The Fountainhead P. 293-418

The Fountainhead P. 293-390

Roark is given a Commission of the Stoddard Temple, a temple for an old man with a heavy conscience who thinks a temple to god will elevate his sin. He ends up choosing Roark out of everyone else because it is advised to him by his close friend who he adores and obeys with the fanaticism of a religion, Ellsworth Toohey. Ellsworth does this, and lays the framework so that Roark will build the temple without Stoddard ever seeing it and making it publicly known to be a gift to god by man. Roark hires Steven Mallory, the man who attempted to kill Ellsworth, to make a statue for the temple, a statue of Dominique nude as the centerpiece of the temple. At first Mallory thought that Roark was like everyone else and was just doing this to destroy him a little more an amuse himself, but he sees in Roark what he saw in himself in the love for work. It also showed the hate of what society can do to people like him when he sees, “a small plaster plaque, the kind sold in cheap gift shops… A few lines, the structure of a few muscles showed a magnificent talent that could not be hidden…the rest was a deliberate attempt to be obvious…Mallory saw Roark’s hand begin to shake…the plaque shot across the room and burst to pieces against the wall. It was the only time anyone had ever seen Roark murderously angry” (Rand, 329). It showed both the appreciation that Roark had for someone with the ability to make something beautiful of their own principles like he did, and the hate he had for society making it so that they might have to bend to survive in it. Then, when Stoddard finally sees the temple, he is distraught by how, “Instead of a moos of deferential sorrow, befitting a place where on contemplates eternity and realizes the insignificance of man, this building has a quality of loose, orgiastic elation” (Rand, 339). Roark was sued to pay to reconstruct his great work of the Stoddard Temple to a home for subnormal Children. Prominent architects are chosen to reconstruct it and Roark’s career is afterward tossed greatly into the mud by this very public affair, the attacks by Ellsworth in the newspaper, The Banner, and the depression that hits America, causing a universal decline in the overall economy, including construction of new buildings.
Ellsworth’s past is revealed. It is told that he was a sickly child, who used his mind to get what he wanted and do what he wanted. He played of the emotions and secret fears and pains of those around him. His aunt commented that, “you’re a maggot, Elsie, you feed on sores… ‘Then I’ll never starve’, he answered” (Rand, 297), showing that his way of living and the demeanor that he always displays and uses had not changed from when he was a child. The one thing that essentially summed up the motive of Ellsworth was a lesson in religion that abruptly ended his devotion to it, “the teacher had been elaboration upon the text: ‘what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ Ellsworth asked: “then in order to be truly wealthy, a man should collect souls?’” (Rand, 298). Toohey has used his compassion and his ability to show people what they need, and make them do as he has pleased all along, but it is never noticed by his victims, who always believe that it is their own idea and will to do things, and Toohey just reassured them on their course of action.
Dominique and Roark part after the Stoddard temple incident, because of the pain it inflicted on Dominique, who could feel the pain that Roark could not in what they were doing to him. She decided to test herself by putting herself through her own punishment; she quickly ends up marrying Peter Keating, making Catherine disappear as a distant memory. Keating is overjoyed after the initial shock of this actually happening, but cannot place that feeling of uncertainty he has about the reasons for the marriage.

Fountainhead xmas post 1

In this portion of the book, P. 265-293, Roark is given much publicity from the construction of the Enright house. That commission that he was almost awarded by Joel Sutton was deterred by the zealous attacks of Dominique by her articles in the Banner. As the articles and the outward attacks on Roark grow, they also develop a personal and intimate relationship, like that when they were at the quarry, only on a more frequent basis. Roark is denied many commissions by Dominique’s attacks on him in his banner, which also had an undercurrent of praise unnoticed by the public, but observed with Roark and people like Ellsworth.
For every commission that Roark was denied, Keating is awarded by the good word of Dominique. This use of her charm to help the partner of her father is seen as baffling by both Keating and Guy Francon. The true intention of Dominique in solely hurting and condemning Roark is unknown to them, just like the rest of the mainstream culture of the world.
Ellsworth is seen as thinking he is exhibiting control over Dominique in his ability to observe her affection of Roark, and thinks that it is him who planted these seeds of hate for Roark and the public attacks on him. He is still unaware of the previous relationship of Roark and Dominique so he was miscalculated in such an assumption.
While she is not mentioned in this portion, I think that it is important that Catherine, Keating’s true love, is ignored as Dominique is publicly praising and worshiping him.

