Interpretation Of Power In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead And Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand is one of the most popular and successful writers in the history ofAmerican literature. Her two magna opera The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged(1957) are artistic realizations of her aesthetic and personal ideal. Reason andrationalization always triumph in the end.This paper employs the unique perspective of power exertion in investigating TheFountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. It strives to present a distinction between the twonovels with striking semblance. It strives to further the critical exploration of the twomasterpieces of Rand’s through the perspective of power relations, especially theFoucaultian power. Although Rand pronounces her literary expressions as the articulatemanifestation of her philosophical ideal, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged actuallybear testimony to the presence of forces other than the intellect and reason: power.There are two main chapters in this dissertation, dedicated to the elaboration of thesimilarity of and the difference between the two magna opera respectively. Both TheFountainhead and Atlas Shrugged were inhabited by individuals who were “cellular” and“genetic”, who were under the grip of normalization. The disciplinary power underlainthe two novels also differs conspicuously in several critical aspects. While TheFountainhead gives detailed descriptions in regard to the way in which human bodies are“organized” when they are undergoing disciplinary transformation, Atlas Shrugged grantsno similar delineations. And unlike the disciplinary institutes in Atlas Shrugged, those inThe Fountainhead uphold neither distinctive hierarchization nor specific examinations intheir management of the human bodies.This dissertation demonstrates the functioning of power underlying a rationalistictriumph, and manages to further the critical exploration of Randian studies.