The story of Atlas Shrugged dramatically expresses Rand's philosophy of Objectivism:
Rand's ethical egoism, her advocacy of "rational selfishness," is perhaps her most
well-known position. For Rand, all of the principal virtues and vices are applications
of the role of reason as man's basic tool of survival (or a failure to apply it):
rationality, honesty, justice, independence, integrity, productiveness, and pride—each
of which she explains in some detail in "The Objectivist Ethics."[24] Rand's characters
often personify her view of the archetypes of various schools of philosophy for living
and working in the world. Robert James Bidinotto wrote that "Rand rejected the literary
convention that depth and plausibility demand characters who are naturalistic replicas
of the kinds of people we meet in everyday life, uttering everyday dialogue and pursuing
everyday values. But she also rejected the notion that characters should be symbolic
rather than realistic." and Rand herself stated, "My characters are never symbols,
they are merely men in sharper focus than the audience can see with unaided sight...My
characters are persons in whom certain human attributes are focused more sharply and
consistently than in average human beings.
