[1] The philosophers share a similar naturalist/objectivist meta-ethical perspective emphasizing character as the primary determinant of moral worth, and possess a fundamentally heroic attitude towards life.
Rand's heroes are tall, strong and upright; the females share slender figures, defiant stances and the impression of internal calmness, while the males are physically hard and supple, often with gray eyes.
[11] Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek situates the Randian hero in Rand's fiction in the "standard masculine narrative" of the conflict between the exceptional, creative individual (the Master) and the undifferentiated conformist crowd.
[12] He does not consider the Randian hero to be phallocratic, arguing that these "upright, uncompromising masculine figures with a will of steel" in effect emerge as the feminine subject liberated from the hysteria of entanglement in the desire of the Other to a "being of pure drive" indifferent towards it.
Anthem, set in a dystopian future where free will has been eliminated and individual excellence is considered a disease, is told through the eyes of Equality 7–2521, a man with a quick and inquisitive mind who is forced by the leaders of his collectivist society to work as a street sweeper.
In considering the character of Dagny Taggart as Randian hero, scholar Edward Younkins remarked that while she evoked passion and admiration, she was inspirational rather than motivational.
Early self-esteem psychologist Nathaniel Branden, the most prominent of Rand's initial adopters, later renounced aspects of objectivist literature and acknowledged "the accusation that we are against feelings, against emotions" as well as other criticisms of such a celebration of ultra-rationalism being dangerous: