Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” Essay, Research Paper

Ayn Rand’s “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.

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.