Mad Men and Ayn Rand

With the new season of “Man Men” well under way, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the parallels between the AMC series’s characters and those in Ayn Rand’s fiction—there has to be a reason, after all, why the eccentric Bertram Cooper, spends most of his time on screen handing out copies of Atlas Shrugged to his employees.  Right?

Pete Campbell and Peter Keating

I started watching “Mad Men” online last spring, and after a recent re-read of The Fountainhead, the similarities jumped right out.  Both men excel at using their youthful good looks and charm and/or personal connections to bring work to their respective firms (Campbell and the Clearasil account, for example, or Keating and… well… all of his commissions).  Campbell even tries to blackmail Don Draper about his false identity, in a misguided attempt to ascend to Creative Director himself.  Fortunately, Bertram Cooper doesn’t give a damn, and Campbell’s efforts are less successful than Keating’s foray into blackmail, in which he makes partner in his architectural firm by, literally, scaring one of the elderly partners to death.

Moving on to his personal life—Campbell makes a Keating-like choice when he marries the wealthy, well-connected Trudy (and then admits to Peggy Olsen that he chose “the wrong girl”); Keating had the same motives and regrets when he chose Dominique Francon over Catherine Halsey.  To her credit, Peggy seems to be a much stronger character than Katie… but then again, she doesn’t have an Ellsworth Toohey breathing over her shoulder day in and day out.  Cue shudder.

Don Draper and Hank Rearden

I’ve heard a lot of discussion about this recently, and I’m inclined to agree that the comparison is apt—plus, I’m pretty sure Cooper’s with me on this one too.

Laconic and extremely good-looking, Draper, like Rearden, has what society would consider the ideal life and the perfect wife—two things he’s rather indifferent to.  But both are self-made businessmen with ignominious origins and incredible professional integrity.  Like Rearden, Draper painfully maintains the pretense of a good husband and provider, upholding the system and age of conformity he lives in—even when he gets no return in happiness or enjoyment from it.

Of course, what does seem to provide Draper some pleasure are his sundry extramarital affairs with (shocker) beautiful, driven, successful women.  Most notable is probably Rachel Menken, the head of a major Jewish department store, who insists on the same respect as any of Sterling Cooper’s clients even if she is a woman.  Compare with Rearden and Dagny Taggart’s affair, Dagny being “the beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad” and also demands a similar respect in her line of work, which too is dominated by men.

Peggy Olsen and Eddie Willers

If Don Draper is Hank Rearden, then his former secretary Peggy would no doubt match up fairly well with Rearden’s omnicompetent secretary Gwen Ives.  Peggy, however, does not have a static career—

Somewhat naïve but driven and unfailingly hard-working, Peggy reminds me more of one of my favorite characters in Atlas Shrugged: Eddie Willers, Dagny Taggart’s devoted assistant.  Like Eddie admires Dagny, Peggy clearly has very high regard for Draper.  But while their relationship is (like Eddie and Dagny’s) strictly platonic, Draper, notoriously secretive, seems to trust her more than anyone else in his office—Peggy, after all, was the person Don Draper called to bail him out of jail while he was being held on drunk driving charges.  And Don Draper is the only one who knows the secret of Peggy’s mysterious absence and hospitalization; his advice that she “get out of here and move forward” by going back to work recalls the support Dagny gives Eddie Willers, who, “whenever she returned” felt that “the world became clear, simple, easy to face, and he forgot his moments of shapeless apprehension.”

So with all this to ponder, I have only one question left for AMC — who is John Galt?

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