Ayn Rand’s Individualism In The Fountainhead And Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand, a famous American writer and thinker, is reputed as the goddess of liberty in the US and is among the world best sellers. Her works are very popular among the American people and their sales volume ranks second only to Bible in America. She created objectivism philosophy with reason, egoism and laissez-faire capitalism as its core and thus attracted many followers. However, despite the significance of Ayn Rand in American thinking circle, her individualism rarely got discussed.This paper discusses Ayn Rand’s individualism by analyzing the characters in her two masterpieces—the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the background and significance of this research as well as Rand’s life and career. The second chapter is a literature review, which gives readers a glimpse to the research results on Ayn Rand, individualism as a whole and individualism in America. The third and fourth chapters give an analysis of the characters in the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and a summary of the individualism in question. The last chapter is the conclusion, summarizing the legacy of Ayn Rand’s individualism and lessons we can learn from it.