Individualism in The Fountainhead
Individualism, the doctrine of free thought and action of the individual, forms the basis of Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead. The major theme of her fiction is the primacy of the individual, the unique and precious individual life. That which sustains and enriches life is good, that which negates and impoverishes the individual's pursuit of happiness is evil.
The Fountainhead is Rand's fullest explication of the primacy of the individual. As she worked out her interpretation of the inalienable rights: the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and what these entailed, she saw three areas of conflict where these rights were held in balance.
The Three Antipodes:
Individualism versus Collectivism
Egoism versus Altruism
Reason versus Mysticism
All of these areas are interconnected. Collectivism, altruism and mysticism all work against individual freedom, a healthy ego, and rationality.
The Fountainhead is the story of a highly individualistic architect, Howard Roark, and his fight for integrity and individualism against the altruistic parasites and also against the non-heroes who do not believe the fight can be won - the fight of the individual against the non-entity called collectivism.
Non-entity because, any 'collective' or group is only a number of individuals. But here, being an individual is to be selfless, voiceless, righteous, slave of any heed, claim or demand asserted by others. Under collectivism, it is imperative to repress one's critical faculty and hold it as one's guilt. Doubt, not confidence, is man's moral-state; self-distrust, not self-reliance, is a virtue; fear, not self-confidence is the mark of perfection; guilt, not p...
... middle of paper ...
...
Works Cited and Consulted
Berliner, Michael S., ed. Letters of Ayn Rand. By Ayn Rand. New York: Dutton, 1995.
Branden, Barbara. The Passion of Ayn Rand: A biography. New York: Doubleday, 1986a
Branden, Nathaniel. My Years with Ayn Rand. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999.
Garmong, Dina. Personal interview. 2 Nov. 1999.
Peikoff, Leonard. The Philosophy of Objectivism, A Brief Summary. Stein and Day, 1982.
Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. New York: Plume, 1994.
The Ayn Rand Institute. "A Brief Biography of Ayn Rand" [Online] available www.aynrand.org/aynrand/biography.html, 1995
Walker, Jeff. The Ayn Rand Cult. Carus Publishing Company, 1999
You may wish to begin your paper with the following quote:
"The theme of The Fountainhead is individualism versus collectivism - not in politics but in man's soul." Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand's classic story of one man's desire to become an individual in a nameless society presents a compelling refutation of collectivism in all forms. The hero, labeled "Equality 7-2521" by the State, chooses to challenge conventional authority as he learns the joys of experimentation and discovery, the ecstasy of human love, the challenge and fairness of liberty, and the happiness of self-interest. Equality 7-2521 writes three unique phrases in his journal: 1. "My happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end.", 2. "We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it.", 3. "The word 'We' . . . must never be placed first within man's soul.". These phrases will be discussed individually in the remainder of this essay.
Ayn Rand’s Anthem is about a man who overcomes the pressures of society to remain uniform, and breaks barriers in technology thanks to his individuality and hunger for more knowledge. The theme of the value of individuality in Anthem is developed through Equality 7-2521’s desperate need for knowledge, Equality 7-2521’s creation of the lightbulb, and Equality 7-2521 discovery of the word “I”.
Board of Education case. Unlike the SCLC, SNCC was founded by African American college students whose original motives were non-violent Sit-ins and Freedom rides on interstate buses to determine whether or not southern states would enforce laws versus segregation in public transport. As SNCC became more politically active, its members faced violence increasingly. The SNCC responded by migrating from non-violence means to a philosophy with greater militancy after the mid-1960s, as a facet of late 20th-century black nationalism, a proponent of the burgeoning “black power” movement. The shift became personified when Stokely Carmichael replaced John Lewis. In December 1961, in a join effort, the SNCC and SCLC amongst other organizations launched a major campaign in Albany, Georgia, sparked by the civil rights bill which was then pending in congress. This was the high point of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s efforts and became popularly known as “Freedom Summer.” The objective of the campaign was to register disenfranchised African American to vote in hopes that they could have the bill passed. The effort especially drew massive attention, even national, when three of the SNCC’s workers, Andrew Goodman of New York, James E. Chaney of Mississippi, and Michael H. Schwerner, were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The crusade brought visibility to the civil rights struggle which laid the groundwork for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of
The values at risk in Anthem are not merely those of the central luminary; they are the ostensible values of an entire civilization—our own. Our society is founded upon the notion of individual rights; its existence, as Ayn Rand depicts, cannot be conceived on any other grounds. Anthem, Rand’s dystopian novella, is about us, and about what will happen if we do not follow alongside Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 in their discovery of the importance of individualism.
