FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Chain

A Publius Essay | 24 January 2009 | Publius

[Publius]

Part I: Non-Contradiction
Chapter II: The Chain

Synopsis

Hank Rearden watches the first “heat” of steel for Rearden Metal poured at his mill. Then he walks home, fingering a chain of Rearden Metal in his pocket.

At home he is greeted by his mother, his wife Lillian, his brother Philip and his friend Paul Larkin. The group makes fun of the fact that his mind is back at the steel mill and complains that all he cares about is money. Lillian, in a catty way, asks Hank to set aside December 10 for a party for their wedding anniversary.. Hank tries to tell them about the big event at the mill, but they don’t care. He gives Lillian the chain, a bracelet, which is the very first thing made from that heat of Rearden Metal, while his mother makes fun of him. (The bracelet is to become a major plot point.)

Larkin takes Hank aside and tells him what a fine product he has but hints that there might be trouble. Hank has a bad press, is only interested in his steel and mills, and doesn’t care about public opinion. Larkin hints that there may be a problem with Hank’s lobbyist in DC but doesn’t go into detail. (This is Wesley Mouch, but he is not identified by name.)

Philip Rearden says he is spending his time raising money for the Friends of Global Progress, and he is upset that rich people have no social conscience. Hank tells Philip to go down to the mill tomorrow and pick up a check for ten thousand dollars. Philip barely thanks him and actually reproaches him for not truly caring about the underprivileged. Hank says he doesn’t care and was only giving the money to Philip to make him happy. Philip says that he has no selfish interest in the money – but he wants the money in cash so that Hank Rearden’s tainted name cannot be attached to it.

Larkin tells Hank that he shouldn’t have given the money to Philip, and Lillian sees the act as a display of Hank’s vanity. She likens the bracelet of Rearden Metal to a chain of bondage.

Hank Rearden’s Living Hell

The first chapter gives the reader a view into the lives of Dagny, Jim, Eddie and Taggart Transcontinental, while the purpose of the second chapter is to introduce Hank Rearden, his mill, his history and the nest of vipers he calls a family. One searches in vain for redeeming qualities, and one wishes that Hank had thrown the whole lot out on the street before the first page. The parasites who live off his wealth have no respect for the man who keeps them in food and gives them a roof over their heads. A highly successful man is an object of pity and contempt precisely because of his success.

The Real Life Rearden Steel Plant

In my youth, I recall a family outing to Pennsbury Manor, the ancestral home of William Penn and family near Morrisville, PA. Along the way, near the Pennsylvania Railroad’s (now Amtrak’s) Northeast Corridor rail line, I recall a large steel mill owned by US Steel. I don’t know if it’s still in operation, but its position with respect to Philadelphia is close to where Hank Rearden’s steel mill is located in the book.

Some Discussion Topics

1. It’s Rearden Steel, Rearden Metal, Rearden Ore, Rearden Coal and Rearden Limestone. Like all the heroic characters in the book, Hank Rearden puts his brand on everything that matters. Even Lillian Rearden makes it plain that she is Rearden’s Wife, and that is to become a major plot point. Lillian’s remark about the bracelet being a chain, the symbol of the family’s bondage to Hank, is rather egregious. Is this just another case of familiarity breeding contempt, or is there something more pernicious at work here?
2. The comments on the passenger train as it passes Rearden Steel are revealing. A professor of economics: “Of what importance is an individual in the titanic collective achievements of our industrial age?” A journalist sitting next to him: “Hank Rearden is the kind of man who sticks his name on everything he touches. You may from this, form your own opinion of Hank Rearden.” That these carping critics produce nothing is barely worth mentioning. But let’s connect these two people to their counterparts today. Does the use of the word “collective” give you chills?
3. Paul Larkin: “Why ask useless questions? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Who is John Galt?” These words have been uttered by a bum, Pop Harper and Owen Kellogg. Larkin is now the fourth. (Kellogg is to play a surprising role later in the story, but we’ll keep that quiet for a moment.) Let’s connect Larkin with the others who have said the magic phrase.
4. Philip’s ingratitude and his general attitude of superiority (a major plot point) is dumbfounding considering that Philip “neither sows nor reaps, but Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed as one of these.” What is the source of Philip Rearden’s attitude of superiority, and to what does it connect in today’s world?