The Fountainhead, 233-265

Roark gains commissions again and begins to make progress as an architect. He has his Enright House with a lot of publicity and allows him an opening to another commission with Joel Sutton, who ends with telling him that he wants him to build it, “just about almost, that is, I’ll give you a ring in a few days and we’ll have a dogfight over the contract!” (Rand, 260). He also runs into Dominique Francon again, and acts as though nothing has happened, “He knew that his absence bound her to him in a manner more complete and humiliating than his presence could enforce…she would be ready either to kill him or to come to him of her own free will. The two acts would be equal in her mind” (Rand, 252). They both seem to acknowledge this aspect in their thoughts in the book, but both refuse to speak of it to each other or to anyone else. They also help portray the mentality of Roark, by having Keating and Ellsworth discuss him briefly over tea where Keating mentions, “[Roark]’d walk over corpses. Any and all of them. All of us. But he’d be an architect” (Rand, 238), helping enforce the image that nothing and no one is more important to Roark than architecture.
Keating also progresses in this section to become closer friends with Ellsworth Toohey, and goes to meet Catherine and him over tea. He does and the day appears to be normal and routine, but in the thoughts of Keating, the beauty of what he and Catherine seems to be tainted by the presence of Ellsworth, despite his affection for him when Catherine is not around. He also builds a house for Lois Cook, who in a short passage sums up the conflict and closest thing to the source of distaste that society feels toward Roark, “They all work so hard and struggle and surer, trying to achieve beauty, trying to surpass one another in beauty. Let’s surpass them all! Let’s throw their sweat in their face. Let’s destroy them at one stroke. Let’s be gods. Let’s be ugly” (Rand, 241).
The only other key that seemed to be important was that, while Ellsworth seems to be like Keating and the conformers to society, he talks to Dominique and expresses that he understood what was unspoken between her and Roark, and that despite his ability to see the world the way they do, lives the way people like Keating do. “If you can see what you’re talking about, you can’t be what you are… Ellsworth, I think you’re a much worse person than I thought you were” (Rand, 264). It is interesting to see how his understanding of people like Roark but his attachment to people like Keating means, and I am interested to find that out.

The Fountainhead, P. 201-232

In this section Howard Roark has spend two months working in the query without any incident. Several miles away Dominique is taking her vacation alone in her father’s mansion, which is how they first meet in the book. They do not speak, but simply stare at each other for a few days when Dominique comes down to the query until they actually talk. Their feelings seem contrast with their words, showing a feeling of, “[Dominique] thought she had found an aim in life – a sudden, sweeping hatred for that man” (Rand, 205), with ‘that man’, being Howard. But they do have an attraction to one another, and while they do not become verbally intimate in this section of the book, they do become intimate in other ways. Shortly after this, Roark is given a letter of a rich man, Roger Enright, who wishes him to build a house for him, allowing him to leave his query job, and resume his role as an architect. They use this to show the relationship between them in Roark’s thoughts, “When the train started moving, [Roark] remembered Dominique and that he was leaving her behind…He was astonished only to know that he still thought of her” (Rand, 219). The relationship seems to be one of affection under a façade of contempt, but it also seems awkward and somehow not fitting the way it is expressed.
Keating had a very small portion in these pages of the book, with him working on constructing the masterpiece he had Roark help him design, the Cosmo-Slotnick Building, and contracts a sculptor named Steven Mallory, who is talented to a point that his statues of men, “looked as if he could break through the steel plate of a battleship and through any barrier whatever. It stood like a challenge…made the people around it seem smaller and sadder than usual” (Rand, 222). His work is seen like Roark’s as being to far beyond the accepted norm of the time and is fired from the commission. But after setting an appointment to finally meet with Ellsworth Toohey, through his success in the Cosmo-Slotnick Building, his x-sculptor, Steven Mallory, attempts to shoot Ellsworth for no apparent reason whatsoever. It does not phase Toohey on his façade to the people around him other than the question of why? When Keating meets with Ellsworth, he realizes that Toohey knows he did not construct the building on his own, and still seems to accept him as a close and dear friend. The only contempt that he shows for Toohey was when he mentions his niece, the only thing that Keating is truly sincere about and genuine of in affection in the whole book. This contempt shows the conflict within Keating, between what he wants, and what he thinks he should want. While he knows he wants to be with Catherine, he does all these other things to be successful, because that’s what people like Francon, Ellsworth, and his mother have all told him is what he should want.

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”

The Fountainhead, Chapters 6–10

Howard Roark is faced with a long period of struggle and grief in this period of the book. His employer and idealist in architecture, Henry Cameron, is forced to close his business and leave practice, putting Howard out of work. Immediately, however, Peter Keating scoops up Roark and gets him at Francon & Heyer. Because of his hate for destroying his work by making it acceptable to others, he only does the engineering and other than the chief of the engineering department who stated, “‘you’ve got more sense than I gave you credit for, Keating. Thanks.’ ‘For what?’ asked Keating? ‘For nothing intentional, I’m sure’, said the Chief” (Rand, 90). He also makes friends with a construction worker named Mike, who detests normal architects, but is fond of Roark for his genuine passion and a friend after saying, “Only one…that knew building. I worked for him when I was your age…Henry Cameron was his name” (Rand, 92). But after an altercation with Francon directly when Keating is away, Roark is fired for refusing to so a butchered version of Cameron’s work for a wealthy client. And after this he is forced to look for a job, and spends five months searching in vain, but eventually gets taken in by a John Erik Snyte, who wanted him for a “modernistic” perspective on building, having one from classic, gothic, renaissance and miscellaneous. After working for several months a character, Austen Heller, asks for a modernistic house that he wants to be “alive”, and when Roark shows him his sketch for which he is fired, Heller leaves with him, giving him the commission of his house and a $500 check to start his own business made out to “Howard Roark, Architect” (Rand, 128).