Throughout history, authors have teased their readers with the idea of what the future might bring. Often times these stories are littered with new technology and fascinating theories, but occasionally it is the contrary. In the situation where society has taken a step back, there must be a character to give civilization a kick start. In the novella Anthem, by Ayn Rand, society is bound to collectivism, where everyone relies upon each other to live and learn; but the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, is able to break free from the fear of independence and move toward individualism. During the course of the story, Equality discovers the freedom he can bring himself. Then he realizes his mind is the door to the truth, not society. Finally, Equality recognizes himself as different from the rest of the population. These steps toward individualism are perfectly embodied by three quotes Rand incorporates in her story.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh in April 1960. SNCC was created after a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. SNCC coordinated these sit-ins across the nation, supported their leaders, and publicized their activities. SNCC sought to affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of their purpose. In the violently changing political climate of the 60’s, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today's black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.
The snake’s calm demeanor when they first meet, his confidence and power, and his gruesome death help evoke sympathy in the reader. The reader’s first impression of the snake is that “he held his ground in calm watchfulness.” His stance was tense, but not threatening, as “his head was not drawn back to strike.” He does not intend to attack without being provoked; he
The theme of The Fountainhead can be summarized in the famous line by the author-"man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress". The novel exalts egotism, which is generally looked upon in our world with great dislike. The protagonist, Howard Roark, is a man used by the author to exemplify this philosophy. He is a man of outstanding genius whose only fault seems to be that the world is not ready for him. This man's genius remains unrecognized by the society, he is shunned and ridiculed, but no number of attempts to break him, to force him to confine his work within the parameters laid by the society succeed. The inborn talent in this man and the fountainhead of inspiration in his soul cannot be restrained by any force on earth.
The novel is a constant war between altruism and egotism. Howard Roark is a true egoist, he has no desire to be involved in others business, he just wants to live up to his ideals and morals for architecture. On the other hand there is Toohey, who is what we would describe as a second-hander. He uses altruism to make men believe they need to live for others and put others before themselves. Peter was already an altruist before he met Toohey, but he still fell victim to his beliefs making the reader see that he is supposed to be selfless only it seems selfish.
Ayn Rand is easily one of the most controversial, provocative and rejected philosophical minds of the 20th century. She is completely absent from Donald M. Borchert’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy where only a short reference to Rand’s compatriot Vladimir Solovyov’s “…objective forms of moral life” (125) even hints at any thing remotely to do with Rand. Rand’s utter rejection at the hands of the mainstream philosophical community stems from her controversial viewpoints on various topics and her fierce criticism of intellectuals
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
... Greek Titan as “the giant who holds the world on his shoulder” (http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/432.Ayn_Rand). That being the case, she captures the how the country’s most powerful industrialists disappear and without them, the key industries disappear as well (http://www.aynrand.org/novels/atlas-shrugged). She also tells others that the mystery novel is “not about the murder of man’s body, but about the murder—and rebirth—of man’s spirit (http://www.aynrand.org/novels/atlas-shrugged). Fountainhead provides an eagerness for individual ideas (http://www.aynrand.org/novels/the-fountainhead). It teaches the importance of new experiences and how to pursue typical dreams and occupations (http://www.aynrand.org/novels/the-fountainhead). In each novel, Rand demonstrates the power of individualists’ ideas in America and all over the world and how they can shape us.
The sight of the snake is so heartbreaking that even the man is left to rethink
Anthem by Ayn Rand is a soul-shifting and mind-blowing novella that explores the dangers of a collective, dystopian society. As a man named Equality 7-2521 stumbles through life, he realizes that he has a burning desire to learn and explore, traits discouraged by the society he lives in. In the City, there are many rules, and all of them shadow the idea that “we are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE. One, indivisible, and forever.” (3) Equality 7-2521, with his passion for learning and science, slowly breaks away from this iron rule set by society, and in doing so, learns of the importance of individualism and freedom. In Anthem, Rand’s use of literary devices such as symbolism, characterization, and imagery help develop and present the tone of the importance of individuality and the dangers of a collective society.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.