are other, shorter filibusters as well scattered through the book. It must be noted that Ayn Rand was inspired by Victor Hugo, whose novels did include numerous examples.
Badass Bookworm: Ragnar Danneskjöld, the most fearsome pirate on the high seas, is also a philosophy major who enjoys reading Aristotle. He worked his way through college as a library clerk.
Balance Between Good and Evil: Actively averted: Rand's view was that evil is a parasite on the good of the world, which cannot survive without willing virtues to loot.
Beauty Equals Goodness: All of the protagonists and members of Galt's Gulch are described as being exceptionally attractive, while the villains are generally described as pudgy and watery eyed. To be fair, however, Rand might have been trying to say that being talented, hard working, and passionate makes you attractive, and not the other way around.
Be Careful What You Wish For: John Galt is telling the absolute truth when he says he's merely granted society's wish to rid the world of greedy businessmen.
"You have destroyed all that which you held to be evil and achieved all that which you held to be good. Why, then, do you shrink in horror from the sight of the world around you? That world is not the product of your sins, it is the product and image of your virtues. It is your moral ideal brought into reality in its full and final perfection. You have fought for it, you have dreamed of it, and you have wished it, and I — I am the man who has granted you your wish."
Rand also deconstructs the trope with the actress who joined the strike because she was typecast as the Veronica: - she was tired of having to play characters who were more interesting than the Betties in formula films while always losing to them in the end.
Big Damn Heroes: John Galt's rescue by Dagny, Hank, Frisco and Ragnar. Ragnar even crashes through a window, guns akimbo to ambush the guards.
Hank Rearden: In my youth, this was called blackmail.
Dr. Ferris: That's what it is, mr. Rearden. We've entered a much more realistic age.
Brain Drain: This is John Galt's major plan: to drain ALL OF AMERICA
Brick Joke: Remember how Dagny returns from Galt's Gulch just in time to hear that the engines from their star line and the cars from a coal run were being appropriated to pick up a shipment of grapefruit? Two-hundred and fifty pages later, after the looters have captured Galt, it's mentioned that Mr. Thompson's doctor had prescribed him grapefruit juice to help with an "epidemic" of colds. And we learn of this because they just at that moment ran out of juice. Right up until the collapse, resources were put aside so the Head Of State could have grapefruit juice.
Broken Pedestal: Dr. Robert Stadler, brilliant and idealistic scientist who becomes just another part of the looters' machine.
Bromance: Hank Rearden and Francisco d'Anconia; Dr. Akston and John Galt; Kenneth Danneger and Hank Rearden...
Danneger: About Hank Rearden... Will you do me a favor?
Dagny: Of course.
Dannager: Will you tell him that I... You see, I've never cared for people, yet he was always the man I respected, but I didn't know until today that what I felt was,... that he was the only man I ever loved... Just tell him this and that I wish I could—no, I guess that's all I can tell him. ... He'll probably damn me for leaving ... still, maybe he won't.
Brother-Sister Team: Subverted with Dagny and James Taggart. While both are in major leadership roles at Taggart Transcontinental, it's Dagny who keeps the railroad running and James who keeps either harming its interests or advancing it through dishonest means. When the three were children, Francisco always thought of Dagny and Eddie Willers, not James, as "the Taggart children," so Dagny and Eddie, who becomes her Special Assistant, count in spirit.
Cain and Abel: James and Dagny Taggart; Phillip and Hank Rearden.
Character Filibuster: Quite a few. A four hour long speech appears verbatim, right before the climax. After that, the rest look like zingers.
Comic Book Time: A mild example with Galt's speech which is four hours long in the book. In real life, no-one has been able to read the entire thing, clearly and distinctly, in less than six.
Comically Small Bribe: Inverted. Mr. Thompson tries to offer John Galt what he thinks are comically large bribes to cooperate with the government, such as a billion dollars in gold and total economic power over the whole country. Galt points out that, in fact, such money and power would only be of value to him once he creates said value himself, making them completely worthless.
After listening to Galt's four-hour long tirade about the evils of government interference in industry, the looters proceed to capture him and offer him the role of economic director, a job in which he will be free to run industry as he sees fit.
After Dagny returns from her idyllic sojourn in Galt's Gulch, James Taggart (who probably majored in Missing the Point) brags about how much money he has made the railroad in her absence. He gloats, because all Dagny ever cared about was making lucre. He "made" that money by pulling strings with his friends to get the government to give him outrageous subsidies and advantages. Dagny's... not impressed.
James...again, after his sister's dynamo performance on Bertram Scudder's radio program. When Cherryl asks him about Dagny's comments, James responds by attacking Scudder and pointing out that he has been kicked off the radio. Cherryl becomes quite exasperated.
