In her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand narrates a lengthy tale of an eccentric railroad executive Dagny Taggart in her quest to confront a world that consistently preys upon her individualistic ambitions and essential values. Running a colossal railroad corporation by the name of Taggart Transcontinental alongside her antagonistic brother James Taggart, she embarks upon a journey to discover the true identity of the mysterious and enigmatic individual who is believed to be the source of the truth within her heart and mind, John Galt. As the novel's recurring inquiry heavily ponders "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand sets readers on a philosophical voyage to grasp in meticulous details about the central tenets of her Objectivist philosophy particularly its worldview upon reality and inherent relationship with the mind of man. Indeed as such, Rand views the mind of man as the central most important entity in all of human existence.
The novel is composed of three parts: Non-Contradiction, Either-Or, and A is A. The entire plot of the novel is a gradual revelation of Rand's elusive and unorthodox philosophy. Within the first segment of the novel, the protagonist Dagny Taggart is introduced along with her role as an executive of the Taggart Transcontinental that was founded by her ancestor Nathaniel Taggart. Through a series of economic setbacks and governmental regulations, Dagny heroically manages to maintain her business and her struggle centralizes Ayn Rand's perception of the philosophical dichotomy of individualism and collectivism in what she regards as the embodiment of evil.
The sophisticated and complex plot introduces an eclectic multitude of secondary characters each harboring their own strengths and weaknesses respectively. One of Dagny's strongest and most loyal ally is none other Hank Rearden, a self-made steel magnate and inventor of a brilliant alloy product known as Rearden metal. Together Rearden and Taggart become intimate lovers with one another and persist in their endeavor to challenge the opposing societal momentum that befalls upon them. They eventually stumble across an unidentified motor device in the remains of the Twentieth Century Motor company an abandoned factory that is capable of generating electricity in an unprecedented manner. They seek to discover the inventor of this newly discovered mysterious device. Eventually after flying for some time, Dagny's plane unexpectedly crashes into an unknown valley known as Galt's gouch where she meets John Galt for the first time. As the inventor of this enigmatic motor device, Galt is the one reviled individual who abandoned the world that betrayed his vision and ultimate purpose. At long last, Galt returns to New York City along with Dagny where he hacks into a national radio broadcast and delivers his prodigiously long philosophical speech that divulges Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and its perception of reality along with its interrelation with the human mind and soul.
The title of the novel "Atlas Shrugged" is an allusive reference to the statue of Atlas, the Greek Titan who's colossal size and structure metaphorically symbolizes not merely the exploited industrialists but even more so the individualistic minds as the foundation of civilization. The shrugging of Atlas connotes the action in a figurative sense of letting go of a world that depends upon their primary existence to prove that without them, the inherent structure of the society they serve inevitably collapses and disintegrates.
Francisco D'Anconia: "If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulder, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?"
Hank Rearden: "I... don't know. What...could he do? What would you tell him?"
Francisco D'Anconia: "To shrug."
