Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest 2008

Type: Essay Contest

Eligibility: Open to students worldwide. Entrant must be enrolled in a college degree program at the time of entry. High school students entering college in the fall of 2008 are also eligible.

Deadline: September 17, 2008.

How to Enter the Contest:
TOPICS
1. Why do Dagny and Rearden oppose the strikers in action?
2. Explain Ragnar Danneskjold’s statement that Robin Hood is the one man he is out to destroy. What is the deeper moral meaning of his claim?
3. For each of the following three passages from Atlas Shrugged, explain its meaning and its relation to the story and theme of the novel.
a. Galt: "In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromiser is the transmitting rubber tube.”
-Part Three, Chapter VII
b. Dagny: “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?”
Galt: “No, we never had to.”
-Part Three, Chapter I
c. Francisco: “You have a great deal of courage, Dagny. Some day, you’ll have enough of it.”
-Part One, Chapter V

A stapled cover sheet MUST include: name and address of entrant; entrant's e-mail address (if available); name and address of entrant's university; topic selected (1, 2 or 3 from list above); and your declared major.
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.

Submit your essay online or mail your essay with stapled cover sheet to:
Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest, Dept. W
The Ayn Rand Institute
P.O. Box 57044
Irvine, CA 92619-7044

Prizes:
FIRST PRIZE: $10,000
3 SECOND PRIZES: $2,000
5 THIRD PRIZES: $1,000
20 FINALISTS: $100
20 SEMIFINALISTS: $50

URL Contest: The Ayn Rand Institute