These discussion questions and podcast were prepared by Diana Hsieh for ExploreAtlasShrugged.com. They aim to be of help to people interested in creating their own Atlas Shrugged Reading Groups, as well as to 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 1, Chapters 4-5
- Part 1: Chapter 4: The Immovable Movers
- Part 1: Chapter 5: The Climax of the d’Anconias
Or:
- Pages 64-126 in the larger Hardcover or Softcover
- Pages 67-124 in the smaller Mass Market Paperback
Podcast
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49:01 minutes
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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 1, Chapter 4: Immovable Movers
Section 1 (64-69)
- Why does Dagny seek to be a passive spectator of greatness? Why is that so important to her? (65-6)
Section 2 (70-72)
- What is the nature of Jim’s relationship with Betty Pope? What does that reveal about his capacity to feel emotions and his concern for spiritual values? (70-2)
Section 3 (72)
- How does Jim spin the San Sebastián nationalization to the Board? What does that reveal about his character? (72)
Section 4 (73)
- What do Jim Taggart and Orren Boyle think of Francisco D’Anconia? What does that reveal about them? (73)
Section 5 (73-77)
- What is the Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule? Why do the railroad executives vote for it, even though they do not support it? (73-5)
- Why does Dagny not speak to Jim about the San Sebastián nationalization? Was that a mistake? Has he accepted that he was wrong? (75-6)
Section 6 (77-80)
- Why does Dagny Taggart want Dan Conway to fight the Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule? Should he abide by it? Why is he willing to accept it? What has defeated him? (77-80)
- What is Dagny Taggart’s view of the morality of sacrifice? What is Dan Conway’s view? Who is right? (78)
Section 7 (81-82)
- Why does Wyatt speak as he does to Dagny? Why does she accept his beating? (81-2)
Section 8 (82-88)
- How do Hank and Dagny transact business? How are they both allies and antagonists? How is their approach different from that seen in the earlier meeting between the looters in the bar? (83-5)
- How does Dagny’s response to the loading of the Rearden Metal differ from that his family? Has she given Hank something he needed? What is that? (86)
- Why does Hank say that he and Dagny are blackguards without spiritual values? Does Hank have spiritual values? Why does Hank’s claim worry Dagny, yet only in part? (87-8)
Whole Chapter
- What is the significance of the title of this chapter?
Chapter 5: The Climax of the D’Anconias
Section 1 (89-90)
- How does Eddie Willers respond to the discovery that the San Sebastián Mines are worthless? Why? (89-90)
Section 2 (90-126)
- How was Jim Taggart corrupt in his childhood? Could he have been a better person? If so, why does he choose as he does? (93, 94, 95-6) What effect does college have on Jim? (99)
- Why does Francisco say that a person’s work is “the only measure of human value”? Does he mean that nothing else in life matters? What is he warning Dagny against? (100)
- What is Francisco and Dagny’s first sexual encounter like? Why? How were they innocent of any burden of sin — and why? (107-9)
- When they meet that last night in the Wayne-Faulkland Hotel, what is Francisco’s state of mind? Why doesn’t he tell Dagny everything? (111-5)
- How did Francisco swindle Jim and his friends with the San Sebastián Mines? How does he explain his actions to Dagny? What is her response? How was the swindle “tearing the lid off hell and letting men see it”? (118-121, 122-6)
Whole Chapter
- What is the significance of the title of this chapter?