Hank Rearden is thrown a banquet after the tremendous success of Taggart Transcontinental's Rearden Metal line, at which he is praised loudly for being someone who people desperately needs. He's not very impressed.
Composer Richard Halley joins the strike after the night his opera became a roaring success for the same reason.
Conspicuous Consumption: Francisco d'Anconia became famous for this after adopting his playboy persona. James Taggart also goes on a spree of this later on. Notably averted with most of the heroic characters, even very rich ones: they may purchase extremely expensive objects, but do this for their quality rather than showing off how rich they are.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Various villains, notably James Taggart and Orren Boyle. The heroes have also been accused, in-universe, of embodying this trope.
Corrupt Politician: Just about every politician in the book is either a weak, amoral slug or a deliberately destructive leech.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Hank Rearden flips out when he finds out Dagny slept with Francisco d'Anconia... years before the former ever met her. The scene ends with Rearden and Dagny having the greatest sex they've ever had.
Daddy's Girl: There are interesting shades of this in Dagny's relationship with her father. Although he mainly gave to company to James, he knew from watching her childhood that she was the Taggart to run the railroads. In turn, Dagny admires her father for being a self-made, hardworking man, but also regrets that being born into his family made her success a little easier.
Dead Air: After John Galt hacks the radio transmissions and delivers his speech, the other characters do anything to fill up the dead air afterward, but this is treated more as a Follow the Leader response of the radio producers that came before them.
Deadpan Snarker - Most of the good characters but particularly Dagny.
Deconstruction: The chapter detailing the fate of the Twentieth Century Motor Company is a deconstruction of the Marxist slogan "From Each According to Ability, To Each According to Need." Ultimately, the plot of the novel is intended to be a deconstruction of traditional (i.e. altruistic) moral principles.
The first guy to produce steel in Galt's Gulch is driven out of business when a better man joins the strikers. The beaten man happily works for the new steel producer, in a position which is a much better fit.
The winner himself tells Dagny that he looks forward to the day when Rearden joins the strikers: Hank will certainly beat him, but it'll be an honorable defeat.
Dagny, particularly in regards to how she finds Galt. She finds his plane, grabs her own, follows it until it seemingly disappears into the side of a mountain, and follows.
Hank Rearden went through countless failures before he finally invented a successful version of Rearden Metal.
Developing Doomed Characters: Galt, the hero, doesn't show up in a major way for about 700 pages. He's in the first couple chapters, but it takes the looters about 400 pages before they really start to screw up society. That "early" portion of the book is devoted to introducing characters and establishing their personalities through extensive, extensive dialogue and flashbacks.
Domestic Abuse: Lillian Rearden and Jim Taggart each got married for the sheer, sadistic joy of psychologically crushing and breaking a person.
Dont Think Feel: Deconstructed. The villains of the piece base their economic policies on emotionalism and feelings and (what they call) 'love for others'.
Double Standard: Within the world of the novel. Dr. Ferris lampshades this when he threatens Hank Rearden with the public revelation of his affair with Dagny, mentioning that Rearden's own "conquest" would be perceived as normal, even admirable by some, while Dagny would be seen as a slut and be totally dishonoured. The fear of tarnishing Dagny's good name is exactly what drives Rearden to cave in to the looters' demands. Possibly averted when Dagny proudly declares on public radio how she has been Rearden's mistress, and actually receives some admiration.
Dystopia Is Hard: The more Dystopian Edicts that are passed and the more control the government gain for the greater good, the more screwed up things become.
Egopolis: - Averted by Galt. Everyone else calls the hidden valley where the strikers are living "Galt's Gulch", but he calls it by its owner: "Mulligan's Valley". Played straight by the planned "Meigsville".
Electric Torture: Project F. Subverted in that once the machine breaks, none of the torturers know how to fix it. Galt calmly explains how to repair it, and a Eureka Moment ensues: they can't even hurt Galt without his assistance, and the Übermensch 'does not want to play anymore.' Cue the Villainous Breakdown!
Even Evil Has Standards: During the meeting to plan Directive 10-289, the question of what to do about any industrialists who are caught deserting is brought up. Dr. Ferris says that since the directive makes deserting a crime, it should be treated as treason, and perhaps the death penalty should be applied in such cases. Fred Kinnan instantly calls him out on it, and nobody ever brings up the thought again.
Inverted later in the book, when violating Directive 10-289 means that you can no longer be legally employed and doomed to a slow death by starvation.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After capturing Galt, the various Looters try and talk him into helping them out. We see Mr. Thompson's conversation at length, and it's clear he cannot understand anything Galt believes. The two talk past each other most of the time.
