History Literature / AtlasShrugged

** Several of the looters say "in the long run we're all dead," which is a verbatim quote from economist John Maynard Keynes.

** 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.

Worse, the [[ApatheticCitizens handful of scientists, entrepreneurs, and managers]] sustaining the system [[OptOut are disappearing one by one]]. No one ever hears from them again, and their friends and relatives are left with nothing but a question:

*** Later in the book, Kip Chalmers, a politician, also demands that ''his'' train be got moving again because he doesn't want to be late to his destination; because he is a looter and a villain, the result is that ''absolutely everyone on the train dies'' and infrastructure that is critical to the ''entire nation'' is destroyed.
*** [[JustForPun Objectively speaking]], these two characters make the same decision, with the same motivation, with the same lack of knowledge of what is going on elsewhere on the railroad; the only difference is in the author's respective opinions on them.

* AnAesop: In Rand's eyes the book has several:

* ThreeAmigos: Francisco formed one with Dagny and Eddie when they were children and with Ragnar and John Galt while in college.

Worse, the [[ApatheticCitizens handful of scientists, entrepreneurs, and managers]] sustaining the system [[OptOut are disappearing one by one.]] No one ever hears from them again, and their friends and relatives are left with nothing but a question:

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 [[TitleDrop 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''--but Rand changed it because she feared it would be a SpoilerTitle.[[note]]However, it remained the title of the most popular German translation, "Der Streik".[[/note]]

** When Francisco d'Anconia delivers his speech about just how awesome money is, he complains about the phrase "Money is the root of all evil." The actual phrase in question is "''The Love of'' money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10), which puts the blame for evil not on money itself but on ''avarice'' - which all of Rand's heroes regard as being a virtue.

* BoomHeadshot: In the aftermath of the riot at his steel mill, Rearden learns that a newly hired furnace foreman saved his life by shooting two attackers in the face and blowing their heads off. [[spoiler:Said forman turns out to be Francisco d'Anconia.]]

* AuthorFilibuster: As the quote on the AuthorFilibuster 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) and four hours of in-universe time 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 Creator/VictorHugo, whose novels did include numerous examples.

* ConspicuousConsumption: Francisco d'Anconia became famous for this after adopting his [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob 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.

* NonIdleRich: 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 [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob worthless playboy]] for a while as part of his cover when striking.

%%* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: This is all part of Francisco d'Anconia's ObfuscatingStupidity.

** Also, Gold is ''absurdly heavy'', making it impractical for - for instance - Ragnar to haul around stolen gold bullion to "repay" people he thinks were taxed too much. A "Good Delivery" standard gold bar is supposed to weigh ''12.4 Kilograms'', i.e. it is very much not something you could comfortably carry around in a pocket, even if the pocket was reinforced enough to not just rip under the strain.

* CapitalismIsBad: The Class-2 ApocalypseHow caused by the intellectual elite's refusal to reform society, and decisions to speed up its disintegration and death instead, have caused altruistic readers to take this message from the book even though Rand believed that unregulated oligarchic/monopolistic free-market capitalism was an absolutely meritocratic political and economic system. This message was likely unintentional, as Objectivism maintains that refusing to act altruistically is perfectly 'moral' as long as you do not feel bad about refusing (like John Galt), and altruistic behaviour is only 'moral' when it makes you feel good (rather than it being inherently or ojbectively good).
* CharacterFilibuster: Quite a few. A ''four hour long'' speech appears verbatim, ''right before the climax''. After that, the rest look like zingers.

* ComicBookTime: 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.

** 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, and Cherryl disliked Scudder anyway. Cherryl becomes quite exasperated.

*** Later in the book, Kip Chalmers, a politician, also demands that ''his'' train be got moving again because he doesn't want to be late to his destination; because he is a looter and a villain, the result is that ''[[KillEmAll absolutely everyone on the train dies]]'' and infrastructure that is critical to the ''entire nation'' is destroyed.

** "Wyatt's Torch" is lit when Ellis Wyatt blows up all of his oil fields after the government passes laws that would doom his business, and the John Galt Line, to a slow death. "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours."

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: This features very prominently in its final chapters, ultimately culminating in Dagny and her allies murdering security guards in cold blood on the way to rescue John Galt, despite - or perhaps even ''because'' - the narrative saying they're too paralyzed with indecision to step aside. There's a bizarre undertone of, "Help us, fight us, or get the hell out of our way, just do ''something'' besides just ''sit there''" during the rampage. One can argue that the questionable behavior up until that point was just washing one's hands clean of a broken system, but at that point the Strikers are just flat-out executing people for what they consider the ultimate sin - [[ApatheticCitizens apathy]].