Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead Essay, Research Paper

ISU Essay : Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead

Imagine power as a form of free flowing energy, a source found within every one and for each individual. Assume that to gain power,

one has to tap this resevoir of immense proportions and relish upon the rich harvest to their hearts desires. Consequently, when there is

such a dealing of concentrated materials, nature takes charge and similarly to other physical abstracts, rendering this package lethal, with

the potential for untold destruction. In other words, power in the wrong hands or power without responsibility is the most harzardous

weapon mankind can possess.

To say that power is a medium out of control and pertaining to something with incredible destruction, is rather quite true. Assuming that

every one and anyone has the potential to be entitle to a share of this universal medium. Then it would be justifiable to claim that like

any other unmoderated activities, raging amibition for power uncontroled could wreak havoc and acts as a catalyst in the breakdown of a

society. Similar to politics which deals with the static physical component of society, there must be a more formidable source of

pervailance over the mystical realm of power. There fore, this form of guidance can only exist from the mind, and as product of thought,

thus the ideas within a philosophy.

The Ideals warp between the covers of, The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand?s philosophical revolution of Individualistic power, is her solution to

society?s request for a cure. She believe that the highest order of power stands above all alternatives as the power belonging to an

individual and her mission is to prove the greatness of individualist power within the hero she christain the name Roark.

Rational thinkers, do not make decisions in a give or take scenario, but instead they carefully distinguish between be extremes of the

Black, the White, and the median Gray. The Fountainhead, simulates the world as a whitches cauldron, filled with many evils, among

which only one true and worthy victor can pervail. Ayn Rand explores the many facets of power within a structural community, relying

upon her philosolophy as a test-bed and a believable standard.

In essence the portfolio of The Fountainhead, contains, four major fronts of power, each dominated by a type of relative character and

characteristics. Manipulative Power entitle itself to be crown the champion of false promises and deciet. The Power of Green or power

due to money is difficult to achieve and deserve honorable mentioning, yet it is a virtual power built upon wealth. Worst of all evil in

man?s search for power lies behind the mask of a man built on betrayal, resorting to self-deprivation for prestige and the selling of

oneself to fame. The true power belongs to an individualist, who fights for himself, lives for himself and is Rand?s answer to the plea of

the people.

Subjecting to visualization, this could be interpret in the form of a compass rose with its four extended arms representing each front of

power, converging onto a center of origin. This origin is the birth place of all men. Attaining power is a rather lenghthy, delicate process

and is likely prone to failure. Life?s goal is determining of one direction and that single path can represent an arm of the rose. Simply it

may seem not too difficult to make the correct choice, yet many fail to do so.

Ironically, Ayn Rand play the role of a mischieve when she weave such a believable character to represent the cold, uncompassionate, and

power hungry Manipulator. She fool the reader to believe that Ellsworth Toohey, a successful and very influential member of society, is a

worthy man, fighting for the cause of the human kind. His generosity and sacreficial offerings are only cover-ups from his true nature,

the impulsive liar who strive on manipulating others for power.

Physically Toohey is described as a weak man, apparent only through the power of his mind. According to Rand, a wholesome, powerful

character has to unify both the mental and physical hemispheres. Toohey is a man that could have been, yet upon his own choosing, warp

himself into something beyond rescue. Toohey is a very dangerous man. Dangerous because he knows the weakness in other men and uses

this porthole as a point of attack. His aim, is the breakdown of

another?s soul and thus in this way he gain power over them. Toohey can be rank above the most tyrant Monarchs and the worst dictators

in history. His ambition is not only to physically own people, but the possession of their very souls. In a confession to one of his victim

he says. ? If you learn how to rule one single man?s soul, you can get the rest of mankind.? Toohey understands that he is capable

because there exist people who wants his reasurance and the recognition from others that they have done something right, something

significant. Thus this gives him the power manipulate others into thinking what he wants and believing what he permits. He plays with

his victims like puppets in a show, because to him, people can be like water, aimlessly following the shift of a tide.

Similar to an engine over heated, Toohey is too power hungry, in turn his eminent downfall. He knows quite well that he is incapable of

acheiving true power, so his conscience convulges and lash back at the world that he dispise. His destructive natural corrupts and he

vows vengence. ? I have no private purpose. I want power. I want my world of the future. Let all sacrefice and none profit. Let all

suffer and none enjoy. Let progress stop.? Like a fugitive who fear being caught, Toohey has to live in the agony of having to guard

himself from the retribution of the people. He knows that power gain through manipulation of others does not have the integrity too

oppose the yearning of men for freedom. He can only accept defeat.

