Anike Niemeyer
Eddie Willers scolds himself at the start of the novel for letting strange, disturbing thoughts come into his head. He cannot pinpoint their source, nor their meaning, but they bring him a great deal of despair. One particularly haunting memory is that of the oak tree on the hill of the Taggart estate.
As a child, Eddie looked up to the oak tree as a symbol of strength. In a world that he cannot grasp, the oak tree served as ‘a root’ that brought him to a safe, concrete understanding. After lighting struck the tree, however, Eddie realized that inside this massive tree was nothing but dust; its heart had withered long ago. To the young Eddie, this was more fearful than any notion of death; it made life an even more frightening and unfamiliar place.
Ayn Rand introduces us to a cast of characters that seem to have the same problem. They look for control and live in a world in which they feel unstable and powerless. The city itself lives and breathes; making the influence of a single person more and more obsolete. A passenger on a train of a Taggart line remarks, “Of what importance is an individual in the titanic collective achievements of our industrial age?” (p. 33). This captures well the dilemma of our main characters.
Eddie Willers feels more at ease when he looks at the fruit stand and stores on fifth avenue because they are managed by man; not by some ominous, untouchable power. The looming calendar over the city is a bitter reminder that man cannot steer the forces of the universe, and is utterly powerless in the face of change.
No comments:
Post a Comment