Atlas Shrugged/Section111

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, Chapter 1, section 1:     Previous Next

• Plot summary

Eddie Willers, walking through downtown Manhattan, wonders why the world seems to be slowly falling apart. He returns to the Taggart Transcontinental Building in order to tell James Taggart the bad news about an unfulfilled steel order and another train wreck, and to make Taggart see the seriousness of the situation the business is in because it can't get steel to replace its aging railroad tracks.

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• Setting

Downtown New York, and in the Taggart Transcontinental Building.

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• Characters

 Bum Number 1 - First and only appearance.
 Eddie Willers
 Ellis Wyatt - Mentioned.
 James Taggart
 Orren Boyle - Mentioned.
 Pop Harper - First and only apearance.

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• Mysteries

The question "Who is John Galt?" opens the book and is repeated over and over. Who is John Galt? Where did the phrase come from? What does it mean?