Kinnan is particularly interesting: true to both this and Kinnan's trope, he's not just the only Looter who gives half a damn about his employees, he's the only one who's aware that they're going to lose. He emerges from a meeting with Galt saying that he enjoyed the conversation, particularly Galt's Brutal Honesty, and then calmly admits that as a career criminal like himself would be pointless in a world without regulations, he would be "the first one to go down the drain when (Galt) wins."
Fallen Mentor: Dr. Stadler was one of Galt, Danneskjöld, and d'Anconia's mentors in college, and a confidant for Dagny.
Family Unfriendly Aesop: Deliberately invoked, in-universe, as the book sought to argue against traditional definitions of morality. Specifically, it promotes selfishness as a virtue. It also argues for atheism and justifies sex as a moral triumph. Moral Guardians from all over the political spectrum flew into utter outrage these messages. Gore Vidal (leftist) said Rand's philosophy was "perfect in its immorality," and the National Review's Whittaker Chambers (former Communist who became a Christian conservative) said that from every page in this book he could hear a voice calling "to a gas chamber, go!" Thus, regardless of whether or not one agrees or disagrees with the aesops presented in Atlas Shrugged, they clearly fall under the category of "family unfriendly." Ayn Rand was no ally of traditional moral beliefs, after all. Furthermore, the book clearly indicates the opinion that someone being a member of family is no reason to love them, or respect them, in and of itself.
False Flag Operation: The siege of the Rearden Steel plant, which was planned to be passed off as a workers' riot to encourage Hank to accept the Steel Unification Plan.
Fascist, but Inefficient: The looters' policies end up turning America into this, with critical resource shortages, riots, greatly increased unemployment rates, and trains not running on time all across the nation. By the end of the novel American society has pretty much collapsed.
Fiction 500: Too many examples. The Taggarts, the D'Anconias, Midas Mulligan, and Hank Rearden are a few. Ironically, John Galt is not one.
Full Name Basis: When Francisco wants to emphasise himself, he goes for the full "Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastián d'Anconia."
Gambit Pileup: Heavily implied to be occurring in this world especially when it is revealed that Wesley Mouch, at one point the most powerful man in the United States, is "the zero at the meeting point of forces unleashed in destruction against one another" — that is, he's enough of a non-entity to satisfy rival factions trying to put their "friends" in important positions and keep their enemies out. Also occurs every other page between the "businessmen" who are incapable of earning an honest living helping each other and stabbing each other in the back as the plot demands.
Genre Savvy: Sensing imminent capture, Galt warns Dagny to act like his enemy so his enemies won't get the idea to force his hand by torturing her.
Contrary to how Dr. Ferris and co. wanted to spin it, after Hank Rearden signs over his rights to Rearden Metal, no one assumes he did it willingly or has genuinely surrendered and know he must have been blackmailed or tortured into doing it, although they don't know how.
Good Bad Girl: Dagny Taggart. She doesn't exactly have a world-beating sex drive, but she is absolutely guiltless about the sex she does have and has sex because she wants to have sex. She also engages in two relationships which would be considered morally controversial by some people's standards; first, a teenage passion with Francisco D'Anconia whilst they are underage, and second, an affair with married man Hank Rearden.
Good People Have Good Sex / Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Dagny's affair with married man Hank Rearden is portrayed as an exalted, beautiful and fulfilling relationship, wheras Hank's wife Lillian (a villain) believes Sex Is Evil and uses Hank's guilt over his fondness for sex to control and manipulate him. In contrast, James Taggart's one-night stand with Lillian is treated as disgusting, as those involved are doing so not out of their enjoyment of the act itself, but out of their (mistaken) belief that the act will somehow harm Hank Rearden. James actually calls Lillian "Mrs. Rearden" as he gets off.
Grail In The Garbage: The revolutionary, but abandoned, motor at the remains of the Twentieth Century Motor Company, which is a metaphor for the importance of reason as a whole and what the world of the novel has allowed to be done to it.
Granola Girl: Ma Chalmers, fan of soy beans and Control Freak determined to improve the country's diet.
Green-Eyed Epiphany: Eddie Willers has one when he sees Hank Rearden's dressing gown in Dagny's apartment.
[Dagny saw that Rearden] "had the gayest smile she had ever seen."
The term gay is used frequently in Atlas Shrugged, including Hank Rearden proclaiming that "he liked to see people being gay, even if he didn't understand this kind of enjoyment." This kind of enjoyment referred to the party his wife was throwing.
