Chapter 21

Chapter 21 — "Atlantis"

TL;DR: Dagny wakes in a green hidden valley with the face she has been searching for all her life looking down at her — John Galt — and within hours is being introduced, one by one, to the men and women she has spent the novel mourning as vanished: Mulligan, Akston, Halley, Wyatt, Danagger, Quentin Daniels, Kellogg, Francisco, Ragnar — every one of them alive, free, and at home in a Colorado valley screened from the world by a refractor of Galt's design.

Summary: Dagny opens her eyes in a high green valley, propped on a slope of grass and pine. A tall man with chestnut hair, gray-green eyes, and the face she has been looking for everywhere is leaning over her, lifting her in his arms. He is John Galt. He carries her down to his small log house at the foot of the valley. Her injuries from the crash are minor. Over the next day Galt walks her through Mulligan's Valley, the place the world believes a myth and which the strikers themselves call "Atlantis." Midas Mulligan, the banker who vanished after the Hunsacker court case, owns it; he founded it as the refuge to which the strikers retreat for one month each year. Hugh Akston is the cook of the diner — but he is also resident philosopher and Galt's old teacher. Judge Narragansett is the legal codifier. Richard Halley composes again. Ragnar Danneskjöld is here with his wife Kay Ludlow, the actress who left Hollywood. Ellis Wyatt drills oil. Ken Danagger has a small coal seam. Quentin Daniels, just arrived, has the rebuilt motor running on Galt's bench. Lawrence Hammond builds cars. Dwight Sanders builds planes. Dr. Thomas Hendricks practices medicine. Calvin Atwood lights the valley with hydropower. The valley is sealed from the outside world by a refractor screen — a curtain of refractive air over the valley mouth, powered by Galt's atmospheric motor — which bends radar, eyes, and aircraft instruments away. There is no "looter law" here; everyone trades in stamped gold. Above the entrance to the valley a single dollar sign is mounted in solid gold — the strikers' sign.

Key scenes:

• Dagny's first sight of Galt's face above her — chestnut hair, gray-green eyes, no pain or fear or guilt
• Being carried down a path between pines toward a cluster of small houses
• Galt's cabin — log walls, a workbench, the rebuilt motor humming on it
• The diner counter with Hugh Akston in his apron — recognition, smile
• A walking tour of the valley — fields, mill, hydropower house, hangar, judge's small wood-paneled office
• The unveiling of the great gold dollar sign mounted at the valley mouth
• An evening dinner at Mulligan's house with the gathered strikers — Halley playing his Fifth Concerto on a black piano in the firelight

Characters present: John Galt, Dagny Taggart, Midas Mulligan, Hugh Akston, Judge Narragansett, Richard Halley, Ragnar Danneskjöld, Kay Ludlow, Ellis Wyatt, Ken Danagger, Quentin Daniels, Owen Kellogg, Lawrence Hammond, Dwight Sanders, Dr. Thomas Hendricks, Calvin Atwood, Francisco d'Anconia (arrives later in the chapter)

Locations / settings:

• A green hidden valley in the Colorado Rockies — pine, hayfield, hydropower waterfall, log cabins, a single small airstrip
• Galt's log cabin — workbench, motor, books
• The diner — a clean small building with a counter and four stools, Akston in apron
• Mulligan's house — large log, fireplace, black piano
• The valley's mouth — a great gold dollar sign mounted above the gap in the cliffs

Visual motifs: a green pine valley screened from the outside by a shimmering wall of refractive air; small log buildings; a working motor on a workbench; a black grand piano in firelit room; a great gold dollar sign mounted on rock above the only entry

Emotional tone: revelatory, restorative, mythic, joyous

Confidence: high — the introduction of Galt's Gulch is one of the most-cited and most-summarized chapters in the novel.