Next: The Top and the Bottom

[Publius]

Ping to Chapter 2.

[Rusty0604]

I just rec’d my “who is John Galt? tee shirt in the mail yesterday, can’t wait to see what conversations may develop when I wear it out.

[Publius]

There was no mention of George Westinghouse, so I assume he was dead by then.

[ScaniaBoy]

To me that is the great enduring value of this great book...to remind us that true heroes can still exist.....but only strong men and women can make it so.

Governor Palin's State of the State Address 2009 (full video)

[Publius]

Phillip and Hank's mother seem resentful possibly because they live in a society that is conflicted about success and wealth. They may have to do a lot of fund-raising and support for the *oppressed* in order to justify their existence among the elite of their society. They get to live well, but they have to make it clear that they didn't engage in selfish money-grubbing to get to their position.

Now that prompts a bit of thinking. Even today in British society, a gentleman is not a man who engages in trade -- that's so middle class, not upper class -- but a man who doesn't work for a living due to inherited wealth.

We haven't gotten that decadent yet, but in Rearden's family the British viewpoint seems dominant.

[panaxanax]

You are doing a great thing here, thank you! Please add me to your ping list.

I am the proud owner of a First Edition (1957 8th printing) hardback of “Atlas Shrugged”, excellent condition, no jacket. I paid a whole dollar for it at the SPCA second hand shop. What a find!

[hoosier hick]

Please add me to the ping list. I first read a borrowed copy in 1975. Since buying my own copy in 1980, I’ve re-read it 3 more times (although, I confess, I skimmed the 90-page John Galt monologue on two of those occasions...)

Thanks,

hh

[AlligatorEyes]

Yes, Please add me to your ping list.

Thank you for taking the time to share all of this with us. I have read the book but it was many years ago. I’m sure that I didn’t understand all the ramifications of the work. It is great to be able to read the viewpoints of other Freepers.

[SuperLuminal]

I’d prefer once a week.

[Explorer89]

Once a week for me, too. I only have time for this on weekends.

[Radix]

"I just rec’d my “who is John Galt? tee shirt in the mail yesterday,..."

Where do you get those?

I could use one if it has 3 pockets.

[wintertime]

please add me to your ping list.

[mick]

I only listed the first ten in the Table of Contents....but I just checked the book and sure enough Westinghouse is not listed....so you are probably correct that he was dead by 1917 in as much as Forbes says in the Intro. “....leaders of the present day...” But Westinghouse surely deserves to be ranked in any group of “Men who built America”

Thank you for the excellent work you are doing!

[mick]

Thanks for the link....I’m on the Palin ping list but didn’t get this one.....F U B A R

[RJR_fan]

When I was a lad, the skies over the Ohio Valley were filled with multi=colored plumes of smoke. We enjoyed spectacular sunsets. On one night of insomnia, I ascended the hill behind our house, and saw the red glow where the steel mill dumped slag into the river to cool.

"The air is as pure as the air above the Arctic. But you don't know how much longer you'll want to go on breathing it," Ayn Rand wrote in The Anti-Industrial Revolution, a collection of essays. The blue-collar industrial milieu had a vigor, a joy, a hopefulness. Immigrants were welcomed, and assimiliated through the medium of "Polock jokes." (My maternal grandparents were immigrants from Easter Europe.) That world is gone, and progress has been a mixed blessing.

[Publius]

We have gone from a nation that made money by "making things" to a nation that makes money by shuffling paper assets from one pile to another.

That can't be good.

[Joya]

Thanks. Will try to get to the library Monday and get a copy. Is it online anywhere?

[Publius]

I don’t know, but I tend to doubt it.

[r-q-tek86]

Phillip and Hank's mother seem resentful possibly because they live in a society that is conflicted about success and wealth

The people who have not earned it and know that they have not earned it are the ones who are conflicted about their wealth. It's that way in the book, too.

[r-q-tek86]

Thanks again for setting this up.

I gave Atlas to my 91 year old, yellow dog democrat grandfather for Christmas. We’ve just started trading letters discussing the themes of the book. I will share anything good that comes up and will steal anything good off these threads to share with him.