In the book, Eddie is not resolved. It seems to me, he probably died alone in the desert. I was disappointed in this ending for him, as he was always loyal to Dagny, and I thought he deserved better. But he was not an innovator in his own right, so he didn't really fit in with those in the gulch.

However ... in the movie series, at the end, as they are boarding the chopper, they have 'one more man to pick up - Eddie'.

In the un-authorized sequel, "Atlas Snubbed" (by Ken Krawchuck), Eddie figures out how to get the locomotive re-started and is thus able to get back to what's left of civilization.

So, you can take your pick, or decide for yourself if something else happened. Maybe at daybreak he followed the wagon tracks and joined the wandering band after all.

What do YOU think happened to him?

Ayn Rand herself said he was a philosophical construct, in that he represented the everyday person who tried to live their life to the fullest, morally correct, but did not how to exist past that would be broken down by the breakdown of society.

I believe Eddie was overcome with mankind's demise and simply gave up.

Even with his belief in Dagny, I feel that he assumed that she had been defeated and that there was nothing left to return to.

Had he had the ability to contact her, he would've risked his life to get back to her, and even HE would've found a place in the gulch, as a simple laborer, if nothing more.

Ooops, forgot to subscribe to comments

I think that once Eddie got over the shock of the train being abandoned, he'd get back to whatever was left of civilization.

I suspect he knows where Galt's Gulch is as well.

Eddie is Everyman. Some survive, some don't. I like to think that after the shock of his situation sank in, he at least tried to get to the closest station, using what little was available on the train. His logic would be that since he was trying to get notice of the engine failure to someone who could fix it, any useful item on the train would be okay to help his quest. I am totally sure that before he left, he secured the train as best as he could. If he made it, or died trying, his sense of duty would have driven him, unlike many others.

I think I read in the book Who Is Ayn Rand? by Barbara Branden that his fate was deliberately left undetermined)--that if someone came along to help him, he would survive; if not, not. (I know that Ayn Rand later cut off both Nathaniel and Barbara Branden from
association with her, but that was some time after Barbara Branden's book was published.)