Dagny Taggart finds Francisco d'Anconia "sitting on the floor playing with his marbles."
Many events and items (like Galt's motor) are "queer."
Hidden Elf Village: Galt's Gulch - Unbuilt. Although the valley is shielded from the outside world by Galt's hologram device, the strikers spend only one month out of each year there solely as a "vacation" from the corrosive mediocrity of the outside world, so that they can express themselves freely.
Hidden in Plain Sight: The tactic of the strikers. Many of them take menial jobs in "hell" (the world at large) and don't even bother to use fake names. John Galt works as a track laborer at Taggart Transcontinental for over a decade, using his real name.
Hidden Villain: Subverted. Mr. Thompson is just as meaningless as all his lackeys.
Hobbes Was Right: Whenever a looter's utopian plan for a world without self-interest goes bad, they will claim the failure is due to this trope. The novel very much insinuates that Hobbes was wrong, and Galt deconstructs this trope in his speech when he mentions that those who damn humanity should have a good look at the moral code they are judging humanity by.
Holding Out for a Hero: One of the central themes of the book, the looters can't get anything done on their own. At one point, the government tries to force John Galt to help them. He says no.
Honor Before Reason: Eddie Willers' last-ditch expedition to re-establish transcontinental rail service. Dagny tries but fails to talk him out of it. This results in what is almost certainly a downer ending for Eddie on the penultimate page of the novel, which can be considered a Family Unfriendly Aesop.
Hope Spot: The immediate aftermath of the first ride on the John Galt Line. For a brief moment, it looks like Rearden, Dagny and Wyatt might well be able to save the country in spite of its leadership. Things don't work out that way, as Wyatt predicted.
Humans Are Special: John Galt's view is that humans are the only species that use reason to survive and achieve, as well as the only species to be capable of deliberate self-destruction. About half of Galt's Character Filibuster reads like a Patrick Stewart Speech about the virtues of human beings at their best.
Humanity on Trial: Subverted. John Galt claims in his speech that the world is on trial, but humanity is not the defendant; its moral code is.
Hypocrite: The brothers who ran the 20th Century Motor Company into the ground. They preach equality and Communism but spend lavish amounts of money on parties and fancy cars. Interestingly, however, the most terrifying sibling executive was the sister, who was completely and totally sincere about her philosophy.
Idiot Ball: Dagny abruptly picks it up in Part III when she swallows Mr. Thompson's bait hook, line, and sinker of wondering aloud if John Galt is still alive.
I Don't Pay You To Think: Directive 10-289, the "moratorium on brains," chains all existing employees to their jobs, with a potential penalty of jail for any that quit. If any do quit, anyway (or lose their job for other reasons), that job is then assigned to someone else by a government committee, regardless of that person's ability to actually do the job. "There had been a time when he had been expected to think. Now, they didn't want him to think. Only to obey."
I Just Want To Be Loved: Deconstructed and gender-flipped via James Taggart. He doesn't want to be loved for his money, his skills, the pleasure of his company... no, he wants to be loved for himself. Not for any benefit he can bring into one's life (after all, that would be selfish!). He wants to be loved for himself, or ultimately he wants to be loved for no reason at all.
Inferred Holocaust: Actually stated. When the lights of New York go out, Galt's Gulch is the last industrial power on Earth.
In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves: Averted. John Galt claims that humanity has been acting to destroy itself for most of its history: however, this is not insinuated to be part of basic human nature, but a choice made based on the attempt to follow bad philosophies such as altruism and mysticism. He also claims that those whose nature is to destroy themselves, such as James Taggart, would have long ago if the productive hadn't kept enabling them.
Insult Backfire: Midas Mulligan, banker and striker; he legally changed his name from "Michael" when his enemies gave him the nickname.
Also:
Cherryl:I'm Mrs. Taggart. I'm the woman in this family now.
Dagny: That's quite all right. I'm the man.
Invincible Hero: The villains never stand the slightest chance against Galt & Co. Every confrontation in the book between the two, whether it's physical, economic or intellectual, is handily and easily won by the heroes. Dagny and Hank do suffer several defeats in their overall goals for most of the novel, but this is only because they try to fight the looters on their terms - once they cross over to the strikers, their foes are utterly helpless.
I Reject Your Reality: A Strawman Political tries to (un)reason a mother who lost her son in an accident that she doesn't really know he's dead and there's no reason to believe so.
