Eddie’s life is analyzed and discussed throughout the novel. Eddie believes he had a mundane, unfulfilling life because he was stuck living the same life his father lived before him. As a young man, Eddie had dreams of becoming an engineer because he liked to fix things. However, after going to war and returning with a permanent injury to his leg, he stopped pursuing his dream of an education. Eddie drives a taxi for a while but begins working at Ruby Pier after his father is hospitalized with pneumonia to keep his father from losing his job. When his father dies and Eddie realizes his mother has lost touch with reality, he moves his wife back into his childhood home and takes a full-time job with Ruby Pier. In time, Eddie works his way up to his father’s job as head of maintenance.

Eddie is angry with his father because of the abuse his father perpetrated against him and his brother. He also believes that his father brought on his death by drinking too much. Eddie allows this anger to burn inside of him most of his life, refusing to see the man his father was beneath the struggles of his own life.