We the Living - A Sense of Life?: Objectivism Campfire
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line. Objectivism & We the Living - A Sense of Life?
Posted by Allan Darrow on August 11, 192003 at 00:39:29:
I have spent much of my free time the past year reading the complete writing both fiction and non fiction of Ayn Rand and company about Objectivism. Reading Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged were clear enough and there was a very strong sense of life presented in the novel that was ultimately victorious. But now I have finished We the Living and am very confused regarding how it ends. The book is about the sense of life and hope. But those that appear to embrace life and those that have given up hope all end their lives tragically. Here there appears to be no winner, only losers. Even Kira the heroine of the book, whose dedication and devotion to the love of her life Leo appears to be completely irrational. She loves him for what he could be but not what he is. What ever happened to A is A? To me it appears as if she is disillusioned by her obsession with Leo and his unrequited love coupled with the tragic ending of the book reads more like a modern Shakespearean tragedy . Although there is much of her underlying philosophy in this book, both the character of Kira and especially the ending of We the Living is very disturbing and doesn’t at all appear to fit into the more positive and hopeful themes presented in her other writings. Can someone please help me see this in another light?