What is the message to all men, implied in this? Live honestly and honorably within the limits and to the limits of your own ability—and give thanks to the men whose greater ability has made such a magnificent world possible for you (but remember that you were not the great man’s goal or motive).

  July 1, 1946

  Hank Rearden

  Progression: He works fiercely, enthusiastically—then feels guilty about it; he attempts to make up in the altruistic sense; he gives in to every accusation of his family. He loves Dagny and considers this his sin, his guilty passion—while his forced love for his wife he thinks to be virtuous, pure, idealistic.

  Part II: his slow awakening to the truth—his understanding of the parasites (his family) and their motives—his understanding of his own value and that his sins had been virtues. His realization that his love for Dagny was his best emotion (after he loses her). His anger against his family then becomes implacable, cold, set, merciless—with the same sense of justice which he had earlier turned against himself. [This is AR’s first note on the romance between Rearden and Dagny. ]

  James Taggart

  Progression: from a smug, yet uneasy, satisfaction with his parasitical “top position”—to bewilderment—to malicious restlessness (with people and in business)—to a growing fear (Part II)—to panic, hysteria, and collapse.

  The Professor

  Progression: From a righteous (if slightly forced) idealism—to an attempt to drown himself in his work and shut out his uneasiness about the world—to the gradual, growing surrender to the parasites’ authority (spiritually and in his work)—to a growing fear of Galt (Part II)—to the cold viciousness of “self-protection,” accepting anything to justify his fatal mistake—to disaster.

  July 4, 1946

  Emotional and Personal Relationships Part I

  The love affair of Dagny and Rearden: first the mutual understanding—then his efforts to avoid her—the affair—his sense of guilt—her simple, natural acceptance—his growing love for her—her growing restlessness.

  Rearden and his wife: the last of his former love for her, now bewildered and forced. Her subtle campaign of torture, to pull him down.

  His efforts to atone to her for his love of Dagny.

  Rearden and his family: mother, sister and younger brother. The torture by the parasites—his constant “atonement.”

  The romance of James Taggart: his former unsatisfactory love life—meeting with Cherryl—the romance and the “Cinderella Girl” campaign—their marriage—Cherryl’s hatred and fear of Dagny—the first indication of what the marriage will be.

  Dagny and Eddie Willers: the comradeship.

  Dagny and James Taggart: all the stages of exploitation—deceit, cruelty, hatred on his part, bewilderment and contempt on hers.

  Dagny and Francisco d‘Anconia: the reluctant friendship.

  Taggart and the priest: the spiritual crutch.

  Dagny and Gerald Hastings.

  Rearden and the parasite whom he builds up (the mines).

  Rearden and his secretary.

  Taggart’s hatred for Rearden, and dislike for Mrs. Rearden, who despises him.

  The priest and the professor: a kind of spiritual cooperation.

  The professor’s disintegration: his “forced” idealism at his government laboratory—flashback to how he got laboratory—progression of his work and of his character toward [the support of] totalitarianism.

  Part II

  Dagny’s break with Rearden (and search for Galt).

  Dagny meets Gait—their night together.

  Dagny’s ultimatum to Galt.

  Dagny joins Galt.

  (Dagny and the professor.)

  (Dagny and d‘Anconia.)

  (Dagny and Eddie Willers.)

  (Dagny and Cherryl.)

  Scene where Rearden realizes that Dagny is his real love.

  Rearden discovers Mrs. Rearden’s affair with James Taggart.

  Taggart’s gradual destruction of Cherryl—and scene where she realizes his real nature.

  The love affair of Taggart and Mrs. Rearden.

  (Scene where Taggart confesses affair to priest, who forgives him.)

  Scene where professor realizes that Taggart is his master.

  Professor’s attempt to destroy Dagny.

  (Scene where professor curses priest.)

  Destruction of the professor.

  (Scene: the priest and Galt.)

  July 6, 1946

  Outline Part II: The Beginning

  The valley—John Galt.

