The Fountainhead

Summary

The Fountainhead follows the career of Howard Roark, a young architect who designs buildings according to his own principles and refuses to imitate historical styles or to compromise with clients, committees and critics. Ayn Rand presents him as her ideal of the independent creator, and she sets him against a cast of characters who, in her terms, live through and for others. The novel opens with Roark's expulsion from the Stanton Institute of Technology for his unconventional designs. He apprentices himself to Henry Cameron, an embittered pioneer of modern architecture, while his classmate Peter Keating joins the prestigious firm of Guy Francon and rises quickly by flattery, borrowed ideas and social maneuvering. Roark's commissions are few; when work dries up he takes a job in a granite quarry. There he meets Dominique Francon, Guy Francon's daughter, a newspaper columnist who admires Roark's work but believes the world will destroy it. Their first sexual encounter, which many readers describe as a rape, begins a relationship of attraction and resistance that lasts the length of the book. The antagonist is Ellsworth Toohey, an architecture critic and social theorist who seeks power by promoting mediocrity and collectivism. Toohey engineers a lawsuit over Roark's Stoddard Temple that ruins his reputation. Dominique marries Keating, then the newspaper publisher Gail Wynand, a self-made man who has gained power by giving the public what it wants. Wynand and Roark become close friends. Keating, failing, asks Roark to design the Cortlandt Homes housing project secretly, under Keating's name, on condition that it be built exactly as designed. When the design is altered, Roark dynamites the unfinished buildings. At his trial he speaks in his own defense, arguing that the creator's work belongs to the creator and that civilization depends on independent minds; the jury acquits him. Wynand, who had defended Roark in his paper and then surrendered under pressure, closes the paper and commissions Roark to design the Wynand Building. Dominique marries Roark, and the novel ends with her rising to meet him at the top of the building. The book was rejected by a dozen publishers before Bobbs-Merrill issued it in 1943. Word of mouth made it a best seller, and it remains Rand's most widely taught novel and a common entry point to her ideas.

Plot or Argument

• Part One: Peter Keating

  Roark is expelled from architecture school and works for Henry Cameron, while Peter Keating flourishes at Francon & Heyer. Roark opens his own office, loses it for lack of commissions and goes to work in a quarry, where he meets Dominique Francon.

• Part Two: Ellsworth M. Toohey

  Toohey persuades Hopton Stoddard to commission a temple from Roark and then to sue him over it; the trial damages Roark's career. Dominique testifies against the temple in a way meant to praise it, then marries Keating.

• Part Three: Gail Wynand

  The publisher Gail Wynand buys Dominique from Keating, marries her and befriends Roark, who designs a house for them.

• Part Four: Howard Roark

  Roark designs Cortlandt Homes for Keating and dynamites it when the design is changed. Wynand's paper defends him, then capitulates. At trial Roark's speech wins acquittal. Wynand commissions the Wynand Building; Roark and Dominique marry.

Characters

• Howard Roark, protagonist

  Uncompromising architect who builds only according to his own judgment.

• Peter Keating, major

  Roark's classmate, a successful architect who depends on others' opinions and ideas.

• Dominique Francon, major

  Columnist and daughter of Guy Francon who loves Roark and believes the world will crush him.

• Ellsworth M. Toohey, antagonist

  Critic and social theorist who seeks power over others through collectivist ideas.

• Gail Wynand, major

  Self-made newspaper publisher who has power over public opinion but is ruled by it.

• Henry Cameron, minor

  Aging, embittered pioneer of modern architecture who employs Roark.

• Guy Francon, minor

  Fashionable architect and head of the firm that employs Keating.

• Steven Mallory, minor

  Gifted sculptor whose career Toohey has blocked.

• Catherine Halsey, minor

  Toohey's niece and Keating's fiancée, whom he abandons.

Lessons

• Independence and the creator

  Rand presents Roark as a man who judges by his own standards and treats creative work as the creator's property. Students can examine whether her ideal of independence leaves room for collaboration and influence.

  • What exactly does Roark refuse to do, and what does it cost him?
  • Is there a difference between independence and indifference to others?

• First-hand and second-hand lives

  Rand calls people like Keating 'second-handers', who live through others' opinions. The contrast offers a vocabulary for discussing integrity, conformity and approval.

