A Balancing Act: How Ayn Rand Pushes Her Philosophy Objectivism over Altruism In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, the author uses her protagonist, Howard Roark, to represent the ideal man. Roark is characterized as static, passionate about architecture, and indifferent towards others. If he displays benevolence,...
Howard Roark’s character in The Fountainhead is unwavering and beyond the effects of time, people, and mass opinion. Much of Roark’s effectiveness and integrity is drawn in contrast, a contrast to the ever-changing beliefs of those around him. These differences, and Roark’s steadfast character, can...
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand
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From Aristotle to modern times, the faculty of human reason has been the subject of contrasting depictions in literature. In Crime and Punishment, for example, Fyodor Dostoyevsky emphasizes the tragic outcome of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov’s obsession with rationalization; in the end, the protagonist rejects his...
Integrity is a quality frequently sought after but rarely achieved; once achieved; it is even more rarely maintained. It is an elusive gem with the potential to inspire and transform a person. Unfortunately, it is often compromised – a valuable payment for something of lesser...
Which man ultimately prospers: the man of integrity, or the hypocritical, unethical man? In The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand questions the relationship between the moral and the practical. Many people in real life – as well as Gail Wynand and Dominique Francon in the novel –...
The impact literature can impose on society remains striking even to this day. Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead contains themes that resonated so significantly with readers that it triggered a political movement, and assisted in forming the Libertarian party. The Fountainhead often referred to as...
Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead showcases four men who exhibit varying strength of character, resolve, and ethics to create a concise illustration of the distinct levels of objectivity that pepper the spectrum of the human character. The obvious protagonist of this literary work, Howard Roark, is...
The relationship between Roark and Keating dominates the first two parts of the novel. Rand uses the comparison between Roark and Keating to express two polar opposites. Roark is Rand’s hero, the epitome of everything Rand attributes to be good. He abides by ideals of...
Man’s fabric, biblically, is dirt. Under the misnomer of “soil,” this substance signifies filth; yet it is essentially pure until Man soils it himself, with blood or spit or footprints, just as Eve first laced it with the juice of an apple. Biologically, the zygotic...
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand
Date
1943
Author
Ayn Rand
Genre
Philosophical fiction
Language
English
Characters
Howard Roark, Peter Keating, Dominique Francon, Gail Wynand, Ellsworth Toohey