Ironic Echo: Stadler considers his greatest failure to be a student with "the kind of intelligence one expects to see, in the future, changing the course of the world" which "vanished without a trace into the great unknown of mediocrity." Rearden pessimistically says that if the creator of the super-motor was still alive, "The whole world would know his name by now." Ivy Starnes remembers the second man to quit when she took over Twentieth Century Motors, but not the first - "He wasn't anybody important." Akston slyly notes that though he knows the student Stadler speaks of, but that "His name would mean nothing to you.He is not famous." The man's name? '"Who is John Galt?"'
It Amused Me: At first played straight, and later subverted, with Francisco d'Anconia who tells Dagny that the purposefully orchestrated San Sebastián disaster was “much funnier” than a recent divorce scandal. He also doesn't deny it when Dagny accuses of him “seeking a thrill” by destroying industry and swindling dumb investors.
It Is Beyond Saving: John Galt and his followers feel this way about America.
It's All About Me: The good characters would swing from the chandelier to proclaim their own selfishness but are actually the only characters in the story concerned with others' welfare. The evil characters vocally proclaim themselves paragons of selflessness but actually only care about destruction, particularly abusive spouses James Taggart and Lillian Rearden.
It's All Junk: Hank Rearden, when he realizes and accepts that his company, Rearden Steel, is a lost cause.
Deconstructed, but still played straight; Rand defined Romantic love as a capitalist exchange of values like any other; affection for affection, gratification for gratification. Under this definition, a Yandere would be just another Looter, gratifying themselves with their "beloved's" pain: - better to break it off cleanly. And one vertex of a love triangle breaking away before things are settled will only leave everyone bitter about what could have been.
Played straight with Rearden and Dagny. He doesn't seem that upset when he realizes that Dagny's public confession of being his mistress referring to him in the past tense means she found someone else.
Just Like Robin Hood: Zig-Zagged with Ragnar Danneskjöld. The Government insists that he's a pirate stealing from the poor, while he sees it as stealing from the government's rich taxmen and returning it those who were taxed into poverty. He also says what he is doing not selfless - he's hastening the government's end by stealing their goods, and funding those who will rebuild civilization after Galt's strike is complete.
Just Plane Wrong: Averted by simply not getting too technical, right up until Dagny's crash, where she follows the other aircraft's "taillights" and clings to the "steering wheel." Also, she tends to "leap behind the wheel" and take off without any kind of preflight—which is not impossible, just inadvisable.
Kick the Dog: Dr. Stadler admitting to Dagny that the State Science Institute is launching a smear campaign against Rearden Metal because it makes them look incompetent, and then deliberately choosing not to tell the truth about it because he believes that life in society means that someone always has to be sacrificed. He doesn't want it to be the Institute.
This is pretty much James Taggart's modus operandi whenever he appears.
King Incognito: John Galt spent his time out of the Gulch as an unskilled laborer at Taggart Transcontinental: - the same one Eddie Willers exposited to regularly.
Kirk Summation: Galt gives several while he's being held captive.
Latin Lover: Subverted with Francisco D'Anconia, who hails from Argentina and is a shameless womanizer... but only in his disguise while striking. Played straight in his relationship with Dagny, although even then she is only attracted to him for his talent.
The generator Dagny finds that can convert atmospheric energy into electricity and revolutionize the industrial world.
Wesley Mouch can arguably be called a human MacGuffin. While not appearing for an amazing length of time, he is able to stay prominent in the plot by being a giant hammer over the heads of the protagonists due to his new position.
Meaningful Name: In addition to the character last names being a sign of their personality, companies with the names of people strapped to them are usually good, while companies with names like National, United or Amalgamated are Obviously Evil(TM).
The Mole: Eddie Willers, unknowingly, in a way. He tells everything about what's happening with Dangy Taggart and Taggart Transcontinental to a man in a cafe, not realizing that man is John Galt.
Morality Pet: Subverted. James Taggart wants Cherryl to be this, but instead she realises what he is and refuses to play her part.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Averted. Several characters on the looter side have doctorates, such as Dr. Ferris (who is a biologist by training), Dr. Simon Pritchett, and Dr. Stadler. However, it is not insinuated that university education itself is bad: Fred Kinnan, the most clear-headed and honest of the looters, once says that he is clear on things "because he never went to college", but it's heavily implied that this is because the philosophy of the looters has taken over the education system in this world, not because intellectualism is bad on its own.
Mr. Exposition: Eddie Willers, whose conversations with a mysterious co-worker provide both the reader and said co-worker with vital plot-relevant information...
Never My Fault: Pretty much every unadmirable character in the book will refuse to take responsibility for things which they actually are responsible for. Contrast this with the heroes, who will take responsibility or downright abuse even when they morally shouldn't. The latter approach is treated much more favourably, but it's also insinuated that both these tropes are examples of refusing to acknowledge reality.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dagny accidentally leads the Looters to Galt. (However, Galt had accepted, and prepared for, this eventuality.)
