John Galt

Protagonist and the main query of the novel, answer to which readers are looking for in a long plot. His temper is surrounded by numerous legends about the fountain of youth or the underwater country. John belongs to the gray cardinals, pulling strings for the sake of the evolution of the surrounding world. He leads the short-sighted puppets through cunning and intelligence.

Scant details of his biography testify to his studies at the university, the factory of motorcycles and attempts to assemble an engine of a new format. After that, he breaks all ties with the world of capitalists, preferring to create a community according to his own plan. Contemporaries call him Prometheus, who, after thousands of years of torment, transformed his mind and decided to take the sacred fire to heaven. People did not appreciate his gift and did not manage to use it, being content only with material benefits.

The halo of mystery turns Galt into a legend because a lot of personages do not even think they are dealing with a living person. John proposes own ideology through formulating the basic principles in an appropriate manifesto. His hero belongs to the active philosophers who choose deeds instead of long speeches. He supports persons who seek fame, fortune, or justice in an honest way.

Galt is convinced that inactive idea is absolutely otiose, so he creates Atlantis as the center of the bright minds of the mentioned era. John Galt embodies ruinous power that is able to wreak economic and social foundations. He organizes walkouts that lead to the death of competent experts. Condemning poverty and crime, the protagonist calls to fight for their rights, which brings bloody clashes with the government. Galt serves as the focal point of the good and evil sources, existing in each of us.