Examples Of Objectivism In The Fountainhead

In The Fountainhead, author Ayn Rand expresses her philosophies and morals through her characters. Among the four main characters, the protagonist, Howard Roark, is the mouthpiece of her beliefs. Roark constantly finds himself victim to the societal masses, especially when he broke the law in dynamiting Cortlandt Homes. Despite committing a crime, Roark delivers a monologue in which he preaches the rectitude of his action, which not only redefines how the term “law” is used in this instance, but also demonstrates to the reader that his, or rather Rand’s, philosophies were indisputably right all along. Rand uses her novel as an instructional guide to her philosophies of objectivism, which Wendy Perkins defined as, “reason, purpose, and self-esteem,

Two of Roark’s commissions, Stoddard Temple and Cortlandt Homes, both represent separate sides of the coin in terms of how Roark reacts to each building. For example, after Roark finishes the Stoddard Temple, Hopton Stoddard cancels the opening and sues him, rebuilding the temple altogether; Rand described it as, “The original shape of the building remained discernible… it was like a corpse hacked to pieces and reassembled” (385). Despite having alterations made to his initial building, Roark had the satisfaction of building his original design. In the case of Cortlandt Homes, once Roark created the designs and began construction, Toohey’s architectural team made additions without Roark’s consent in an attempt to compromise him. Rand describes, “The building had the skeleton of what Roark had designed, with the remnants of ten different breeds piled on the lovely symmetry of the bones” (608). Roark didn’t even see the implementation of his initial design and refused to be associated with