Non-Idle Rich: Most of the heroic businesspeople, such as Dagny Taggart, Midas Mulligan and Hank Rearden will be this, having already made millions of dollars but staying in business pretty much because they love doing it. The entire D'Anconia family also counts, although Francisco pretends to be a worthless playboy for a while as part of his cover when striking.
No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Subverted for Galt's Engine. He left all three behind at the Starnes Motor Company, and all it did was suggest that it existed. Looters (both high and common) tear up the engine and components for spare parts, and leave the papers to rot. Even when Dagny realizes what she has, almost all of the "engineers" she calls upon to study the remains refuse to believe it could work. Plans, prototypes and backups are only useful to people of the same degree of intelligence as their inventors.
Not What It Looks Like: Francisco tries to tell Hank Rearden this when the latter walks in on him with Dagny in her apartment.
Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Nukes may have not yet even been around when the idea behind Project Xylophone came together.
Opposed Mentors: Robert Stadler and Hugh Akston for Francisco, Ragnar, and John Galt.
People's Republic of Tyranny: By the end of the novel every country in the world sans the United States is a "People's State" (read: a communist dictatorship).
Obviously Evil: The evil characters are all physically grotesque with either bulbous nose or a potbelly or watery eyes or bad posture and have ridiculous names like Orren Boyle, Wesley Mouch and Tinky Holloway. The good characters by contrast are always tall, thin and handsome with haughty, angular faces and good posture. Subverted with Midas Mulligan, a good guy who is short and stocky and again with Dr. Ferris, the book's most evil vilain who is given no description other than being tall, thin and graceful.
Only Known by Their Nickname: The boy sent by Washington to oversee Rearden's mills is nicknamed "the Wet Nurse."
All of the villainous businessmen claim to be working only for "the public good", while in fact they are anythingbut. The heroic businessmen make no secret of the fact they are only out to make money: or so it seems. Most seem to actually be motivated more by the love of running a business well than anything.
Twentieth Century Motors under the leadership of the Starnes children is a notable example. The two brothers were pretty much hypocrites, but Ivy Starnes was quite sincere and had no interest in money. The workers found her to be the most loathsome of the three siblings.
Pet the Dog: Dr. Stadler shows genuine interest in the motor which Dagny finds, and his speech about how he is so pleased to see a new, brilliant idea which is not his own is very touching. For a while it seems he may have some hope of redemption as he recommends a scientist who may be able to reconstruct it to Dagny... it didn't last, though.
Propaganda Machine: The press, as seen starting with the campaign to slander Rearden Metal started by Orren Boyle, Rearden's chief competitor and head of a national metalurgical committee.
Pulp Magazine: Many bits of the novel read a lot like an adventure from a pulp magazine of the era. Hidden valley utopias, unlikely scientific inventions, doomsday machines, villainous villains, heroic heroes, airplane chases, secret conspiracies . . . and Galt ends up looking a lot like Doc Savage.
Purple Prose: Oh dear. Enormous psychological dissertations between each and every line of dialogue, street lamps that are "glass globes filled with light", not to mention... THE SPEECH.
Rags to Riches: Cherryl Brooks upon her marriage to James Taggart... which is when all her troubles start.
Railroad Baron: Dagny and James Taggart. What's more, they are the latest generation of railroad barons.
Raygun Gothic: An adamantium like metal, portable X-Ray machines, and a Weapon Of Mass Destruction powered by sound are several examples of the "futuristic" tech in Atlas Shrugged.
Redemption Equals Death: Tony (a.k.a. the "Wet Nurse") who was attached to Rearden's company as a part of the "rationing" program forced upon Rearden.
Room 101: The residents of Galt's Gulch nickname the room where they all spend their first night in the valley "the torture chamber" because of the psychological trauma they suffer the first night of leaving their old life behind.
Sadistic Choice: The Tunnel Disaster is a series of these for everyone involved who was paying attention.
Dr. Ferris' ultimatum to Hank Rearden — the rights to Rearden Metal, or Dagny's reputation.
Science Is Bad: Various characters believe this, especially Balph Eubank who believes that machines have destroyed humanity's connection to the earth, to the point where women are now running railroads instead of raising children. Averted with Dr. Stadler, however: He has become a villain but this is only because he is using science to serve the looters.
Science Marches On: Trains and radios being impressively important, a copper-iron alloy is set to replace steel, palm-activated locks are popular...
