All 50 Uses of
despair
in
Atlas Shrugged
- Pleas for dimes were so frequent in the streets these days that it was not necessary to listen to explanations, and he had no desire to hear the details of this bum's particular despair.
Chpt 1.1 (definition 1)despair = hopelessness
- "If everybody could pull for a common purpose, then nobody would have to be hurt!" he cried suddenly, in a tone of incongruous despair; he saw Taggart watching him and added, pleading, "I wish we didn't have to hurt anybody."
Chpt 1.3 (definition 1)
- But there were times, like tonight, when she felt that sudden, peculiar emptiness, which was not emptiness, but silence, not despair, but immobility, as if nothing within her were destroyed, but everything stood still.
Chpt 1.4 (definition 1)
- She had stopped for blank moments in the middle of her office, paralyzed by despair at the rigidity of time which she could not stretch any further-on a day when urgent appointments had succeeded one another, when she had discussed worn Diesels, rotting freight cars, failing signal systems, falling revenues, while thinking of the latest emergency on the Rio Norte construction; when she had talked, with the vision of two streaks of green-blue metal cutting across her mind; when she had…
Chpt 1.7 (definition 1)
- In payment for every effort, for every sleepless night, for every silent thrust against despair, this moment was all she wanted.
Chpt 1.7 (definition 1)
- Despair?
Chpt 1.7 (definition 1)
- The way he pressed his mouth to it was tenderness, but the way his fingers held it was despair.
Chpt 1.9 (definition 1)despair = a great need or desire
- He held her body as if the violence and the despair of the way he took her could wipe his unknown rival out of existence, out of her past, and more: as if it could transform any part of her, even the rival, into an instrument of his pleasure.
Chpt 1.9 (definition 1)despair = great need or desire
- The man who made the motor-she thought suddenly, the thought coming like a cry of despair.†
Chpt 1.10 (definition 1)
- …wondered, for the first time, whether her spite, her sarcasm, the cowardly manner of delivering insults under the protection of a smile, were not the opposite of what he had always taken them to be-not a method of torture, but a twisted form of despair, not a desire to make him suffer, but a confession of her own pain, a defense for the pride of an unloved wife, a secret plea-so that the subtle, the hinted, the evasive in her manner, the thing begging to be understood, was not the open…†
Chpt 1.10 (definition 1)
- She pressed the back of her hand to her eyes, trying to dam the outbreak of a despair she had not permitted herself to acknowledge; she had not known the extent of it, nor how little of her endurance the quest had left her.
Chpt 1.10 (definition 1) *despair = hopelessness
- The cry was involuntary; it held amusement, despair, indignation and pity.†
Chpt 2.1 (definition 1)
- Rearden's anger was involuntary, the cry, not of reproach, but of despair: "How can you waste yourself that way?"
Chpt 2.2 (definition 1)despair = distress (at not knowing how to improve a bad situation)
- A man has to come to a certain mental stage-not anger or despair, but something much, much more than both-before he can be cut down.†
Chpt 2.3 (definition 1)
- He could not get rid of the impression, which he had kept receiving and rejecting for three months, that her vengeance was not a form of despair, as he had supposed-the impression, which he regarded as inconceivable, that she was enjoying it.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- He saw faces that laughed in violent excitement, and faces that pleaded for help; he saw their silent despair breaking out into the open; he saw the same anger and indignation as his own, finding release in the wild defiance of their cheering; he saw the looks of admiration and the looks of hope.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- What made them believe that this earth was a realm of evil where despair was their natural fate?†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- But what a man does out of despair, is not necessarily a key to his character.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- And he cries with despair, because he can feel nothing for the women he respects, but finds himself in bondage to an irresistible passion for a slut from the gutter.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- It was the half-moaning, half-furious cry of despair.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- Rearden," he said, in a voice that had the strength, the despair and the peculiar dignity of a plea he knew to be hopeless, "for the time when you're going to damn me, when you're going to doubt every word I said ….†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- It was whispered that the chief engineer of the Atlantic Southern, in despair over the company's failure to obtain the steel he needed to reinforce the bridge, had resigned six months ago, telling the company that the bridge was unsafe.†
Chpt 2.5 (definition 1)
- She wondered what had been his purpose tonight-and noticed that he had, perhaps, accomplished it: he had carried her over the worst moment, he had given her an invaluable defense against despair-the knowledge that a living intelligence had heard her and understood.†
Chpt 2.5 (definition 1)
- Why had he cared about her hour of despair-after the years of agony he had given her?†
Chpt 2.5 (definition 1)
- Attempts had been made to erase it, but the inscription remained, as the graven voice of some unknown drunk's despair: "Who is John Galt?†
Chpt 2.5 (definition 1)
