Fountainhead By Ayn Rand Essay

In her novel that illustrated the tenants of the Objectivist Movement, Ayn Rand utilizes architecture as the medium to reflecting society; although a zoo might have made a more accurate analogy. To preserve a way of life that cannot survive without care, we lock animals in glass boxes, similar to what we do in our fishbowl society. In glass buildings of the city center, the zoo keeper gesticulates, “Ladies and Gents, in this exhibit you will find the common working man toiling away on paperwork, the zoo tour guide shouts over the intercom. “And to the left is the Orangutan politicians. Look how they throw feces at each other.” However, no matter the medium Rand uses, the theme of The Fountainhead announces from within Rand’s text. Through blunt diction and, more specifically, the moment where a nameless young man views Monadnock Valley, Rand explores the motif of “individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man’s soul.”

I recall how I first reacted as I opened up the first page dense novel and how lofty ideals of possible scholarship awards clouded my vision. Yet, as I read,

Whereas collectivism makes work a void that gnaws constantly on the soul like a dog with an prehistoric bone, individualism makes work to be an inspiration and fuel to the burning flames of the human spirit. Roark’s work in Monadnock Valley, although meant to be a financial disaster, became a testament to the power of individualism and a guiding light to those who do not understand their place in the world that praises a group over a single entity. As the Rand states, Roark’s work “[gave] someone the courage to face a lifetime” (Rand 530). Roark’s architecture is the North star guiding those who lack selfishness and thus happiness. Or even a call to action, willing the young man and myself to fight against the corruption that is taking place on the most spiritual level and to be lights of individualism and integrity