0254NOTAtlas

0254NOTAtlas_Rand

ogcma@byu

ClCv241

Mastery

MythMatters

Hes. Th. 507-17
Ovid Met. 604-662

Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. Novel. Random House: 1957.

Also referenced in numerous adaptations of the same name.

The title references Atlas, who supports the world on his shoulders throughout eternity. In the novel, wealthy individuals refuse to pay steadily-rising taxes, thus crippling major industries that relied on government subsidy. As these major industries begin to collapse, the rest of society soon follows.

Rand likens the support of society at large by capitalistic pursuit of wealth to the responsibility of Atlas to support the world. According to her worldview, pursuit of wealth is a social imperative without which the society would cease to function.

Slide by CB

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.