Monday, 25 April 2016

The fountain Head

The fountain Head, one of the major novel of Ayn Rand. The fountain head is all about the individualistic and collectivism.One man against the system and each person is expected to think primarily about himself and to live primarily for himself. Here Rand had showed two characters foils one works for success by using immoral and other works for excellence. Howard Roark ,a protagonist of novel, a architect who defines integrity by architecture rather than a person whereas Peter Keating who is untalented rabble  and naysayers  can do any immoral to get success. Roark who does not put on manners, or false flattery, or false dislike in order to impress others with a false designs. He believes to practice modern architecture which is superior and more elegant than other traditional buildings. He was suffered many times as he refuses to comply with what other people think of as good, he has his own ideas and does not give merit to others' ideas because someone else thought of them.Rand demonstrates that there is no such thing as love of humanity but there is only love of individuals. One thing about novel is Power, it says  "a man who goes after power" is the "worst second-hander of all" a person living for the power he has over other men, a person gives all those people power over himself.

The novel begins as Howard Roark is expelled from Stanton as he refused to follow the school's orthodoxy and Peter Keating graduates who is vacuous student but popular as Roark used to help him out in his projects.They both go to New York City to begin their careers ,Keating to a firm with a good reputation, Francon & Heyer,  and Roark to work with a man that he knows understands his mission, Henry Cameron. At first, Keating is the successful one; he climbs high in his firm by pushing out those whose positions he wants, and gains commissions for his firm and last he became partner.

 Ellsworth Toohey, a journalist in charge of many organizations in the city, praises Keating highly whereas Roark, on the other hand, cannot get work because he refuses to compromise and put useless features on his buildings . Toohey used to say that Roark's style is unorthodox and illegitimate. Roark goal is to stick with his own design and strives to make structures more efficient. He must get a job in a quarry owned by Guy Francon, doing manual labor. There he meets Dominique Francon, starts a love affair with her that is painful for both of them. Dominique knows that Roark is great men who cannot be recognized for his great work so she rejects Roark and praises Keating .She offers Keating for marriage. Dominique turns her entire spirit over to Keating.

Though Keating being success but also he became empty,so to have a prestigous commission by Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Banner, Dominique agrees to sleep with Wynand. When they meet, Wynand is so strongly attracted to Dominique that he planned  Keating's divorce from her, and Wynand and Dominique are married.Wynand wants to build house for himself and Dominique so he discovers that every building he likes was designed by Roark, therefore he enlists Roark to build the new house. Roark and Wynand become close friends, although Wynand does not know about Roark's past relationship with Dominique.

Keating takes Roark help to design as he had lost his sense to design the Cortlandt Homes and he accepts on the condition that he will have complete control over design and construction. But, the homes are not built as Roark wished, so Roark dynamites the project as it is being completed. He stands trial and is found not guilty.He and Dominique come together and leave Wynand.  Wynand closes the paper anyway, and asks Roark to build the Wynand Building, as they had discussed when they were friends. Howard Roark, the hero of the Fountainhead, triumphs.


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