Ayn Rand is not materialistic, yet she promotes rank differences and wealth. Her characters are in fact very influential personalities who

are often leaders within a society. Critics of Rand?s work often redicule her philosophy as unrealistic, liable to things that occurs in fairy

tales. However, Ayn Rand believes differently. In using characters who are over achievers, she demonstrates the power of her philosophy

and the potential of those followers who strive to attain goals with the best of their abilities. Symbolically, her characters represent the

highest potential that exist within each individual.

Green is a significant color that maintains two polarities. To many, this color glorify the shear power of money and to others it resembles

the pale sickness that originate from greed. In fact, there is a coralation between these ?similar opposites?. According to the mechanics of

time, one event leads to another in a chronological order. The old phrase, ?There no smoke without the fire,? holds true when associated

with money and greed. It may seem trivial that Ayn Rand promotes such a character within her novel, honoring greatness, then include

in the package, a terrible flaw. Ayn Rand mocks the world for its imperfection when she introduce the character of Gail Wynand, a

rugged newspaper tycoon who owns every thing within his reach, but lacks the possession of his own soul. She artistically accept her

own imperfection in permiting this foul experiment to take place.

Wynand?s accomplishments are radical, unchallenge by any other character in the novel. His power is very concrete and true to life, but

only to the extent that public permits. The readers of his newspaper pretends to fear him while he play the role of the dictator who deny

his dictatorship. The situation unveil a continuous loop of lies and deciet.

The Tycoon?s reign is the result of power he attain from shear wealth. Such power comes with a price and he paid for by selling his soul

to the puplic. On the contrary to the purpose of a newspaper as an expression medium, the world of The Fountainhead expresses zero

tolerence for free speech. The paper exist for the collective and praise everthing but heroic ventures into the new frontiers. Society

encourages the conservative while it condone aspiring changes.

Gail Wynand?s falter is due to carelessness in maintaining his integrity. His business etiquette involve sacreficing himself and dedicating

his whole life?s work as a service to the people, for the people. He suppresses the outcries of his conscience, acting only on the behalf of

strengthening puplic relations and obtaining higher profits. The man owns his fortune, but he did not own himself. The puplic mob lay

claim to his existence. His fortune is a mere donation from the public in return for the service that he provides them.

Wynand suffers internal pain, a pain unbearable due to disappointment and a sour appointment with reality. He dare challenges the

public in a duel, wasting his efforts in exercising a power that he never own. The sudden impact caught the victim off guard because he

never bother to ask and no one care to answer. In an effort to reclaim himself, Wynand risked his fortune in a fight against the public

for something which he believes and lost. He is force to forfeit his newspaper empire, a life long dream of a man who never was. In the

end, he realizes too late that it is easier to move imilar to an engine over heated, Toohey is too power hungry, in turn his eminent

downfall. He knows quite well that he is incapable of acheiving true power, so his conscience convulges and lash back at the individual

boulders, then to budge entire mountains.

To every situation there exist two extremes, presumably the black and the white. The identity of the black is usually mark with a stamp

of disapproval and render forbidden deep within the abyss. In the world of The Fountainhead, Foul plays the dead man?s hand. Ayn

Rand is a towering diety who rules with an iron fist She refuses to tolerate imperfection, despising power gain through self deprivation

and unjust sacrefices. She minics the qualities of a collective society in Peter Keating, a living mannequin, susceptable only to the

movements which others care to permit. Outspokenly, Ayn Rand defends her opinions of a collective?s destructive nature by lowering the

character of Peter Keating to a point which is comparable to insects, slugs and parasites.

Keating is not a man, but a mass mob of the collective. When Rand refers to him, she speaks of society as a whole. When Keating speaks

of self, he voices the thoughts of a million. He kills the meaning of the word ?independence?.

He is very smart and cunning, but all of which he steals or borrows from others. His apparition of progress is repetition and his view of

success is the approval by some one else.

