Standing as, perhaps, one of the most controversial and, simultaneously, innovative philosophies of the twentieth century, Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy has gathered an unprecedented following. Demonstrated and explained in detail through the use of the characters Howard Roark, Ellsworth Toohey, Peter Keating, and Dominique Francon in her infamous novel The Fountainhead, Rand creates a storyline that effectively portrays all aspects of society - its evils and its goods. Rand's employment of both Dominique and Roark's positions in society, her explanation and justification for Dominique's seemingly cruel acts against Roark, and her weaving of Dominique and Roark's love for each other into a further enforcement of select core ideals of Objectivism, creates a perfect forum for both a promotion of the novel's core philosophy and a modeling of a flawless work of literary fiction.
Throughout the novel, Dominique is characterized as a pillar of resistance; although her demeanor is casual and calm when interacting with other characters, her overall stance in the novel is one of conflict. She is pitted against society in an untraditional way; not existing as a violent external force attempting to change society to understand her ideas, but, instead, a quiet enemy of the collective, subtly manipulating the right strings only when necessary to serve herself. Further, Dominique sees no purpose in openly fighting against the machine that is the whole of society. Instead, her sole purpose is Howard Roark. Dominique's love for Roark is congruent with her instinctual human nature; to lean toward pain and away from the conventional sources of happiness. Roark, on the other hand, is a man who is not against society, but, rather, socie...
... middle of paper ...
...ess; a giving up of oneself for another. In objectivism, there is no time in which one achieves more a personal, selfish gain than when in love; one must have a strong sense of identity. Roark states Rand's belief best in his confession to Dominique that he loves her "[a]s selfishly as the fact that I exist… to say 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I.'" (Rand, The Fountainhead 328)
The Objectivism philosophy Ayn Rand projects throughout the course of The Fountainhead, through the use of Dominique Francon and Howard Roark's love for each other, and Dominique's concurrent act of marrying Peter Keating, is one that exists much like the buildings of Roark; beautiful in their appearance, functional in their application, and understood by only a small, enlightened portion of society.
Works Cited
Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. New York: Plume, 1994.
Many people have trouble being apart of a society. These troubles come from trying to fit in, which is also known as conforming. Another trouble is trying to express one’s own style with one’s own opinion. This is a trouble due to the fact that many people have the fear of being frowned upon when being the black sheep of the group if one’s opinion does not correspond with other opinions. This is where one’s own sense of who they are, individuality, and trying to fit in, conformity, can get confused. A nickname for conformity is “herd behavior” which is the name of an article where the author relates animals that herd with people that conform. Many people have a different philosophy of this topic which will be expressed in this essay. An important
Ayn Rand, in Anthem, illustrates a futuristic, socialist society. In the novel, Rand destroys any sense of individuality and describes the social setbacks endured after living ‘only for the brotherhood’. The individual person fails to exist and is but a ‘we’ and recognized by a word and a series of numbers rather than a name. Additionally, she describes the horrors encountered within this different system of life: from reproduction methods to punishments. Through the life of Equality 7-2521, Rand demonstrates a person’s journey from obedience to exile in this socialist society. Throughout the entire novel, Rand criticizes Marxist theory as she demonstrates socialism’s failure to suppress revolution, thwart material dialectic, and its detriment to humanity.
In Ayn Rand’s famous, or in some circles, infamous, story Anthem, the differing ideologies of objectivism and collectivism are pit against each other. With objectivism being so tight knit and different from the society in the book, it seems that it would be almost impossible to truly follow in its entirety. However, Anthem, as a whole, doesn’t violate the ideals of Rand’s philosophy of objectivism.
Have you ever read a book or seen a movie set in a dystopian society? Well the book “Anthem” written by Ayn Rand is about the main character Equality 7-2521 breaking away from the teachings of his dystopian society and finding his true identity. Ayn Rand is a brilliant writer. Equality realizes that collectivism is a way to strip him, Liberty, and all their brothers of their individuality, happiness, joy, love and freedom. Equality comes to this realization from internal conflicts he has with himself.
Howard Roark’s speech in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead displays the author's personal philosophy of objectivism. Objectivism is an idea that Ayn Rand had developed and promoted in her works of literature. Objectivism advocated for the rights of individual freedoms such as someone being able to do whatever that person desires with their own creations. In this case, Ayn Rand’s character Howard Roark; who had dynamited his own building . Through Rand’s persuading diction, immense detail, and powerful organization, Ayn Rand takes a stand through a fictional character to promote the idea that an individual should be able to live freely without society or the government scrutinizing him.
The Fountainhead provided and continues to provide a powerful inspiration to the individualist movement in America, and throughout the world. More than any other single work, The Fountainhead revived popular enthusiasm for a way of thinking, and a way of life, that in 1943 was regarded by virtually every sector of intellectual opinion as outmoded. Ayn Rand's courageous challenge to accepted ideas was rendered still more courageous by her willingness to state her individualist premises in the clearest terms and to defend the most radical implications that could be drawn from them.