  • In what ways is Keating's success real, and in what ways hollow?
  • Which character, besides Roark, comes closest to living first-hand?

• Ideals in public life

  Wynand's paper and Toohey's columns show how ideas spread and how public opinion is managed. The novel raises questions about the press and about power exercised through persuasion.

  • Why does Wynand fail when he tries to defend Roark?
  • What does Toohey want, and how does he try to get it?

Context

Rand set the novel in the American architecture world of the 1920s and 1930s, when modernism was challenging revival styles. Roark is often compared to Frank Lloyd Wright, though Rand insisted he was not a portrait of Wright. The book appeared during the Second World War.

Composition

Rand worked on the novel from 1935 to 1942, researching by working without pay in the office of the architect Ely Jacques Kahn. Twelve publishers rejected it before Bobbs-Merrill published it in May 1943.

Reception

Reviews were mixed, but sales grew by word of mouth and the book became a best seller. Rand wrote the screenplay for the 1949 Warner Bros. film directed by King Vidor and starring Gary Cooper. The novel's sexual content, especially the quarry scene, has been widely criticized.

Comparisons

• Atlas Shrugged

  Rand's later novel extends the theme of the individual creator to a whole society and a full political philosophy.

• Anthem

  Rand's novella makes the same argument for the individual in the form of a dystopian fable.

• Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays)

  Emerson's 'Self-Reliance' urges trust in one's own judgment against conformity, a theme Roark embodies in a very different moral framework.

• Thus Spoke Zarathustra

  Rand admired Nietzsche when she was young; Zarathustra's call to create one's own values invites comparison with Roark.

• Freedom and the Law

  Leoni's defense of spontaneous law against legislation parallels the novel's suspicion of collective control over individual work.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• How each part is named for a character and what that character represents.
• Buildings as expressions of character.
• The press, especially Toohey's column and Wynand's Banner, as a source of power.
• How Dominique's actions against Roark relate to her admiration for him.

Key terms and names

Second-hander

Rand's term for a person who lives through the opinions and values of others.

Modernism

The movement in architecture that rejected historical ornament in favor of form shaped by function and materials.

Cortlandt Homes

The housing project Roark designs for Keating and later dynamites.

Stoddard Temple

The 'temple of the human spirit' Roark designs, which becomes the subject of a lawsuit.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why is Roark expelled from the Stanton Institute?
2. Comprehension Why does Roark destroy Cortlandt Homes?
3. Interpretation Why does Dominique work against Roark while loving him?
4. Interpretation What does Toohey mean by power, and how does it differ from Wynand's?
5. Big Question Does a creator have an absolute right to determine what happens to his work?
6. Big Question Is it possible to live entirely by one's own judgment?

Faith Connections

• Philippians 2:3-4 (Scripture)

  Paul's call to look also to the interests of others offers a direct contrast with Rand's ethic; comparing the two clarifies what each means by selfishness and humility.

• Emerson, 'Self-Reliance' (Great Conversation)

  'Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist': Emerson's essay is a classic American source for the independence Roark represents.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: If creation originates in the independent mind, then the creator's integrity, not public approval, is the measure of his work, and society depends on such individuals.

Rhetorical device: foil. Peter Keating, successful but dependent on others, is paired with Roark throughout to sharpen the contrast between second-hand and first-hand lives.

Debate: Resolved: Howard Roark was justified in dynamiting Cortlandt Homes.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Analyze Roark's courtroom speech: what are its premises, and which do you find most and least convincing?

Comparison with Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays): Compare Roark with the self-reliant individual of Emerson's essay: where do Rand and Emerson agree, and where do they part?

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Rand distinguishes first-handers from second-handers. Write an essay applying her distinction to a field you know, such as music, sport or social media, and evaluate it.

• Fiction

  Write a scene in which a young designer must decide whether to accept a client's changes to her work.

• Classroom

  Stage Roark's trial: prosecution and defense present cases, and a student jury deliberates on whether his act can be justified.

Further Reading

• The Romantic Manifesto, Ayn Rand

• The Fountainhead, King Vidor (director)

  Warner Bros. film, 1949, screenplay by Rand.

• Ayn Rand and the World She Made, Anne C. Heller

• Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, Jennifer Burns