Think Twice by Ayn Rand

A murder, a romantic triangle, some familial drama, and a communist spy, make for an exciting mystery and an enthralling drama that’s bound to make almost any reader “Think Twice.”

The purpose of this Substack is to reflect on the ways fiction authors express their philosophical ideas in their works. Where possible, I will integrate those themes with other ideas and evaluate them. Though I may occasionally comment on various aspects of the writing, these articles are not reviews. For those who are unfamiliar with the works discussed, I will include the relevant details from the story in the “context” section, so if you are familiar with the work, I recommend you skip that section. I will try to avoid the most important spoilers, but there will be some, as it is often impossible to properly analyze the meaning of a story without accounting for how it ends.

Context

In “Think Twice,” a posthumously published play by Ayn Rand, the characters are gathered for a birthday celebration for Walter Breckenridge, an inventor and philanthropist.¹ All the guests are connected in some way to Breckenridge. When he’s murdered, the district attorney arrives and attempts to sort out which of the guests is responsible. The trick is that almost everyone has a motive—though that isn’t obvious to begin with.

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Gratitude Traps

The reason the motives aren’t immediately obvious is because Breckenridge has engaged in “gratitude trapping,” a habit whereby—out of misplaced benevolence or manipulative motives—a person is generous to others, but not to benefit those people or improve the giver’s relationship with them. Rather, the purpose is to create a sense of the recipient “owing” them. As psychologist Ellen Kenner writes, “The phrase ‘gratitude trap’ describes an elusive ugliness in many relationships, a deceptive ‘kindness,’ the main purpose of which is to make others feel indebted. Often, its victims feel guilty because they don’t feel grateful and don’t want the burden of reciprocating but nonetheless think that they ought to.”² As Kenner explains, this often involves the giver not considering, or even blatantly ignoring, the recipients’ wishes and values. Since the recipient usually awkwardly feels he must show gratitude he doesn’t really feel, the giver can often tell it isn’t genuine or enthusiastic, and therefore feels unappreciated.

Breckenridge has “benefitted” each character in a different way, thereby ensnaring them via a different kind of gratitude. Several (but not all, to minimize spoilers) of the most important characters and the way they’ve been ensnared in Breckenridge’s gratitude traps are:

Steve: Breckenridge’s partner at the laboratory, Steve is actually the brains behind their inventions, though he gets little credit and a much smaller share of the profits. He is initially grateful to Breckenridge for setting up the laboratory and managing the business and public-facing side of their work, which Steve has no interest in. But eventually he realizes that in doing so, Breckenridge has trapped Steve in a position where he’s not being fairly compensated for his work. However, he feels he shouldn’t complain because Breckenridge gave him his start.

Billy: Breckenridge’s wheelchair-bound teenage son is naturally grateful his father is loving toward him and can afford the expensive medical care he needs to live a reasonably good life despite his condition. But when he has the opportunity to undergo a risky procedure to cure his paralysis, Breckenridge refuses to permit it out of a stated concern for his son’s safety. Billy says he understands his father’s caution, but what he really understands is that Breckenridge is deliberately keeping the boy dependent on him, so that he’s eternally in the older man’s debt.

Helen: The story takes place in a modern house that Breckenridge had built for his wife, Helen. He did it in secret, without consulting her on anything. Not only does this result in a house that’s not at all to Helen’s taste, it deprives her of the experience of choosing the architect, style, furniture, and decor she wanted—a process she’d been looking forward to. Helen feels she must show gratitude for the gift; her husband, after all, has built her a spacious, modern new home. But she cannot fully appreciate it, because it isn’t really what she wanted.

Tony: A bright young man lacking family and connections, Tony’s primary asset is his beautiful, dextrous hands. Breckenridge declares they’re surgeon’s hands, and offers to pay for the boy’s medical schooling. Tony accepts, feeling that nobody else was looking out for him or advancing his interests, so he should accede to Breckenridge’s wishes. But Tony would prefer to use his skillful hands to play the piano, which he does beautifully. Breckenridge won’t hear of him dropping out of medical school, and Tony feels he’d be in the wrong to go against the wishes of his patron, so he sulks through his studies, snatching moments here and there for his real passion.

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The Mystery

With these characters all superficially benefitting from Breckenridge’s generosity—but secretly resenting him for the way he’s trapped them—the murderer could be almost anyone. Add to that a romantic triangle, some familial drama, and a communist spy, and you have an exciting mystery and an enthralling drama that’s bound to make almost any reader “Think Twice.”

1.  I read the play in the collection The Early Ayn Rand (Centennial Edition; New York: Signet 2005) and page numbers will be from there; it is also included in the collection Three Plays.

2.  Ellen Kenner, “How to Savor Gratitude and Disarm ‘Gratitude Traps,’” The Objective Standard, May 20, 2020, https://theobjectivestandard.com/2020/05/how-to-savor-gratitude-and-disarm-gratitude-traps/.