The infamous author Ayn Rand dedicated her life wholly to the study and furthering of her political dogma, Objectivism, the uniting theme throughout all of her published literary works. One of the most obtrusive examples is her novella Anthem, which is set in a futuristic yet inept dystopia that is entirely founded on principles of collectivism. Page by page Rand’s sentiments become glaringly obvious, subsequently causing the reader to question her motivation behind this story, their own agreement with her egocentric philosophy, how Christianity aligns with every aspect of it, and if, overall, it was adeptly written.
In this world, and in the world of Ayn Rand’s imagination, there are two kinds of people: those who live to create, and those who wish to live as parasites feeding off the benefits of those creations. In Atlas Shrugged, she explores what might happen when the creators of the world stop creating; the parasites are left to try to live on their own. The novels that Miss Rand writes always reflect this sort of thing. She writes of the battle between the two types of people as some write of the battles between good and evil. In reality, each side of the battle can be equated in such terms. These writings provide a detailed analysis of the two forces, and leave the reader with a profound sense of vitality and inspiration.
The book the Anthem, written by Ayn Rand was the woman who illustrated the idea of Objectivism through her writings. Objectivism is described as everything having an identity, and that identity has the right to do whatever needed in order to make themselves happy, now days we see this as being a selfish person. For example Objectivism is seen specifically in the book on page 78 where it states “For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth”. Later it goes on to read “I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them.” Still later on that page it states “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them”. These quotes describe that Equality has finally found the things in life that truly make him happy and he is not willing to give them up, even if it goes against the council's orders .In essence this shows part of the idea of Objectivism through Equality’s thoughts; he has found happiness and is not
The ultimate motive of both the altruist and egoist is personal gain. Separating the two ideologies is the method by which this is accomplished. For the altruist, addressing the needs of humanity is purportedly the sole purpose of existence. Egoists, on the other hand, refuse to act if an action does not directly benefit themselves. In The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand addresses the function of altruists and egoists within society through character development. There are four characters in particular who distinctly exhibit the attributes of altruistic and egoistic individuals: Catherine Halsey, Peter Keating, and Ellsworth Toohey possess altruistic qualities; whereas, Howard Roark is explicitly egoistic.
Every individual’s motivations can vary in numerous ways. All the characters in Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, face many struggles, but have their primary sources of motivation to help them continue through the hard times. The main character, Equality, accidentally creates an invention without knowledge that it would lead him towards his new style of life. Although his creation isn’t his primary motivation, it opens up his eyes about other aspects of life that are missing from his lifestyle. Equality himself, and his curiosity are his own primary motivation, he has the right to be motivated in this way because his curiosity is what ables his mind to wonder what his life could be like if it wasn’t controlled by other people.
One being the fact that this book is a collection of her essay and speeches. But the main one is how this book discusses her own Philosophy. She first explains the importance of philosophy and how it used in the real world unknowingly today, but she then says the philosophy most people follow today, Altruism, as irrational. “Altruism is the rationalization for the mass slaughter in Soviet Russia – for the legalized looting in the welfare state – for the power-lust of politicians seeking to serve the common good” (Rand 27) Altruism is basically the thought of having selfless actions and to serve others. This completely contradicts Ayn Rand’s philosophy of living, Objectivism. This is where the book becomes different form other books and even the entire world. Many people and religions are taught to help others. This follows Altruism in the fact that we are serving others and being selfless. Objectivism has many different layers to it but one of the most important parts to it is the concept that man should be self-serving. That we should be selfish and live for ourselves only under the condition that it doesn’t harm others. This is extremely different from everything we are taught since we were
In the novel, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand takes place when mankind has entered another dark age. A man named Equality 7-2521 lives in a society where he struggles to live equal within the brotherhood. In the world he lives in people are told they exist only for the sake of serving society, and have no other purpose. Therefore, each individual is assigned a vocation as a permanent life career which determines who they socialize and live with. However, Equality being very different from his brothers, believes in individualism and rejects the collectivism society around him. The concept of individualism vs collectivism is portrayed in the story because individuality is unknown to the people where no one is unique or excellent in any way. The people
Question: Aside from very rare exceptions there is literally no opposition to the leaders in this society. Why is this? What ideas must the people in this society have accepted to live a life of obedience, drudgery, and fear?
check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.” - Ayn Rand. Using two types of characters, in the book Atlas Shrugged, author Ayn Rand illustrates how there are no contradictions. The definition of contradiction follows “a combination of statements, ideas, or features of a situation that are opposed to one another.” (Dictionary.com). With this knowledge in mind it becomes obvious what contradictions the author, Rand, laces throughout the book.