03.31.07
Ayn Rand Essay Contests
We’ve already missed the cutoff date for the 9th/10th grade essay, but if there are two more if you have a teen that has read Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged.
THE FOUNTAINHEAD - For 11th and 12th Graders
Entry Deadline: April 25, 2007
FIRST PRIZE: $10,000
5 SECOND PRIZES: $2,000
10 THIRD PRIZES: $1,000
45 FINALISTS: $100
175 SEMIFINALISTS: $50
THE FOUNTAINHEAD–TOPICS
Select ONE of the following three topics:
1) The conventional view is that in life one can either achieve practical success or be moral, but not both. What view of this relation do you think emerges in The Fountainhead? What is the novel’s conception of success? Of morality? Explain by reference to characters and events of the story.
2) For each of the following quotations from The Fountainhead, explain its meaning in the story and its wider significance.
a) Gail Wynand (to Howard Roark): “There’s a particular kind of people that I despise. Those who seek some sort of a higher purpose or ‘universal goal,’ who don’t know what to live for, who moan that they must ‘find themselves.’” (Part IV, Chapter 5)
b) Peter Keating (to Dominique Francon): “I’d rather you’d express an opinion, God damn it, just once!” (Part III, Chapter 2)
c) Howard Roark (to Ellsworth Toohey): “But I don’t think of you.” (Part II, Chapter 15)
3) In Roark’s courtroom speech, he discusses the conflicts of the creator versus the second-hander and of egoism versus altruism. What is the nature of these conflicts and the relationship between the creator and egoism and between the second-hander and altruism? How do characters and events of The Fountainhead dramatize these conflicts and relationships? Explain.
Essay must be no fewer than 800 and no more than 1,600 words in length, and must be typewritten and double-spaced. One entry per student, please.
ATLAS SHRUGGED - For college students (including students that will be freshman in Sept, 2007 - ie. Seniors now.)
Deadline: Sept 17, 2007
FIRST PRIZE: $10,000
3 SECOND PRIZES: $2,000
5 THIRD PRIZES: $1,000
20 FINALISTS: $100
20 SEMIFINALISTS: $50
ATLAS SHRUGGED—TOPICS
Select ONE of the following three topics:
1) A considerable part of the story of Atlas Shrugged deals with issues of justice. What is the account of justice that emerges in the novel? How does it compare to other, culturally-influential accounts of justice?
2) For each of the following passages from Atlas Shrugged, explain its meaning, its relation to the story, and its wider significance.
a) James Taggart: “I don’t know [what the phrase ‘Who is John Galt?’ stands for] … But the way people use it, they always seem to say it out of—”
Dagny Taggart: “Fear? Despair? Futility?”
James Taggart: “Yes … yes, that’s what it is.”
Dagny Taggart: “That’s what I want to throw in their faces!” [Part 1, Chapter VII]
b) Eddie Willers [to Dagny Taggart]: “We can’t fight it. It can’t be answered. We can’t demand a retraction. We can’t show them our tests or prove anything. They’ve said nothing. They haven’t said a thing that could be refuted and embarrass them professionally. It’s the job of a coward. You’d expect it from some con-man or blackmailer. But, Dagny! It’s the State Science Institute!” [Part 1, Chapter VII]
c) Francisco D’Anconia: “ … why is it that throughout man’s history the Nat Taggarts, who make the world, have always won—and always lost it to the men of the Board?”
Dagny Taggart: “I … don’t know.”
[Part 2, Chapter V]
3) An important early event in the novel is the destruction of the Phoenix-Durango. What factors make its destruction possible? How does this issue relate to the meaning and theme of Atlas Shrugged?
Essay must be no fewer than 1,000 and no more than 1,200 words in length, and must be typewritten and double-spaced. One entry per student, please.
