Society in Rapture

Rapture's Society was composed of people who chose to escape from the surface and live by Andrew Ryan's objectivist ideals. The city was home to some of the world's most brilliant, hard-working, and creative minds, who contributed to it's design and technological advances. Although many of those who were invited to the colony were renowned creators, a large number of its populace were the ordinary working class who were tasked with the difficult job of building Rapture and keeping it functioning. Many of these men and women eventually found themselves without jobs once the city's construction was completed. Exploitation of the gap between the upper and lower class contributed to Rapture's downfall.

Freedom from Fear
Andrew Ryan had long been a critic of government interference in private business and citizens lives. He had escaped the Communist Revolution in Russia only to witness the nationalization of private assets during the Roosevelt administration in America. It was the creation of the Atomic Bomb which finally prompted him to abandon the surface's society. Many who shared his dislike of government interference or his fear of nuclear apocalypse followed him to the promised safety of Rapture.

Freedom from Judgment
Some citizens sought sanctuary from a different kind of persecution. In the underwater utopia, citizens were permitted to work, live, and behave without fear of sanctions. Groups marginalized in mid-Twentieth Century American society such as women, homosexuals, and people from various racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds were afforded equal treatment in Rapture. As for religious practice, Ryan advocated atheism in government and religious freedom in the privacy of citizens' homes.

A Fresh Start
Others simply sought a fresh start. Many were refugees from WW2 and its following upheavals. The idea of living in a city under the ocean filled with many technological advancements also appealed to numerous people. Rapture offered a opportunity to get ahead, to be number one; an individual could leave the critics, bad memories, or mediocrity behind, and rise to the top of society.

A New Society (1946-1958)
Before the Rapture Civil War and the "Fall of Rapture," the city had a normal population structure and setting similar to those in New York City or Chicago. Rapture was newly built with technological marvels and was infused with wealth and idealism of an active economy and new population. Most citizens lived the life of ordinary urban people, upper/middle/lower classes, with freedoms, stability and removal of the political fervor of the surface world. Much of Rapture at this time could be looked at as a utopia. However, within the population, cracks began to appear, because in Ryan's Rapture the poor could be subject to unfortunate circumstances, with few resources to draw upon to recover. A good example of this flaw were the workers who helped to build the city itself, who after the completion of Rapture were left few options but to live in Pauper's Drop, a maintenance junction for the Atlantic Express which originally served as temporary housing for its workers and then turned into affordable apartments.

Living cut off from the rest of the world and away from natural sunlight brought unexpected side effects and anxieties in the populace. To prevent them from leaving Rapture, and endangering its secrecy, Andrew Ryan extended an invitation to the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Sofia Lamb to the underwater city to try to solve the psychological problems. He also established Ryan Amusements to educate Rapture's youth about the evils of the surface world. Ryan was unaware that Lamb's agenda advocated altruism and "the common good". Lamb later began sponsoring very public charity operations, when government social programs were banned by Ryan, who saw them as parasitism upon the rest of society. Ryan had originally expected there would be some problems while Rapture settled into his philosophy, but had not anticipated the public support Lamb would achieve. The confrontation eventually escalated when Lamb directly opposed Rapture's philosophy in public debates. The increased tensions eventually led Ryan to convince the Rapture Central Council to incarcerate her in Persephone, and allow her contrary influence to fade from Rapture's society.

These social stresses were then greatly exacerbated by the introduction of ADAM and its addiction, which brought society-breaking disruptions. Frank Fontaine made the opportunity of Lamb's removal to start charity works himself, and to use these problems to brutally seek ultimate power. Even though Rapture had previously weathered several major economic "adjustments", Fontaine's ADAM-fueled class revolt began to push Rapture to the brink of collapse.

Civil War (1958-1960)
Ryan's social structure in Rapture can be looked upon with amazement at its naivety or its brilliance. Anyone could get rich by earning it, but this ignored the fact that not everyone was capable of doing so. Many who did not get rich were the victims of hard circumstances, which drove any into poverty. Ryan's free market policies caused many businesses to flourish, but the competition also caused many to go out of business. Some industries, like that of construction or the building of the railroad, suddenly ceased and caused general economic distress. Unemployment forced many to live in tenement housing in Apollo Square or in the slums of Pauper's Drop. An 'out for power' schemer and crook named Frank Fontaine saw this split as a opportunity to overthrow Ryan and take over Rapture for himself. He accumulated wealth using a combination of business savvy, criminal thuggery, and illegal smuggling (importing contraband goods from the surface to Rapture). This wealth allowed him to takeover various companies and then to start and drive forward his most valuable business: the ADAM Industry. He cultivated communities of the poor with charities to gain influence and support among these "have nots." In reality, Fontaine didn't care at all about the people, he just wanted the manpower of those he could easily manipulate. By 1958, Fontaine had become a dangerous rival to Ryan. After a long thwarted effort to shut down Fontaine's smuggling operation, a large fire fight between Ryan Security, led by Sullivan, and Fontaine's army of thugs and Splicers occurred in Port Neptune. The result was Frank Fontaine's (faked) death. Following this, Ryan had the Rapture City Council seize Fontaine's assets, which disillusioned many people. Fontaine, in his new persona Atlas, was free to instigate a rebellion amongst Rapture's poor and to lead Splicers against Ryan, his supporters, and the rest of the city. This effectively was a civil war, which led to freedom-restricting security measures used to fight the rebels, which would eventually destroy Ryan's Rapture. Because of the disruptions to society, large numbers of the population spliced with ADAM to defend themselves. The excessive use of ADAM, as a side-effect, drove more of the population insane, and was accompanied by hideous physical deformities.

Post-Civil War (1960)
By the beginning of 1960 and the end of the civil war, Rapture's inhabitants were either people trying to survive; defending what they had left, or ADAM-crazed Splicers. Ryan had neutralized Atlas and taken control of many of the Splicers using a pheromone system, and had all but won the war. By this time, Rapture was in a severe state of disrepair, held together by Ryan alone. In an effort to regain Rapture, Atlas put his plan involving using Jack to assassinate Ryan into motion.

After Effects of the Civil War (1960-1968)
After the deaths of both Ryan and Fontaine, Jack became the leader of Rapture for an undetermined period of time. After Jack's departure from Rapture, Sofia Lamb seized power in the crumbling city. Lamb used her influence over the Rapture Family to bend the will of many citizens of Rapture to attempt to build a utopia based on a theoretical selfless utopian. Lamb's followers formed a community worshipping the true utopian - The People's Daughter. At the end of BioShock 2, the fate of Rapture's inhabitants is unknown.