WE THE LIVING

How Kira Changes

Kira’s Change

Objectivist Refusing help from Leo

on the ship Not caring about

material things (food, clothes, scenery, etc.)

Student engineer/ doing what she wants

Honest to herself & others

Non-Objectivist Accepting help from

Andrei ($ and job) Altering a dress to

impress Leo/ asking Andrei if he likes her dress

Sacrificing herself for Leo

Lying to Andrei (“I love you”) and Leo (source of money & relationship with Andrei)

Plot Triangle

Exposition: Introduces characters and situation

Rising Action: Character has to deal with the problem/ Kira has to deal with trying to be happy while living under Communism

Climax: Character makes the problem worse/ Kira tells Andrei “I love you”

Falling Action: Character has to deal with the worsened problem/ What will Kira do?

Resolution: Character either solves the problem or does not solve the problem/ Will Kira solve the problem?

What will Kira do?

Kira has a worsened problem: She lies to both Andrei and Leo but makes things much more complicated by telling Andrei she loves him and then lying to both men about the money and her relationships with them both.

She seems to realize that she’s lost her way/ she’s lost Objectivist ideals: “‘Song of Broken Glass’ […] it’s something I liked… long ago… when

I was a child… Andrei, did you ever feel as if something had been promised to you in your childhood, and you look at yourself and you think ‘I didn’t know, then, that this is what would happen to me’– and it’s strange, and funny, and a little sad?” (288).

At the end of our last reading section, she seems to hint that she wants Andrei to know the truth: “Andrei, you shouldn’t talk like that. I feel as if I were taking you

away from your own life, from everything that has been your life” (289).

“Andrei, when you told me you loved me, for the first time, you were hungry. I wanted to satisfy that hunger […] and that’s all” (290).

She’s unhappy carrying out all of these lies.She’s unhappy sacrificing herself for Leo’s happiness.How will she make things right?

Many people call Rand’s philosophy “naïve”– and argue that one cannot simply do what makes one happy in the adult world with real responsibilities– that it doesn’t work in “real life.” Kira seems to show us that living any other way than that which makes the individual happy leads to unhappiness shown as Kira lies to those around her and, most importantly, herself.

What will Kira do?