In 1943, with World War 2 in full throttle, Ayn Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead” was published. Written during a chaotic period in history, this book appeals to the reader's emotions by promoting individual rights, capitalism, and romantic realism. Rand advocated reason along with ethical and rational egoism and opposed collectivism. The main protagonist in the book is named “Howard Roark”. Howard Roark has a love interest named “Dominique Francon”. Dominique is in love with Roark yet she still wants to destroy him because Dominique thinks that Roark’s greatness is going to go unappreciated.
Dominque is in love with Roark yet she still tries to destroy his career because she thinks his talents will go to waste. Dominique see's the greatness in Roark's buildings that no one else but Toohey sees. She despises the idea of Roark wasting his talent on men who will never understand it. Dominique says “When you see a man casting pearls without getting even a pork chop in return-it is not against the swine that you feel indignation. It is against the man who valued his pearls so little that he was willing to fling them into the muck…” Dominique struggles to destroy Roarke because they are also very alike. Howard Roarke is a genius, he works by himself, and he doesn't allow anyone else to be his puppet master. Dominique believes that the type of power she and Roarke hold will be unappreciated in society, and by withholding her power and attempting to destroy Roarke's, she can deprive the world of the creativity the world needs. Unlike Dominique, Roarke doesn't care about the world; he believes in following his creativity nothing is important to him as long as he is left to do what he wants. Roarke does not care about the evil in the world...
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...offered to a public unable to appreciate it, and decides that since she cannot have the world she wants in which men like him are recognized for what they are she will live completely and entirely in the world she has, which shuns him and praises Keating.
In conclusion Dominique wants to destroy Roark because she feels like the world does not appreciate him or his works. She feels like he is a one of a kind man and in world filled with generic copies. She feels like his work will be destroyed and go unappreciated even though it is the most unique and creative piece of work this society will ever see. Though she loves him she struggles to destroy him because the world needs Roark but the society they live does not deserve him. Dominique loves Roark even though she married other people while still fascinated with him and tried to destroy him while married to others.
In the novel Rand interweaves time, seamlessly moving back and forth across decades to give her readers additional insight. Each part of the four piece novel slides through time to reveal character background and give a more cohesive understanding of their backgrounds and individual motivations. Dominique's story is the exception to this rule. Her story is told almost completely sequentially with the exemption of tidbits of minor information. In this way the film only tells one character's story completely true to form. Dominique's growth is the most significant and much of the novel revolves around her journey to living up to becoming the perfect mate for Howard Roark. Rand uses Dominique to offer a map to the greatness of spirit she believes lies within us all.
Ayn Rand based her novel of the idea of objectivism the idea that reality exists independent of consciousness, and that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self. We see this throughout the entire novel and within all of her characters. Ayn Rand had an interesting perception of selfishness and selflessness, along with her view of objectivism. As a reader we are thinking the opposite of what the characters are thinking, and never know what is going to happen next. Roark and Keating gave new meanings to selfishness and selflessness within the world of architecture.
...e, because she’s too busy running around on some-” (Gaitskill 317) and these words show us how utterly “shitty” (Gaitskill 317) he feels, be it warranted or not. He’s faced with the reality that his wife and daughter are ‘leaving’ him behind, doing whatever necessary to detach themselves from his wretched stubbornness and consequently he’s left miserable and alone to mull over the bitter past and even more difficult present. He begins as a likeable character, but gradually becomes a self-righteous and hateful idiot. But, by the end the reader is left feeling extremely sympathetic for him. Though he’s in fact the bad guy, he gets us to view him as the bad guy whose evil is almost justified, or at least that it’s an inevitable symptom of his difficult childhood, poor marriage, extreme anxiety over what others think of him, and disapproval of his daughters lifestyle.
Throughout the text Keating connects with people on a personal level through his word choice and tone. This connection with his audience allows him to further develop belonging, and evoke a greater emotional response in his audience. This word choice and tone can be seen in the lines, “We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We practiced discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice.”
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
...ce on your own terms” (375) This shows that to fight successfully on Roarks behalf would mean resorting to the tactics she despises and Dominique cannot allow herself to do so. Howard is not deterred by the voices of the people tearing him down or demanding him to conform to the environment around him. To Roark, architecture isn’t a way to get money, glory or fame; architecture was a way for him to express himself, a soul burning with self-discovery and independence. Dominique sees his artistic freedom as his downfall and because of that, she aims to destroy him and all his creations before society euthanize him first. Dominique loves Roark, but she cannot find it in herself to give into her feelings of desire, she knows that to enjoy anything in life is to surrender a part of herself to the evil and the corrupted people who control the minds of the general public.