  The “transportation pull” deal—TT gives its last grain cars to a soybean project in the south, instead of to the desperately awaited wheat harvest in Minnesota. The deal is arranged by Cuffy Meigs, TT’s new executive (the looter), who receives huge, secret rake-off from the head of the project, his friend, one of his own kind. (Chester is involved in this and is behind the project. Its announced aim—“teach people to sacrifice,” to live on a lower standard.)

  James Taggart, by now, does anything Meigs tells him to. Taggart’s growing fear. Cherryl’s attempts at self-improvement. Dagny breaks with Rearden; she tells him she loves another man—she does not say who. (“It was my fate to love the impossible.”)

  Dagny fights desperately, ferociously against the southern deal—but undertakes, personally, to see that the soybean freight is delivered. Here is her crucial mistake—she does it to save the railroad; she contributes to its destruction, instead.

  The ride of the soybean freight: the tragic irony of magnificent energy and competence wasted on doing well a worthless and vicious undertaking. (Dagny, her best engineers, Eddie Willers. The weather, the bad track, the last of the rail reserves wasted to fix a useless line.) This is the last run of a train shown in the story—showing a dying system, all the difficulties, impossibilities, inefficiencies involved. The next one—“The Comet”—cannot finish its run.

  The disaster resulting from this deal. The collapse of the whole farming district in Minnesota (“the last granary”): the rotting wheat, the bonfires of wheat, the bankrupt farms, the desertions of whole families, trekking away into nowhere, the lines of carts on the roads (like war refugees, but much worse). Rearden loses heavily on the farm machinery—credits he had extended. (He was counting on “help to success,” but help was given to failure.) The famine in the rest of the country.

  The famine and desertions of workers at the ex-Rearden mine in Michigan.

  Parallel developments: Dagny’s search for Galt (Francisco d‘Anconia, the empty valley).

  Rearden and his wife—his realization that Dagny was his real love. His scene with Dagny when he tells her that.

  James Taggart crushes Cherryl’s attempts to rise—she understands his real nature.

  Cherryl’s drowning plea to Dagny—the attempt to hang on to a living power.

  The circumstances (the result of their mutual problems above) that lead to the affair of James Taggart and Mrs. Rearden. Their ghastly night together—the horror of sex as second-handedness, as hatred, malice, and self-contempt.

  Taggart confesses the affair to the priest. The priest forgives him, but feels crushingly uneasy afterwards.

  The tunnel collapse. The return to old tracks—the pre-tunnel era. The desperate need of new track. Dagny’s worry over the Taggart Bridge.

  The professor. Reduction of his laboratory funds. Talk of using his “vibration-ray” against “isolationist” sections. The scene where the professor realizes that Taggart is his master. The professor is demoted—the “determinist” assistant is put in charge of the laboratory.

  The rebellion of [Rearden‘s] secretary against her family—her decision to quit and marry.

  Rearden discovers Mrs. Rearden’s affair with Taggart. Connected with same event—he sees the real nature of his mother, brother, and sister, and of their attitudes toward him.

  Immediately following—the crucial emergency conference: Rearden, Taggart, mine-owner, businessman, bureaucrat. Subject—the new rails for TT. Taggart has raised the rates on the Minnesota line, due to the farm collapse. The mine-owner has raised the price of ore. The bureaucrat does not allow Rearden to raise his prices on rails (“TT can’t afford it”). The squeeze-play in the open. Rearden is given an impossible burden—because he is the strongest; it is made impossible for him to function—because they so desperately need him to function. The crucial line (from Taggart): “You’ll do something.” Now Rearden sees (though not yet in words). He says nothing and walks out of the room.

  Rearden in his office—the crushing realization that he will know the truth (which he already knows) at any moment now. His secretary comes in for the promised appointment. She tells him she is quitting—and why. He sees the similarity of their tragedies. He understands everything.... He is ready to leave the office, when she tells him about the man waiting to see him. The name in the sealed envelope. “It must be a gag.... Send him in, I’ll see him. What does he look like?” “Like something made out of a kind of aluminum-copper alloy.”

