It has been said that morals are one of the most precious possessions that a person can have. However, in the working world, many seem to forget their morals in order to climb the corporate ladder. In our own society woman use their sexuality to get the upper hand. Preconceived notions dictate that a person cannot be successful and keep their morals at the same time. The Fountainhead, written by Ayn Rand, seems to at first defend, then later, dispute these notions through characters and events. Ultimately, Rand's "weak" characters, those who don't keep their morals, eventually plummet, while the "strong" characters, those who retain their principles regardless of any pressure from society, eventually prevail.
Peter Keating is Rand's description of a conniving parasite that leeches off of the work of others, in orders to rise quickly to the top of the architectural field. His methods of continuing his career show no regard to morals, but rather to the opinions of others. Keating even becomes so corrupt as to kill a man indirectly. His desire to be known as the greatest architect is stronger than any morals he might have. Keating starts off as a young and attractive architecture student. In the end, however, Rand does not permit the evil leech to overcome. He becomes a weak alcoholic nobody. Keating's victory is hollow. He never finds happiness and soon falls from his lofty position. .
An ambitious, power hungry newsman, Gail Wynand, fights his way into the position as the top man in the industry. Wynand manipulates everyone around him until he is in the top chair, where he sells his soul and writes what society wants to read. His newspapers write about vulgar subjects because Wynand knows this is what the people crave. It sickens him to do it, but he does it for the thing he wants most power. .
Although Wynand does become "head honcho" of the media his power is not as extensive as one might think.
1. The conventional view is that in life an individual can either achieve practical success or be moral, but not both. Do you think Ayn Rand accepts or rejects this conventional view in The Fountainhead? Explain by reference to characters and events from the novel. We have all heard the cliche ...
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead Standing naked on top of a cliff, Howard Roark envisions what the trees and granite around him can be made into. ... Francon told Keating to be aware of this man because he was moving up in the architectural world. ...
Of all the characters in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, there is one who is most complex. ... In The Fountainhead, Howard Roarke consistently demonstrates that he is an altruistic yet complex character. ... Peter Keating advances in the architecture world, while Howard Roarke is expelled from his school therefore he can not graduate. ... In order to keep working, Keating asks Howard Roarke to design the Cortlandt Homes he is assigned by Ellsworth Toohey, and to allow him to put his name on it. ...
The Fountainhead is a novel about the triumph of the "selfish" individual. ... A reader might then wonder why Roark would have a job at all, since the goals of working life appear to be money, fame, and respect, which are all outsider-defined. ... Rand believes that the individual is responsible for his or her own decisions and must make his or her own meaning in the world. She has great faith in the power of a true individual to succeed in the world - and sees great consequences for those who aren't individuals. The Fountainhead deals with extremes, because compromising betrays the "int...
This idea can be recognized in Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead," with Dominique Francon and her infatuation to destroy Howard Roark. ... She admires Roark's freedom and she perceives him too eminent to be subjected to a world not worth his greatness. ... He created a standard, an honest one that exceeded all other architects, and she, convinced that he was too great for their mediocre world and she must rid him from it, understood this supremely. ... This idea is significantly recognized when Dominique and Roark discuss him working in the quarry. ... They understand his potentia...
One such philosophy, objectivism, is represented exceptionally by the timeless novel, The Fountainhead. ... The interpretations and the implications of several of the quotes within The Fountainhead accurately depict the essence of objectivism and encourages the opposition of conventional standards through the embodiment of the uncompromising innovator "standing against the world." ... Often times in world affairs, smaller nations adhere to a state of Finlandization; they buckle under the pressures of a larger nation because they lack the strength to strive for independent thought. ... ...
Our morals are beliefs of or relating to rights and wrongs in behavior. ... However, our morals are more important in that they are the most fundamental beliefs that we learn and or determine for ourselves. Being without morals is to be absent of a standard for life and to be inhuman in nature. Our set of morals is what sets us apart from the instinctive animal nature that governs the beasts of the world. ...
