The Fountainhead 11-15

Howard Roark begins with his first commission of the house. He begins to construct the house of Heller, when Mike shows up to work on the job. The job of a single house is a small job compared to what jobs he normally works on, “And you think it’s a come-down? Well, maybe it is. And maybe it’s the other way around” (Rand, 134). Roark completes the house of Heller without much incident other than a visit by Keating to help with designs for a contest, and receives another commission for a gas station on a road in sight of Heller’s house. His reasoning for having the house built was simple, “I like it. It makes sense to me. And then again I figured everybody’ [s gaping at it and talking about it”, and such publicity would be beneficial to business. So Roark was given a second commission to work on, as well as a shot at the commission for a Whitford Sanborn, a man who had a store built by Henry Cameron, who wanted a house like “Cameron would do it” (Rand, 167). Shortly after this initial success of Roark also has a commission for the Enright house, a large commission by a corporation that wanted something different. He worked long and hard on this commission, trying to get it accepted by the committee, long enough that the money form his older commissions dried up and he had not worked on another house for almost six months. With dollars left to his name, however, they decide to grant him the commission under the condition that the façade of the building be changed to something more acceptable, and Howard cannot accept such a thing. Rather than take the commission. He lets his money run out, closes up the office he had, and gets a job through Mike in Francon’s granite mine.
Keating becomes a partner with the death of Heyer, whom Keating helped along by confronting him about using the corporations funds for personal use. He also has a moment when he thinks of marrying Catherine, but his mother disperses such a thought within the night he had it and they postpone getting married until Keating has a secure position with Francon and his results from the competition come in. When Keating does win, however, they do not afterwards mention them getting married in a rush. He does, however, begin going out on frequent dates with Dominique Francon, who detests him but likes to see him try in vain.
Overall, this section of the book has the progress of Keating to a partner and the failure of Roark in his private business. It helps highlight the inverse relationship between Roark and Keating, how one becomes successful when the other comes upon troubled times. They both also have a death, one of which was devastating to them and the other that brought a feeling of happiness and success. This also brings a close to the section of the book labeled “Part I”