  The news that Rearden has quit. The reaction of Dagny and Taggart— Taggart’s terror. He rushes to Lillian Rearden—to make her beg Rearden to remain.

  The scene where Lillian Rearden, his mother, brother, and sister beg Rearden to remain. His immovable coldness—they are dead for him, the sense of justice turned against them. He goes away (to the valley).

  The scene with his brother and Rearden’s superintendent. The superintendent quits, with his staff.

  The scene in which a lawyer reads Rearden’s deed to the collective: Mrs. Rearden, mother, brother, sister, and the publicity punk. The parasites “with their clothes off”—the naked truth about them. (Mrs. Rearden wishing to sell her share—the predicament of collective ownership.)

  The collective hires a friend of Cuffy Meigs as executive. Half the workers have deserted. The executive sells the remaining supplies and crucial machinery, on the side, then vanishes. The collapse of Rearden Steel.

  The final emergency to TT—no Rearden rails to come. The small banquet—Dagny, James Taggart, bureaucrat, businessman, Meigs, Mr. Jones. The decision to close the Wisconsin-Michigan ore line. Dagny’s desperate, almost screaming protests. Their arguments about “sharing hardships” and “the government needs a transcontinental line.” They outvote her. She escapes from the room in horror.

  Dagny in the subway. John Galt. She sits crying—and the bum who consoles her (“Oh well, who is John Galt?”). Toward morning, Galt comes back—they go to his room—their night together.

  Dagny’s challenge to him—his explanation. (“No, there is no conflict—there never can be—as you will learn.”)

  The closing of the ore line announced—the riots—the fights for the rails—the general panic.

  Dagny-Galt: the “enemy romance.”(?)

  The announced president’s broadcast. In radio studio—president, Dagny, Taggart, the professor (perhaps some of the lesser ones, too). The machinery won’t function. Then—John Galt’s voice. (A gasp and a scream in the studio—the gasp from Dagny, the scream from the professor.) John Galt’s broadcast.

  Scene in subway with phone booth, afterwards.

  The panic—the country falling apart. The professor’s hysteria—scene where he demands that the priest curse Galt—the priest refuses.

  Government’s attempts to negotiate with Galt, by short-wave. His refusal. Secret orders to find him.

  The scene: Galt and the priest, in the restaurant. The appeal through pity. His refusal.

  Dagny comes to Galt’s garret. The appeal through love—his refusal. Then she warns him—he hands her the phone. (“I was waiting to be found—I didn’t know it would be you. But it had to be.”) She notifies the government.

  Dagny returns to Galt’s room, with the police, hoping he will be gone. But he is there. The “polite” arrest—the wreck of his laboratory. (“What was in it? You’ll never know.”)

  Galt in a luxurious hotel room. The private bargaining: Galt and Mr. Jones—“What are you after?” Galt’s refusal. When Mr. Jones asks is there anything he would like, he answers: yes, he would like to speak to the professor.

  The scene: Galt and the professor. “John, I had a good motive!” The boy of eighteen and the sentence about the supremacy of reason. “Why don’t you say something?” “You’ve said it all.” The professor escapes from the room, in total spiritual collapse.

  The professor tells the others that they cannot let Galt rule, they must destroy him. Professor is placed under “protective custody.” He escapes.

  Scene: Dagny and Rearden. Rearden is on Galt’s side—Dagny confesses to him that she is Galt’s mistress.

  Scene: Dagny and Eddie Willers, when he leaves for California (by plane) to “save” the Comet. He realizes that he’s always loved her.

  Galt is ordered to dress in evening clothes and driven to a banquet room. The banquet. The appeal through flattery. The miserable and ludicrous mixture of crawling before him and arrogance in the implication of the value of their admiration. His answer, over the radio: “Get the hell out of my way.”

  The professor hears the broadcast over his car radio as he speeds toward the laboratory. He realizes that Galt’s refusal is more frightening than his acceptance would have been. The “determinist” and Meigs-types of “guards” will not let the professor into the laboratory. He wants the ray to destroy Galt. (“He’s won! Don’t you understand? He’s won, because he’s refused!”) He screams that Galt is the enemy, because he is the mind. “That’s right,” says one of the guards. “And what are you?” The explosion of the laboratory—the end of the ray and of the professor. (The “thing of screaming pain”—and the greater horror of one spark remaining within it to remember that this had been a great mind.)

