Scott in Boise

I totally disagree. He loved the railroad, but not the idea of making it great. He loved serving a great thing. He was born to serve. John Galt had no obligation to show pity on Eddie. That was the moral of the story. Obligated pity had corrupted the world.

It looks like I'm about 2 years late to the main debate, but here's my 2 cents. Eddie Willers did not represent the "common man". He represented the deontologist. His existence was based on a sense of duty to Taggart Trans. He served the railroad as did his father and grandfather. His goal, at the age of 10, was to do "whatever is right". He had no aspirations of greatness, only to do vague great things. To be a part of some noble act, like "Winning battles or saving people out of fires, or climbing mountains, that sort of thing.", while Dagny looked to the horizon. He represented the characteristics of honesty, competence, and devotion required out of duty, but he lacked the aspiration to make the object of his devotion greater than it was. His goal in life was to serve Taggart, not to contribute to its greatness. Rand was no fan of Kant, and Eddie's tragedy seems to me to be her tribute to the weakness of deontology. She openly ridiculed/parodied Subjectivists, Utilitarianists and Nihlists (James et. al), she paid dismissice lip service to Relativists, but she used Eddie to illustrate the futility of duty. When the duty perishes, so does the servant of that duty. The tragedy is amplified by reference to the Giant Oak. Eddie saw it as a symbol of strength, but later discovered it was only a hollow shell. When adult Eddie's symbol of strength, TT, pershed, he was tied to its fate. I think it's also noteworthy that Eddie didn't abandon his belief system to join a group of morally ambiguous, aimless transients who offered him assistance. This seems to sybolize Kant's adherence to his own belief system. In my mind, just as she (supposedly) based Fountainhead's Roark on Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mr. Thompson on Eisenhower, she based Eddie on Kant; A sincere amoral devotee of duty who would be left to perish in the wasteland of history when the Utopia of Greed assumed its rightful place. It may have been a warning that, if you're going to be disciplined and devoted to the cause, you might as well pursue your personal interests. Otherwise you'll miss out on paradise. Of course, maybe she just didn't like men who lacked the endurance to prattle on for 50 pages...