The first two chapters of Atlas Shrugged introduce you two three very different characters. All of these character are tied together in that they all are playing a part in the reconstruction of a section of railroad. All of these characters introduce different mindsets and different symbols.
The first symbol I noticed is the tree structure. Eddie demonstrates and important concept when he talks about his child memory when his favorite tree was discovered to be hollow inside when it looked healthy. I believe this is opening the reader up to an important concept that materialistic values are not what one should strive after, and while money maintains and external image, you will slowly die inside if you do not do what makes you happy.
Next, the book moves on to the character Dagny Taggart. I feel her role in the book is to foil her brother and show yet another balance, one between emotion and personality with business smarts and success. Her brother describes her as emotionless, and she shows it when she goes behind his back and goes to the big corporation rather than the small business. With her brother as the head, their company should be the nice caring company, but instead she turns them into a corporation willing to screw over the small guy.
The third character is Reaver. I believe that what he demonstrates is the ability to become absorbed in one's own power. He shows this especially while talking to Philip. I believe his actions just demonstrate that he gets pleasure from being able to toy with people using his own personal power, which explains why he thinks he has no time for his family because they are just weak pawns.
Either way, hopefully we will get deeper into the mindsets of the characters.
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