Francisco d'Anconia burst onto the pages of Atlas Shrugged just as he was “flying through the days of his summer months,” “like a rocket” (94). Through Dagny's eyes, Ayn Rand presents Francisco as older and full of life, a being of pure joy; a shining beacon of ability, productivity, purpose. It's no wonder Dagny expects great things from Frisco d'Anconia. Yet, Dagny is crushed by what Francisco becomes. He “changes course,” leaving Dagny, and the reader, with the question: How could Francisco d'Anconia, purpose and productivity be embodied, a man who, even as a boy, understood that industry is “the most important thing on earth ” “ and that studying an engine means “[absorbing] the culture of the world” (95) – how he could become what, by his own admission, is “the most depraved type of human being”: “The man without a purpose ” (99), a worthless playboy? Francisco later reveals that he deliberately chose to pose as a playboy as “camouflage… for a purpose of his own” (493). He explains to Dagny that, having become president of d'Anconia Copper, he “began to see the nature of evil” (766) in the world. He saw that the world had abandoned reason, abandoned the mind. “I knew it,” he tells her, “I didn't see any way to fight it. John found the way” (766). John Galt's solution, “the mental men's strike” (738), pushes many men to leave their demanding professions and pursue less impressive and less conspicuous careers. Yet Francisco, alone among the attackers, remains where he is, as president of d'Anconia Copper. As Francisco explains, he faces a challenge that other attackers have not faced. While industries like Taggart Transcontinental are "precision machinery", requiring constant attention, concentration... middle of paper... accomplished the destruction of d'Anconia Copper, abandoned his mask and a world that had progressed. in its final stages of meaninglessness. So we see, in the end, that Francisco has always been a man with a purpose. He was the man who, faced with "a world in which there is so little opportunity for [joy]" (98), remained true to his childhood motto of "let's do it" (94), and created a world rich in opportunities for this. The straight line of his goal took him through a period in which he was required to disguise himself as that which he most despised, a useless playboy, but, through unbroken devotion to reality, he moved forward, rarely batting an eye, consistently achieving his goal of be the richest in his family. We see, in the end, that Francisco was “the pinnacle of the d'Anconia” (94). Works Cited Rand, Ayn. Atlas shrugged. New York: Penguin Group Inc., 1996. Print.