None of the main characters feel like real people.
Apparently she did that on purpose. From Wikipedia:
She wanted her fiction to present the world “as it could be and should be”, rather than as it was. This approach led her to create highly stylized situations and characters.
I consider that to be a wishful revisionism on her part. The truth is shes just a bad writer. The charactors in her first book “Anthem” are exactly as wooden and fake as the charactors in “Atlas shrugged.” She never developed any finesse or depth because real people aren’t as shallow as the fake people she dreamt about.
Apparently she did that on purpose. From Wikipedia:
I consider that to be a wishful revisionism on her part. The truth is shes just a bad writer. The charactors in her first book “Anthem” are exactly as wooden and fake as the charactors in “Atlas shrugged.” She never developed any finesse or depth because real people aren’t as shallow as the fake people she dreamt about.
The Fountainhead too. Howard Roark was just a cardboard cutout with a bunch of notes pinned to it.