Ayn Rand Biographical Criticism

1. Ayn Rand Biographical Criticism Kate Bedinger Taylor Christiansen Ivy Firman Brianna Freire JalenaGathright Bailey Gleason

2. Ayn Rand’s Life • Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a middle-class family • Her mother Anna subscribed her to children's literary magazines, which inspired her to write her own stories. • In 1917 she and her family witnessed the Russian Revolution as the Communist party took over the government. The family lived in relative poverty from that point on • At age 16 in 1921, she enrolled at Petrograd State University. • After she finished her degree, she enrolled at the State Technicum for Screen Arts, where she studied screenwriting. • Rand wanted to leave Russia, so in January 1926, she got a passport to visit relatives for a short time in Chicago, but ended up staying in the United States • After her arrival in Chicago, Rand left for Hollywood, and changed her name, hoping to get a job as a screenwriter. In addition to the usual reasons that people change their names upon entering Hollywood, Rand may have intended to protect her relatives in Russia, who could be punished for the ideas and arguments she was planning to express through film. • Her first novel, We The Living (1936), portrays life in post-communist Russia. The protagonist in the story showed many similarities with her own life. However, it was negatively reviewed in a time when many educated thinkers were in favor of the ideal of Communism. • That novel was followed by Anthem (1938), a science fiction novel about a future dystopia where the world has been corrupted by communism. Rand did not enjoy real success until the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943. Rand's last novel, which most consider her masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, was published in 1957. • Rand introduced what she called Objectivism through a 60-page speech given by the hero, John Galt, in Atlas Shrugged • In Atlas Shrugged, Rand characterizes Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." • Rand's life grew more complicated over the following years. She developed lung cancer, the Nathaniel Branden Institute fell apart, and the Collective slowly disintegrated. Rand's husband died in 1979, and she began to reduce her activities. She never completed another novel, though she was working on the notes for one when she died from heart failure and the effects of surgery on her lung cancer and gallstones on March 6, 1982.

3. Life and Beliefs Beliefs Life Affects Beliefs • From her traumatic experiences of growing up during the Russian Revolution, Randdiscovered a "passionate love for independent, creative Man, and a hatred for all forms of collectivism." Out of this, she developed Objectivism, best expressed in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. • "the only meaningful or justifiable values a man can choose are those which serve to sustain his life." • She believes that capitalism is the best system for providing people with opportunities to develop their talents • She rejected such values as altruism, decried religious ideologies, and called for a "pure" laissez-faire market economy • Objectivism: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.“ • Rand usually named Aristotle as her most important philosophical influence, though Nietzsche also had a clear influence on her. She also claimed to have been inspired by John Locke's ideas about property. • Growing up during the Russian Revolution, Rand developed a hatred for communism after witnessing how her father lost his pharmacy to the Soviets • Coming to the United States after only experiencing a socialist society, made her realize how different capitalism was • In 1979 she told the graduating class of West Point: "The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.“

4. MEANING ~objectivism- Ayn Rand “At a sales conference at random house, preceding the publication ofatlas shrugged, one of the book salesmen asked me whether I could present the essence of my philosophy while standing on one foot. I did as follows: Metaphysics objective reality Epistemology reason Ethics self-interest Politics capitalism If you want this translated into simple language, it would read: 1. “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed” or “wishing won’t make it so.” 2. “You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.” 3. “Man is an end in himself.” 4. “Give me liberty or give me death.” If you held these concepts with total consistency, as the base of your convictions, you would have a full philosophical system to guide the course of your life. But to hold them with total consistency—to understand, to define, to prove and to apply them—requires volumes of thought. Which is why philosophy cannot be discussed while standing on one foot—nor while standing on two feet on both sides of every fence. This last is the predominant philosophical position today, particularly in the field ofpolitics. My philosophy, objectivism, holds that: Reality exists as anobjective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means ofperceiving reality, his only source ofknowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neithersacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his ownhappiness is the highestmoral purpose of his life. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-fairecapitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but astraders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man’srights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.” Anthem The virtue of selfishness introduction to objectivist epistemology why businessmen need philosophy Student should...Distinguish between the two philosophical points of view central to this novel, Collectivism and objectivism, and point to where and how both are presented. Ayn Rand has written many novels, mainly about objectivism, which is her philosophy on life. Objectivism focuses on self-interest and rising above one's oppressors (i.E. A professor, a parent, the government, etc.). While objectivism may have been relevant in communist Russia, where rand was born, it has lost traction in modern times, especially in the united states Objectivism is anthem make explicit, a wholesale rejection of the collectivist theories and tactics that rand believed were at the center of the brutalities visited on Russia during the early part of the twentieth century. Anthem is rand’s political manifesto. It takes the form of an allegory, a fictional story whose purpose is to present a philosophical idea. Anthem describes a dystopia, a nightmarish imaginary world through which rand speculates on the eventual result of society’s negative aspects. Rand uses the dystopia to show what she believes will happen when a nation or society embraces collectivism and community ideals. Systems of Belief to the Work

5. - Ayn Rand ties her world connections and experiences into her books by showing how one person’s beliefs affect others around them. • - Ayn believes that whatever is right for you is also morally right. • -Someone who also believes in this is Adolf Hitler, who believed in survival of the fittest race. Hitler considered his country to be the best and figured that if it was right for him, it was right for the entire world. He thought any competition countries should be destroyed. • - These beliefs are somewhat like “Communist propaganda”, and were common beliefs during her time. • - The values at stake in Anthem are not merely those of the central character; they are the professed values of an entire civilization—our own. This means that in Anthem you don’t see a view of only one character, you see values of an entire world. Connections Reflect in the Work’s Themes and Topics

6. Author’s Statements Within the Text Based on Bio Given her upbringing, there is no real surprise that she fell in love with independence. She can relate to the main character in the book because they both grew up in a place where they weren’t allowed to be individuals.

7. Sources http://www.gradesaver.com/author/ayn-rand/- Bio Information http://www.atlassociety.org/ayn-rands-anthem-appreciation -Connections Reflect in the Work’s Themes and Topics http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scaruffi20120820-Connections Reflect in the Work’s Themes and Topics Http://www.Prestwickhouse.Com/PDF/SAMPLE/300074.Pdf -Systems of Belief to the Work http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=82724579&site=src-live –Beliefs http://www.corporate-aliens.com/articles/maintemplatedb.php?Ayn-Rand-and-My-Beliefs&art_id=59 – How Life Affects Beliefs