When department store manager Jean Fanuchi noticed a decline in net profit sales three consecutive months in a row, she turned to hidden cameras and microphones. When all possibilities narrowed down to employee theft and a series of procedures failed to turn up any clues, desperation led Jean to resort to these measures. How might have Jean’s actions been influenced by morality or the law? Although morality and the law may seem inseparable at first, they can be distinguished from one another. Even then, there seems to be a connection bridging the two. What is their relationship and can one alter the other? Can one be attributed to another or take precedence over the other? In moral philosophy (ethics) this matter is open for much debate, especially when other viable and less invasive solutions exist.
Dominique admires Roark’s integrity; hence, she struggles to destroy him as a means of testing his character to see if he would falter in the face of adversity. Gail Wynand tells Dominique: Dominique finds this supposed unattainable integrity in the person of Howard Roark....
One of the world’s primeval and ponderous conflicts rests upon the argument of whether the group is more important than the individual, whether the common good is greater than the individual’s rights. This is a conflict everyone must understand because it is an internal and external struggle everyone deals with day to day. One of Ayn Rand’s most popular novels, The Fountainhead, demonstrates this conflict through a young architect who dares to create his own vision and follows through with it. The reader can relate to his struggles through the desperate battles of the masses demanding him to surrender his originality and creations. By the end of the story he is successful and marries the woman of his dreams. Howard Roark, the main character,
Cocteau portrays the Beast in La Belle et La Bete as a fleeting image, that is, he affects the film without spending too much time on the screen. Rather then physically emerging, the Beast’s effects are psychological as the anguish of Belle and her family helps the audience to form an opinion of the Beast. By creating a dark and mysterious aura around the Beast, Cocteau affectively keeps the watcher enthralled by what he cannot see. The Beast only visits Beauty once during this day, and the anticipation of his arrival not only affects Beauty but the viewer as well.
wishes to shed her womanhood. We can see this ruthless nature more in depth in
... creates victims [yeah, this will be stronger once you go into more detail above about why he came to believe that integrity is impossible/dangerous] , Gail Wynand chooses to abandon his, and makes himself a victim anyway. By pandering to the lurid whims of the people, Gail Wynand makes himself a slave, dependent upon public approval and compliance. He never gets what he desires out of the bargain because he is no longer capable of desiring anything. Roark and Wynand are very alike—neither one was “born to be a second-hander”—but one fundamental inverse separates them (663). Wynand lives only for the control that others will grant him; he lives for everything except his own integrity and chooses not to commit suicide because he can find nothing worth dying for. Roark, on the other hand, claims, “I could die for you. But I couldn’t and wouldn’t live for you” (608).
The protagonists, The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, consider it their life’s ambition to sadistically control and dominate those around them through sexual intrigue. These two villains are indeed locked in psychological combat to see who can actually ‘out-do’ the other in stalking, capturing and destroying the souls of others. Taking absolute pleasure in ripping any virtue from the hearts of their prey, Merteuil and Valmont wave their accomplishments in front of each other like spoils of war. The less the chance of surrender, the more relentless is the pursuit.
As she was packing her bags, Belle thought about the changes that had occurred over the last few years. Things were never the same once the Enchantress lifted the curse and the Beast became his former self once again. Not only did his dashing looks return, but so did his attitude. Adam slowly transformed back into the arrogant, self-centered, and cruel boy that he once was. He started to point out Belle’s peculiarities instead of appreciating them. He wanted everything to be perfect, and Belle was not willing to fit herself into that mold. Walking out she realized what the real problem was – she was never in love with Prince Adam, she was in love with the Beast. She fell for the insecure and quirky man who just wanted to love and be loved.
Dominique despises society because of the threat it holds against human perfection she so passionately believes in. She has a great admiration for all that is beautiful and strong, including the beauty in destruction. She firmly believes the world destroys all that is great and so she refuses to love anyone or anything in fear the world will ruin all that she loves. She surrounds herself by people she does not like, knowing she will be in no danger of getting hurt as she knows she will not be able to love them. Due to this, she refuses to compromise her values to what the world wants because she refuses for the world to taint her. She finds beauty in everything she sees, including destruction, and in order to avoid watching the world destroy all she loves, she surrounds herself with what she despises. Meeting Roark, she finds herself intrigued by the way he holds himself and how he never bends or folds to meet others expectations. Dominique finds herself drawn to him and, in an act of caring for a man with vision and character, she sets out to destroy him first as she fears the world will destroy his potential for greatness.