Hank Rearden turns down a large lump payment of government money for the rights to Rearden Metal, because he is proud of the fact that he invented it and of the honest money he could make with it.
Promising young scientist Quentin Daniels turned down Dr. Stadler's offer of a presumedly prestigious post at the State Science Institute due to his views on governmental involvement in science. When Dagny first meets him, he is working as night watchman at an abandoned technical institute.
Hank Rearden resorts to this when he finally decides to divorce his wife Lillian.
Dagny does this to a couple of legislators during the construction of the John Galt Line. However, it is implied that the rules she is bribing to get around are just obstructive red tape. She also orders her employees to bribe any officials trying to hinder new track being laid around the Taggart Tunnel after its cave-in, but since the government has passed Directive 10-289 at that point she can't really be blamed.
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The looters frequently resort to "public-spirited" laws with huge loopholes meant to hurt their enemies, like the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Rule" or Directive 10-289.
Hank Rearden, John Galt. Most of the minor heroic industrialists, such as the Starnes heirs' father, are also hinted or outright stated to be this.
Inverted by Orren Boyle, who likes to present himself as one of these but in fact got the majority of his head start using a hundred million dollar loan from the government.
Francisco d'Anconia, in his spare time during college, works at a copper mine and rises to own it, just so he can prove he could.
Serious Business: A whole philosophy and cult of personality sprang up around Ayn Rand and her literature. The philosophy itself is still going; the cult of personality has significantly waned (especially after she died).
Sex is Evil and I am Horny: Rearden says exactly this after his first time with Dagny, who promptly tells him he's being stupid.
Shout Out: Rand read both 1984 and Animal Farm. Her villains not only must master the art of doublethink to function in their new jobs and environment but (sincerely) espouse words of wisdom such as "slavery is freedom."
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Very cynical in its appraisal of the motivations of high government officials who wish to exercise control over the country. However, Rand had a decidedly idealistic take on humanity as a whole, or at least human potential, and she also argued for a very benevolent conception of the world itself (i.e. she denied any person's joy need come at any other person's cost).
Smug Snake: If you're not a Striker or a Muggle, you're a Looter and smug about it. But especially Dr. Floyd "Why Do You Think You Think" Ferris.
Smoking Is Cool: Rand certainly thinks so. "Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips..." "When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind—and it's proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression." When someone lights up in the book, it's used as a metaphor by Rand for thinking. All the Strikers smoke - and the rare handmade cigarettes from Galt's Gulch, "stamped with the sign of the dollar", are a major plot device. Kinnan is the only Looter who smokes, and is the one smart enough to get his way all the time despite being just a union boss to their CE Os, Senators and Professors.
Speech Centric Work: Among other things, it features a single monologue which goes on uninterrupted for fifty pages.
Straw Loser: Lee Hunsacker, former wannabe big industrialist who sued banker Midas Mulligan for refusing to give him a loan he couldn't possibly pay back, hates everybody and everything for not "giving him a chance", and refuses to do the dishes.
Take That: Earns more than a few. The book itself throws the middle finger at Christianity, Marxism and all their intellectual and philosophical descendants (and antecedents, too). There are a handful of specific people targeted: several of the looters say "in the long run we're all dead," which is a verbatim quote from economist John Maynard Keynes. When Head of State Thompson signs the most odious of the economic legislation, he says the government will keep trying different tactics until something works. Franklin Roosevelt said much the same thing when launching The New Deal. The rhetoric "against unfair competition and monopolies" is yet another direct quote of Roosevelt.
Taking You with Me: Oil tycoon Ellis Wyatt sets his fields ablaze as a parting shot before disappearing.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: John Galt's Speech, four whole hours of uninterrupted castigating that no one can escape from. Plenty of other speeches of similar tone and purpose are directed towards the bad guys by various characters throughout the novel. The villains in turn try to give similar speeches to the heroes from time to time, but they never succeed.
Three Amigos: Francisco formed one with Dagny and Eddie when they were children and with Ragnar and John Galt while in college.
Title Drop: Unintentional, with the novel being renamed as publication neared.
The Trickster: John Galt, Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld.
True Art Is Incomprehensible: Once again seen in-universe. The preferred philosophy of modern academia in the book. During Lillian Rearden's party, a group of unadmirable pseudo-intellectual types gather and talk about how plot in fiction, and melody in music, are completely unnecessary.
Übermensch: All of the heroes are or ultimately become this.
Uncle Pennybags: Hank Rearden is this to his mother and brother Phillip as well as to his friend, the unsuccessful businessman Paul Larkin. Unfortunately they all betray his generosity in one way or another - His mother and brother live off Rearden's money while making no effort to support themselves or even be nice to him, and Paul Larkin ends up betraying Rearden by forming a coalition with the looters which would legally force Rearden to sell Larkin his ore mines.