Keating is the master manipulator, who knowingly victimizes himself. He represents his own sacreficial goat, offering to a god that has

no face, but many faces. In sacrificing he gains nothing except false prestige and a delusion of happiness. He follows the desires of his

mother and cast aside dreams of pursuing the proffesion he wants. In doing so, he denies himself the gratification of doing what he

wants to do and in turn sentencing himself to a life of misery and frustration. The fool refuses to accept that, ? Where there?s sacrefice,

there is some one collecting sacreficial offerings,? and, ? Where there is service, there is some one being served.? Ultimately, this ties into

slavery, and worst yet, its self slavery.

Keating flows through a transition of vanity, fame, lies, flatter, and eventually guilt. He lacks the essential of self respect. A person

without self respect lives in insecurity, holding a bomb that has no control over its detonation switch. The fame that he dwell on comes

with a price and that is the man?s own dignity. He flushes his human qualities in a trade with the devil and in the end suffers the

consequences. He who decieves others, decieves himself. Yet even deciet has its limits. A collective is not an entity, it is a monster that

consume without remorse. It destroys what is great and promotes a relationship where the exchange is mutual exploitation. The society

which mould keating into existence abandons him, satisfied that it has done its toll. Then as it has aruptly embraces him, his power

vanishes. Keating realizes that he is left alone and slowly his concience seeps in, destroying the empty shell that remains. This is true

example of power without responsibility.

With respect to the Webster?s Dictionary, power is define as, ?authority,? and a form of ?control?. Inevitably, authority suggest the notion

of power aim at a target, and often over group of people or individuals without ?control?. In turn, power is rather destructive, its nature

is the encouragement of a society where individuals strive to conquer one another. Generally, human kind have never learn cope with

this fact, thus locking itself in a cycle of voluntary decay.

Ayn Rand sums it up in a quote, ” Life can be kept in existence only by a constant process of self-sustaining actions.” In her vision, she

proposes progress as a measurement of power and a solution to the ?process of self-sustaining actions?, as an individual who exist not to

triumph over other men, but in the conquest of nature.

Nature is a formidable foe which trembles the heart of the weak, but to great men, it?s dangers serve as an inspiration. Ayn Rand

worships the greatness in men who dares to break the Cycle and humbly honer them by creating the character of Howard Roark, a

symbolism of strenght and determination.

Roark is ?self centered?, ?self generated?, ?self sufficient?, ?self motivated? and is the ideal man. He represents a powerful locomotive,

pulling his only cargo of an ego and armor plating which protects it. Power streams from this neural core, it surges in a fluxing shield

that illuminates an ora of remarkable enery, fuel that can only come from an individual.

The antagonist, Ellsworth Toohey once claims that, ” A thinking man can?t be ruled.” This statement aim at an opponent that is superior

to all and including society. Roark thinks and this gives him the power to create. Creators are mile stones, set far from the fuilthy

reaches of the mass mob who deserves no place for contest. Creators travels uncharted paths into a unique destiny, pursuing

uncontrollable possibilities. Society lack control over Roark, this hatred overwhelms them and they set out to destroy him. The Leeches

complicates themself in attacking something that is prone to their touch. Roark is not an image of a man, but a hologram that is immune

to outside interference.

gives him a freedom no other enjoy and that is true happiness.

At first, Roark?s character can be on the outrageous side, doom humorous and terribly intiminating. However, he is the product of a

radical thinker and thus is an incredible concept of thought. Believing in his existence help to understand the philosophy behind his

character and like wise the character behind the philosophy.

Perhaps at the dawn of creation, all human beings can be considered paupers in terms of knowledge, wisdom and undoubtedly, the

power to make appropriate decisions. Simply put, life?s a continuous search for a sturdy foundation, upon which will erect a monumental

shrine for those who succeeds, and for mindless others who fail to choose the right path, it will be their final resting place, six feet

under. Success is eminent for those who search vigorously, but more importantly for those who knows where to seek the guidance. There

are few however, that surpass the stage of seeking, they go beyond to collect their wisdom into a teaching, guidance in the form of a

philosophy. Ayn Rand is one among them.

Individualism is the philosophy which exemplify ?self?, promotes greatness and prolong longevity of the human race. It contains the

power lock inside every individual. Our responsibility as an enity on this planet, is to tap this incredible source of energy, ustilizing this

fuel to propell humanity into the depth of the future.

This is a lesson readers of Ayn Rand?s philosophy will never forget. We are supplied with various paths to take in life. The true heroes

will know which he is to take and reamain above all others. Those who fail, will end up in the melting pot of society, their flame of

freedom extinguished.