Keating has an easy period in this book. He has many commissions after a designer strike. He mentions to Catherine, his longtime crush who he always goes to months of time apart to, that they are engaged, and that makes both of them very happy. He also meets the daughter of Guy Francon, Dominique Francon, who is in personality, very close to Howard Roark, in the remark of her words, but much better in a social situation than him. She is not liked by her father, but seems to be liked by Peter, probably as a way of advancing his career.

The only other major character is Ellsworth Toohey, who writes for the Wynand paper, The Banner, and writes on both the retirement of Henry Cameron and of the builder’s union strike. On the strike, Keating heard the speech of Toohey, “He did not hear what the voice was saying. He heard the beauty of the sounds without meaning. He felt no need to know the meaning; he could accept anything, he would be led blindly anywhere” (Rand, 109), showing the influence that Toohey seemed to have over his readers and people around him, including his niece Catherine. He preached about the need of unity and essentially the necessity of people to conform to one another, and obey the standards that society sets for them. His work on Cameron, on the other hand, showed him as insignificant and that his downfall was inevitable, stating the Latin phrase, “vox populi vox Dei”, (Rand, 79), meaning ‘the voice of people [is] the voice of god’ which seems to be a phrase holding some irony in it, considering its origin “And those people should not be listened to who keep saying, 'The voice of the people [is] the voice of God,' since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.” (Alcuin). This word is much like the word utopia, meaning ‘a perfect society’, because of a book written about such a place, but the actual translation of utopia from Greek means, ‘no place’. Considering that Toohey is said to be well educated and knowledgeable of many things, he probably knows this and probably implies some deeper meaning by saying this. While most seem to admire the words of Toohey, some like Keating show some subtle hints of distaste in what he does to Catherine and how he changed her, “he wanted to be angry, but he saw her twinkling smile, her new kind of fire, and he had to smile” (Rand, 84). I think that Toohey seems to show the exact kind of thing that characters like Keating do, conforming to succeed, being the same things that people like Roark cannot bring themselves to do.

The Fountainhead Chapters 3-5

In these chapters the role models of Howard Roark and Peter Keating. They introduce the large architect firm, Francon & Heyer, who is a big name in the architect business, and employs many up and coming architects, including Peter Keating. The other is Henry Cameron, a washed up drunk, who has very few commissions and even less that Security Trust Company will approve for construction.
Peter begins to work in a room filled with many other architects who quickly like and trust him. He quickly becomes friends with the owner Guy Francon, after he takes the bold step of critiquing the works of one of his superiors directly with him. “Keating knew that he had taken a terrible chance and won; he became frightened by the chance after he knew he had won” (Rand 42). By playing off of the flaws of his peers he advanced himself over the two years that these chapters depict, and tossed out the others who stood in his way. He took the other designer with Tim Davis, and took over his work in the premise of giving him time to spend with his new wife, when in reality he blames him whenever something is late because of him being a newly wed, or him not being on task. This ended with him being fired and Keating getting the position. He then did the same for the head of the architect department Stengel, landing him a commission to start his own firm, clearing the spot for Keating to fill. The key this shows is that the people in Francon & Heyer don’t advance by demonstration of skill, as another designer pointed out Keating’s first day, “Francon hell…he hasn’t designed a doghouse in eights…Stengel. He does all the work” (Rand39). It shows the talent less and the undeserving advancement of people playing by the mainstream rules of society. They also regard the opinions of others very highly, taking the words of the architect critic, Ellsworth M. Toohey. They show the necessity of the gratitude of others, probably from the fact that they do not progress from their talent, but their ability to suppress others who surpass them.
Howard Roark under Henry Cameron, on the other hand, had a workroom with two drawers working under Henry Cameron. Cameron chooses to hire Roark not based on the recommendation of others, or the fact he was expelled form Stanton, or that he had only been in New York for a day, but that he had work to show for it in his sketches to show his work. Roark didn’t take the job to get paid, because there wasn’t much to get from a firm not doing a lot of work, but that he knew he could learn from Cameron and that he had once been like him, resenting society. They both think, “Men hate passion, any great passion… [Henry Cameron] had nothing but a faith he held merely because it was his own” (Rand 45). Roark also expresses a dislike with the way things are, “I love this earth. That’s all I love. I don’t like the shape of things on earth. I want to change them” (Rand 49). He learns how so better create things his own way, refining the designing methods he created out of raw necessity of a building and with the help of Henry Cameron, made them even more efficient. This work shows a desire for a purpose higher than material gain, an actual love of their work and a desire to work just to express it that way.