  The scene is a bare hotel room—Taggart, businessman, bureaucrat, Meigs, Dagny. Galt has been locked back in his room. The “soundless hysteria” : the quiet, brief discussion, which has but one meaning, they all know it—the resort to force (with the unstated knowledge that the mere premise of such an attempt is insane). They avoid Dagny—her presence is restraining them, they don’t want her to understand. But Dagny is cold, silent, emotionless—strangely detached. She understands, and much more than they do (she understands what they will understand in the torture scene). She gets up unexpectedly, without a word, and walks out of the room.

  Dagny alone in her office in the TT building (night). The emotionless, methodical burning of her papers. The long-distance call from Eddie Willers—trouble for the Comet. She tells him, quietly, to quit. He can’t. (But he knew she would: “You, too?”)

  As she hangs up and proceeds with her burning, an executive rushes in with a report on danger to the Taggart Bridge: a new crack is reported—a storm is rising on the Mississippi—and a crucially awaited heavy freight train is approaching the bridge. Before the man finishes, she leaps to the phone; in the time it takes her to reach her desk, she sees the consequences of the bridge’s collapse and the remedy to save it; she sees Nat Taggart and the whole of Taggart Transcontinental. Then, slowly, with a twisted movement of her arm, she replaces the receiver. “What are we going to do, Miss Taggart? We don’t know what to do!” She thinks: This is it ... I didn’t know it would be so hard.... She answers: “I don‘t, either.”

  The torture of Galt. The reaction of the parasites—particularly Taggart. Galt laughs at them, pointing out the contradiction of their predicament. Their concern not to kill him (except Taggart: he is passive here—he is seeing the first hints of what he is to discover). The electric engine breaks down. Galt tells them about holding creators through their joy of living. “Go ahead, turn on the electric current.” The mechanic cannot repair the machine—he asks for Taggart’s instructions. The parasites’ answer—“Do something.” Galt tells him what to do. The mechanic obeys dazedly—the machine works. The mechanic looks at Galt—at the parasites—then drops his tools and runs away in terror. Galt laughs.

  Meigs seizes the engine, to operate it. The businessman whines: “Don’t kill him!” Taggart cries suddenly: “Make him scream!” The stunned, embarrassed silence; they all sense what Taggart sees completely in that moment. Taggart falls back against the wall, white-faced; he is done for. Meigs turns on the current. A man rushes in to announce the collapse of the Taggart Bridge. Galt’s moment of involuntary temptation. They stop the torture and rush out, realizing the implications, each to save himself. Taggart has not even heard the news; he is fixed on his discovery.

  Taggart and the priest. The confession of total evil and the plea for absolution. “I have nothing to say, James. I’m on strike.”

  The rescue of Galt by Dagny. (Brute force against mind and force.) He looks up at her, smiling in that complete deliverance which she knows. He says: “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?” Tears streaming down her face, smiling, she answers: “No, we never had to.”

  The flight of Galt and Dagny to the valley, over a world where the lights are going out.

  The last run of the Comet. Eddie Willers—against the world. The stop in the desert. (“Dagny, in the name of the best within us! ...”) The encroaching nature—the return of the jungle. Eddie Willers sobbing on the tracks, under the motionless ray of the headlight that shoots out to get lost in a dead night.

  The music of the composer’s “Heroic Symphony” filling the valley and rising out of it to the night sky. Rearden, d‘Anconia, Danneskjöld, Hastings at work—the control of nature, the triumph over nature. Talk about future plans, starting everything from the beginning, in a small, selfish way. “Galt will run the local railroad from New York to Philadelphia.” Galt and Dagny on the rocks above the valley—looking off at the wrecked road and the stubborn fire in the distance. Galt says: “The road is cleared. We’re going back.”