Utopia Justifies the Means: The government, the public, the heroes. Pretty much everybody. Done intentionally.
The Vamp: Lillian Rearden, who we discover married Hank just to drive him to have an affair and break his spirit.
Viewers Are Morons: In-universe: Dr. Floyd Ferris writes the propaganda piece Why Do You Think You Think? for the general public, whom he believes have the intellectual ability of "drunken louts", and Dr. Stadler agrees with his premise enough to not publicly protest his methods, even though Ferris has cited Stadler's own research, completely out of context, to prove his points. Stadler's agreement with this trope is also why he had the State Science Institute founded in the first place. Many regular people in this universe seem to play this trope straight, although it is also hinted that acting on it is actually causing it to become true.
Villain Ball: The looters' policies hurt the protagonists a lot, but hardly benefit the looters themselves. Especially egregious when several laws are passed as part of a plot to "kill Colorado."
We Can Rule Together: The looters try to make this offer to Galt at gunpoint after the speech. He points out that all they need to do to save their civilization is start releasing controls, but they refuse, saying that that's not his concern - they just want him to "do something", refusing to accept that their controls are what is causing civilization to collapse. By the end, they're torturing him to force him to become their leader.
Jesus goes around recruiting disciples; Galt is making the creative people of the world go into hiding.
Jesus gives The Sermon on the Mount that's known to the world; Galt gives a speech on the radio that's heard the world over.
Jesus announced in advance at the Last Supper that he would be betrayed by one of his Disciples; Galt tells Dagny in advance while they're at Galt's Gulch that if she continues the way she is going she will betray him.
Jesus is delivered to his enemies and betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver; Galt is delivered to his enemies and betrayed by Dagny for $500,000.
Satan offers Jesus the chance to be king of the world if he will accede to his demand to kneel and worship him; Mr. Thompson offers Galt the chance to be economic dictator of the country if he will accede to his demand to get the country off its knees economically.
Jesus refuses the offer and tells Satan that he has nothing to offer him; Galt refuses the offer and tells Mr. Thompson that he has nothing to offer him.
Jesus is shown the kingdoms of the world by Satan; Galt is shown to to the world by Mr. Thompson at the Wayne-Falkland hotel.
Jesus is nailed to a cross; Galt is hooked up to an electric generator.
His torturers take his clothes. (In both stories.)
Jesus is crucified; Galt is tortured with electroshock.
Jesus escapes from his tomb; Galt escapes from the State Science Institute.
Jesus returns to heaven; Galt returns to Galt's Gulch, the Striker's version of Heaven.
What We Now Know to Be True: Galt's engine is called out as working on a new principle and proving several laws of physics to be false.
Who Are You?: The final chapter of Atlas Shrugged does this with Ragnar Danneskjöld, who only has to say his name to inspire fear.
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The creators in the world willingly want to help the rest, but socialist and bureaucratic types screw it up. So they basically take their inventions and leave.
A World Half Full: Despite all the social and economic collapse, the world of the novel is really one of these, as it is clear that evil and suffering are completely unnecessary and will collapse in on themselves once the good stops feeding them.
A particularly egregious example. When the first train is riding on the John Galt Line, we are given the following bits of information, in three successive sentences:
The train passes a signal light 'every few seconds';
The distance between each signal light and the next is two miles;
The train is doing a hundred miles an hour.
Now, if the train is really travelling at a hundred miles an hour, it will take (3600/(100/2)) = 72 seconds to cover a distance of two miles, i.e. well over a minute. Then again, perhaps this is Ayn Rand's concept of 'a few seconds'.
Ye Goode Olde Days: The Looters look at the collapse of industrial civilization with a degree of satisfaction as a return to these; Dagny is present as they comment on the stability of newformed Indian feudalism, and is horrified when none care about how many are suffering and dying for lack of modern necessities luxuries such as drinkable water.
A diesel train is stated to have an average speed of one hundred miles an hour (yes, "average", not "maximum") on a track with lots of turns and steep grades. Compare with modern trains on routes through the Rocky Mountains, equipped with far more powerful and efficient locomotives, where an average speed of forty MPH is considered fast.
Railroad rails should not be made of hard steel; the repeated flexing under the rolling wheels would lead to brittle fracture, making a harder steel a far worse alternative than current hot-rolled mild steel. Having an induction-hardened head will reduce wear, but the most important characteristic of a railroad rail is actually ductility, the ability to deform slightly under the load and spring back to its original shape.
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