ayn rand was a famous writer who developed a philosophy of her own and used both fiction and non-fiction writing to promote and popularize her philosophy. her philosophy was called objectivism. the general principle of objectivism is that the pursuit of one’s own happiness should be an individual’s highest moral goal. this article highlights some of her fictional works.
night of January 16
the night of january 16th is a play by ayn rand written in 1933. it was first produced in 1934 in los angeles under the title woman on trial. The title of the play was changed many times as Rand had initially titled it Penthouse Legend but it was changed by the verdict by the production team led by E. Clive but on the night of its opening, it was called Woman on Trial.
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Later, when the play was brought to Broadway, Rand was given a choice between two titles: The Black Sedan and The Night of January 16th. Rand said that he hated both titles, but ultimately chose the latter. In 1968, Rand published an edited version of the script and kept the title on the night of January 16 because, according to her, the title was already too well known to change.
the night of january 16 is a courtroom drama about a woman, karen andre, who was tried for killing her employer, bjorn faulkner, a business tycoon who swindled her company into another investment, but went bankrupt.
bjorn faulkner and karen andre were together in faulkner’s penthouse on the night of january 16 when faulkner fell to his death. the prosecutor mr. flint and defense attorney mr. stevens presents his arguments with testimony from several witnesses.
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something interesting about the play is that the jury is chosen from among the public and the verdict it issues determines the end of the play. there are two alternate endings for the play. First, if the jury finds Karen Andre not guilty, she thanks them. if she is found guilty, she defiantly says that the jury has saved her from committing suicide. It was a work that demonstrated Ayn Rand’s unique narrative style.
we the living
Published in 1936, it is Ayn Rand’s first full-length novel. We the Living centers on three individuals who dare to be independent-minded in the face of the communist dictatorship of Soviet Russia. the heroine, kira arguonova, an aspiring engineer from a bourgeois family, and her love triangle with two men: leo kovalesnsky, the aristocrat whom she loves, and andrei taganov, the communist who loves her. Kira is expelled from engineering school due to her novel ideas and Leo, also a brilliant scholar, realizes that she has no future in Russia due to her rich family and his independent thinking.
Andrei is the idealistic man who believes in the virtues of communist principles and supports the Bolshevik revolution but then begins to question all his beliefs when society treats Kira unfairly.
anthem
a dystopian novel about a brave young man who breaks the chains of a totalitarian dictatorship to assert his individuality, find love, and make an invention.
anthem centers on a hero named equality 7-2521 who lives in a dystopian society where citizens cannot speak, eat, or sleep without permission from the government. the population grows from an impersonal mating ritual in which people have sex with state-appointed partners and give birth to children who are separated from their parents at birth and raised without personal identity. It is in such an extremely collectivist society that equality 7-2521 commits the greatest crime of thinking and acting alone and is forced to escape from the city since his actions endanger his life.
the source
This novel gave Ayn Rand her first major success in fiction writing. Published in 1943, Rand sold the Fountainhead script for fifty thousand dollars. the novel is about a genius who defies conformity and mediocrity as he makes his way in the field of architecture. follows howard roark, who is expelled from architecture school for his novel ideas and creativity. Undeterred, he pursues the vision of him and refuses to give in to the betrayal of the woman he loves and his friends. Howard goes on trial for blowing up a public housing project he designed due to alterations made by government bureaucrats without his consent.
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dominique franon a woman who loves howard with her life but betrays him by marrying his worst enemy; Ellsworth Toohey, a Marxist intellectual; Peter Keating, a brilliant architect who follows convention and bends to the will of others, are interesting characters that add to the brilliance of the novel.
The novel glorifies the original creators and inventors of the story and how these brilliant creators are often attacked by traditional cult society. the idea of individualism and collectivism in the spring is more complex than political, in the sense that individuals have the free time of free will and can choose to be free thinkers or conformists.
atlas shrugged
Published in 1957 and set in the United States at an unspecified time, it is Ayn Rand’s last novel. in atlas shrugged, great entrepreneurs and innovators go on strike in protest against the government dictatorship that exploits them to favor the unproductive majority of the masses. rand described the theme of this novel as the “role of the mind of man in existence.”
Railway executive Danny Taggart, who runs a company as Vice President of his brother, who is not as business savvy as she is, meets Hank Rearden, a steel tycoon whom she falls in love with even though he is married. They all discover that a mysterious figure known as John Galt is persuading business owners to abandon their businesses in protest against the state.
dagny’s plane crashes on an island where she discovers john galt and through a series of events galt follows dagny to new york from her hideout called galt’s gulch and hacks into a national radio broadcast where she gives a three-hour speech projecting the theme of the novel. The government eventually collapses after failing to force John Galt to lead the restoration of the country under collectivist rule. Galt triumphantly announces that the strikers can rejoin society on their own terms.
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