The function of an “everyman” character in novels allows for the reader to truly understand the impact of situations on the characters. In Atlas Shrugged, Eddie Willers takes the role of the “everyman” because no matter what the circumstance, he does not give up—at least not until the end of the novel when he jumps in front of a train and presumably dies. The dialogue, character action, and characterization of Eddie Willers depict him as the “everyman” character in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The author’s use of dialogue symbolizes Eddie Willers’s importance to the literary work Atlas Shrugged. At the start of the novel, Willers discusses over the phone a seemingly meaningless conversation, throwing out the question “Who is John Galt?” He talks …show more content…
Although the reader does not know whether or not Galt offered Eddie Willers the opportunity to join his brain strike, one can infer that he must …show more content…
Eddie stayed by Dagny’s side during the action of the book and did as he was told to do. When Dagny quit to build the John Galt Line, Eddie took her position as acting vice-president and corresponded with her often so he could keep the company afloat. Even when Dagny quit completely with the passage of ridiculous laws such as the Anti-Dog Eat Dog Rule and Directive 10-289, Eddie stayed loyal to the company to keep it running, but he also stayed loyal to Dagny. His loyalty to the company, but most importantly to Dagny, signifies his role as the “everyman” character because when Dagny quit, she told Eddie her plans and told him to tell no one except Hank Rearden of her location and he honored his promise to her, even when situations got rough at the Taggart Transcontinental offices. However, his role as the “everyman” became too much for him and when The Comet broke down and everyone but him deserted, he found himself determined to fix the train in the middle of the desert, presumably where he died at the end of the novel. His death symbolizes his importance to the novel because he dedicated his life to Dagny and the railroad company, shown through his loyal actions from start to end, even when it appeared absolutely hopeless to continue to have loyalty to such a corrupt
This is a crucial part because he finally committed to not letting alcohol control his life, something that has controlled him since his brother was killed. This was a huge step in Eddie’s character development.
Prior to meeting the five people that he meets in heaven, he feels as if his life is worthless and has no meaning. Physically he is not in good shape, “His left knee, wounded in the war, was ruined by arthritis. He used a cane to get around”(2, paragraph 1). He feels stuck at a place with a job that he absolutely hates, “He cursed his father for dying and for trapping him in the very life he’d been trying to escape: a life that, as he heard the old man laughing from the grave, apparently now was good enough for him”(128, paragraph 1). The one and only love of his life has died, “I lost everything. I lost the only woman I ever loved”(173, paragraph 9). The triumphs bring Eddie down and make him feel as if his life did not go as he had planned.
Throughout the philosophical novel known as Atlas Shrugged, its author, Ayn Rand, leaves no question as to the primary theme within the story. In fact, Rand herself stated that the theme “is the role of the mind in man’s existence.” The story indicates that it is the presence and awareness of the mind that promotes prosperity and morality. For the duration of the book, as the men of reason and strong morality disappear, panic spreads through the remaining men in power, who are representative of the incompetent. They represent the men who avoid reason, acting upon such things as feeling and responsibility. Rand, through her lead character, condemns men of this nature, writing; “Are you seeking to know what is wrong with the world? All the disasters
Eddie is not doing the best for his family at all and he is without
Solving the problem with Eadith, Eadith/Eddie has another issue to deal with, which is the love between Gravenor and h/er. S/he receives a letter from Gravenor, in which he writes:
Rand presents her theme effectively by demonstrating what a man's ego isn't. Her book is based heavily on the aspect of no personal identity and no ego. The reader can then easily understand wh...
Everyone Eddie met in heaven taught him something about his life. They were all connected to him in different ways, whether it was someone close to him once, or a complete stranger. Somehow, all of their lives had crossed Eddie’s and helped make him the person that he had become. When you think about this lesson, you truly understand. One decision causes an effect, maybe on your life or maybe on someone else’s life. That effect will cause something else. It’s what I think of as a ripple effect. Everything happens for a reason, and all of the events that lead up to our “now” makes us who we are.
Eddie went into a depression stage in his life when his older brother returned home from
...rt. With that, water rushed around Eddie, and he could here nothing. The rushing water takes him to Ruby Pier the way he remembered it from his childhood where he will wait for a certain little girl he had saved from death to come to him for answers about her life. Eddie will not be alone, though. He will have Marguerite, the captain, Joseph, and plenty of others with him. As Eddie sat with Marguerite, he heard the voice of God say, "Home."
In Alice LaPlante article, The Making of a Story, she discusses what characters may be able to go mentally and emotionally through throughout the span of a story. The decisions that a character takes give the reader more information about not only the character’s true intensions but also the author. When LaPlante writes, “how a character behaves, both alone and in response to actions from other characters, is a critical aspect of characterization” (LaPlante, 425) she does not consider that fact that the author of a story may be including a deeper meaning behind a character actions. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel, No Country for Old Men, the author creates his characters in order to show a new perspective regarding good versus evil. The story revolves
It is with this organization that he is able to discern the ulterior motives of the white authority who have been stringing him along like a puppet. One such reflection occurred after he was presented to a Brotherhood associate named Emma. She asks, “‘But don’t you think he should be a little blacker?’... Maybe she wants me to sweat coal tar, ink, shoe polish, graphite. What was I, a man or a natural resource?” (303). Her comment reveals the Brotherhood’s intention of using the narrator as a means to achieve their goals, and the connections he makes between his own life and that of a “natural resource” emphasizes the utilitarian purpose he serves. Similarly, after a meeting with Hambro, the culmination of the narrator’s past experiences result in a moment of profound disillusionment. The narrator exclaims, “[Jack, Norton, and Emerson] were all very much the same, each attempting to force his picture of reality on upon me and neither giving a hoot in hell for how things looked to me. I was simply a material, a natural resource to be used” (508). This passage neatly summarizes the narrator’s struggle with identity. He finally sees that racial prejudices limit the complexity of his life to the rigid social structures erected by society. Over the course of his time with the Brotherhood, the narrator discovers that the prejudice of others creates a veil that only allows them to see what they want to
d. Marguerite - Although Eddie was a miserable man throughout the course of his existence, his love, Marguerite was the one thing that made him happy. After she died, Eddie felt empty and lost without her. When he meets Marguerite in heaven she explains to him that, even after death, she had always loved Eddie. Eddie learns that although life may end love is forever.
His kind nature is shown when he acts as a father figure towards Catherine; "Well, tell me what happened. Come over here, talk to me. " This shows he has an interest in her problems, he uses a very comforting manner. Eddie is a family man and agrees straight away to help illegal immigrants.
It is the story of a man named Eddie who for almost his whole life was the
The play was set in the nineteen fifties so Eddie would be told by me