- There were reports from the general managers of the four Regions of the Taggart system, their pages a typewritten cry of despair over the breakdowns of equipment.†
Chpt 2.6 (definition 1)
- Eddie Willers asked the worker in the underground cafeteria, and added, with a smile that was an appeal, an apology and a confession of despair, "Oh, I know it's I who've stayed away from here for weeks."†
Chpt 2.7 (definition 1)
- He raised his head, smiling, he looked down at her and she saw a look of protective tenderness come into his face, which told her of the despair he saw in hers.†
Chpt 2.8 (definition 1)
- All had a look of despair, except the face of Eddie Willers.†
Chpt 2.8 (definition 1)
- It was a cry of astonishment and despair.†
Chpt 2.9 (definition 1)
- The despair of a helpless victim left her, she was not a victim any longer, she was one of the contestants, willing to bear the responsibility of action.†
Chpt 2.9 (definition 1)
- Sincerely yours, Quentin Daniels When he looked up from the letter, he heard her saying, as he had heard her through the words of the typewritten lines, her voice rising closer to despair each time: "Keep ringing, Operator!†
Chpt 2.9 (definition 1)
- He should not have told her about Dan Conway, he thought; he should not have said anything to remind them both of the despair they would feel, if they felt.†
Chpt 2.9 (definition 1)
- When she hastened across to the next car, she felt no fear, no uncertainty, no despair, nothing but the urgency of action.†
Chpt 2.10 (definition 1)
- And in answer to the earth that flew to meet her, she heard in her mind, as her mockery at fate, as her cry of defiance, the words of the sentence she hated-the words of defeat, of despair and of a plea for help: "Oh hell!†
Chpt 2.10 (definition 1)
- "Oh, what for?" she cried, the despair breaking out for the first time.†
Chpt 3.2 (definition 1)
- She raised her eyes, knowing that they knew the nature of her despair and that it was useless to hide her struggle.†
Chpt 3.2 (definition 1)
- …half-crutch, his perceptiveness becoming his danger and only his surrender to lethargic stupidity protecting the shoddy structure of his joy, struggling and giving up and settling into the dreary routine of the conviction that fulfillment is impossible to man-the three of them, who had had all the gifts of existence spread out before them, ending up as embittered hulks, who cry in despair that life is frustration-the frustration of not being able to make unreality real.†
Chpt 3.2 (definition 1)
- He would not give up the search for her plane, when all others had long since despaired, as he would not give up his mills, as he would not give up any goal he had chosen if a single chance was left.
Chpt 3.2 (definition 2) *despaired = lost hope
- It was like a spurt of blood from a sudden crack in a wound that had almost closed: Stadler's face was open, open in pain, in horror, in sincerity, as if, for that moment, both he and Ferris were human beings, while he moaned with incredulous despair: "In a civilized century, Ferris, in a civilized century!†
Chpt 3.3 (definition 1)
- She had lost the habit of observing despair as the normal and dominant aspect of human existence, so normal as to become unnoticed-and the sight of it struck her in all of its senseless futility.†
Chpt 3.3 (definition 1)
- She raised her head, shaking it with a bitter smile-there was a desperate violence in her movement, but the smile was a sign of recovery: of the determination to face the despair.†
Chpt 3.3 (definition 1)
- Suddenly, he knew that this was the goal of his restless hours, this was the pleasure he had despaired of finding, this was the celebration he had wanted.
Chpt 3.4 (definition 2)despaired = lost hope
- It was a cry of despair.
Chpt 3.5 (definition 1)despair = distress (at not knowing how to improve a bad situation)
- She felt nothing, she thought, then noticed that her shoulders were trembling in a faint, continuous shudder, then grasped that the tearing violence within her was made of an exultant tribute, of gratitude and of despair-her tribute to the victory that the meeting of these two men implied, the final victory of both-her gratitude that those in Atlantis still regarded her as one of them and had granted her the exception of receiving a message-the despair of the knowledge that her…†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- …trembling in a faint, continuous shudder, then grasped that the tearing violence within her was made of an exultant tribute, of gratitude and of despair-her tribute to the victory that the meeting of these two men implied, the final victory of both-her gratitude that those in Atlantis still regarded her as one of them and had granted her the exception of receiving a message-the despair of the knowledge that her blankness was a struggle not to hear the questions she was now hearing.†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- Nebraska, in Oregon, in Texas, in Montana-the futile, doomed outbreaks, prompted by nothing but despair, ending in nothing but destruction.†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- Mr. Thompson will put an end to those sinister forces whose purpose is to keep us in terror and despair.†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- Don't despair!†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- There have always been men of intelligence who went on strike, in protest and despair, but they did not know the meaning of their action.†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
Definitions:
-
(1) (despair as in: she felt despair) hopelessness; or distress (such as extreme worry or sadness from feeling powerless to change a bad situation)
-
(2) (despair as in: do not despair) lose hope or feel distress