Fountainhead End

This section is the end of what is without a doubt the largest and most insightful book I have read in my four years of high school. The book ends with the trial of Howard Roark, which is similar to the last trial in some of its aspects. Howard does not call any witnesses and issues no statement until the end. There was a comment, however, on his choice of jurors, “Roark had chosen the hardest faces” (Rand, 675), who were engineers, mathematicians, truck drivers, bricklayers electricians, gardeners and factory workers. There was much testimony of many people, but the only ones mentioned were Keating, the officer who found Roark, the warden who Dominique distracted, and then Roark’s closing statement to the jury. The statement was the only piece of real merit in the many pages this trial took up, it summed up in elegant words the ideal of man and how it had been contorted: “man was forced to accept masochism as his ideal – under the thread that sadism was his only alternative” (Rand, 681). He also pointed out how the great mind must struggle against the many for his idea to survive; “thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light…the first man invented the wheel. He was probably torn on the rack he had taught his brothers to build” (Rand, 677-678). He supports the ideas of the individual and points out the flaws with a selfless society and the wrongs of such idealists, “Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive…The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere “(Rand, 683). And apparently the jury that Roark had selected agreed with him in less than an hour, because in the end, Roark is found not guilty of committing any crime and released.

The rest of the book resolved the loose ends of the story. Wayward divorced Dominique, who is now with Roark, and was forced by law to re-hire Ellsworth. To this Wayward said, “We must comply with the law” (Rand, 687), and orders him to be on the job before nine o’clock. After no more than ten minutes at his desk Ellsworth is startled by the screeching halt of the Banner’s presses. To this, Wayward says, “It’s nine o’clock. You’re out of a job, Mr. Toohey. The Banner has ceased to exist” (Rand, 688). Wayward also has one last gesture, by calling Roark to his office, and telling him he is to build the Wayward Building, the largest in New York, “as a monument to that spirit which is yours…and could have been mine” (Rand, 692). The meeting has a feeling of sadness because in it Wayward expresses no desire to ever see Roark again, and the look on his face to be, “know, closed and never to be reached again. A face that held no pain of renunciation, but the stamp of the next step, when even pain is renounced” (Rand, 690).

This ending is bitter, but I feel it is fitting for the contrast of the theme of the book. The character that had no fear of others and let himself follow his own path ended up happy with what he wanted, work, his identity, pride, and a wife of Dominique. Whereas Wayward wanted the same thing, but sacrificed his pride to try and reach the others, and lost a part of his empire and all or the other two.

The Fountainhead p. 663-673

In this section, Wayward has been broken by the Banner, committee and the fallout of this is what this deals with. The repercussions of this caving of Wayward, are not limited by any chance. They spur Wayward to not want to see or speak to Roark, who is willing to forgive him, but as Wayward had said in the last section, he cannot be forgiven. The only major event of concern was the reuniting of Roark and Dominique in their old relationship of couple, that being the closest word to describe their relationship. Dominique also plans to extract revenge on Wayward, by calling in police and reporters to look for a “missing sapphire ring” (Rand, 668). This is then spread to every newspaper, including the Banner to do damage to Wayward and to help him “a story that will build circulation” (Rand, 671). Roark’s comment on her actions being, “a more thorough job of dynamiting than Cortlandt”, is very accurate, because with this act she has destroyed what little Wayward thought he still had that he held dear: Dominique. When Wayward hears of this he is not openly showing his hurt and doesn’t seem to be able to break and cave as Dominique had wanted him to her yelling at him, “God damn you! If you can take it like this, you had no right to become what you became” to which he responded, “that’s why I’m taking it” (Rand, 671). Wayward’s character has seemed to been broken by his giving in to others and that he will no longer be an individual, but the kind of person he and Roark detested: a second-hander.

The Fountainhead p. 654-663

In this section Wayward meets with the Banner board, where they try to get him to give in to the demands of the Union before the Banner collapses. They argue with Wayward over the issue and the purpose of the strike not being important enough to lose money over, and the dislike with Wayward owning 51% of the business so no one else has a say in how its run. In the end Wayward gives in to their demands, breaking for the first time, on all of the issues but one: the re-hiring of Ellsworth. He would not cede that to him but let them reverse the Cortlandt position, and take the other two writers back. “He thought about the moment in his bedroom when he had almost pulled the trigger. He knew he was pulling it now” (Rand, 658). Wayward giving in to the demand of society was the same as how he always did what others wanted in the pursuit of power, but now he knows that he can never defy the public opinion or his power disappears and he will not be able to defend Roark or anything else he holds sacred. In the end he is aimlessly walking the streets, thinking, “Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven. But not those who lack the courage of their own greatness. Alvah Scarret can be forgiven. He had nothing to betray. Mitchell Layton can be forgiven. But not I. I was not born to be a second-hander” (Rand, 663)

The Fountainhead p. 640-654

In this section Ellsworth defies Ellsworth by taking a stand against Roark and the Cortlandt bombing in the Banner when Wayward is out on a business trip and Alvah was out sick. In it he condemns Howard and takes the opinion of everyone else in the press industry. For this he is fired from the Banner, but the repercussions of this were far beyond what Wayward anticipated. The Banner Union, that Ellsworth helped set up, walked out on strike, and while “the membership was small – and crucial; it included all his key men, not the big executives, but the rank below, expertly chosen, the active ones…most of them had been hired in the last eight years; recommended by Mr. Toohey” (Rand, 644). This explosion of a strike and the firing of the Banner further shot down the sales of the Banner, along with the difficulty of editing and running the newspaper when no respectable press members would work for them.

As the Banner is falling apart and not helping Roark, Ellsworth has a brief talk with Wayward before he is removed from the building. The idea he conveys to him tells him how he is not capable of obtaining power because he doesn’t have the stomach for it, and that, “Money is power, is it Mr. Wayward? Power over men? You poor amateur! You never discovered the nature of your own ambition or you’d have known that you weren’t fit for it. You couldn’t use the methods required and you wouldn’t want the results” (Rand644). This contrast of power through force and wealth against mind and conscience shows the contrast of how the individual tries to control the masses whereas a man of the masses tries to lead them. The result of the strike should show which of the two has a more effective means of control, and will add to the conflict of one going against the many.

The Fountainhead p. 630-640

Ellsworth comes to Peter Keating’s house as he has not left and has not seen anyone since Howard has been arrested. He did this to ensure he would not betray Howard, and exactly why Ellsworth came to see him. He pressures him and after some resistance of what little will Peter managed to still have, he gives Ellsworth the paper that Roark signed with him over the contract. And Ellsworth has a mixed response to this, “You’re a complete success, Peter, as far as I’m concerned. But as times I have to want to turn away from the sight of my successes” (Rand, 633).

The rest of this chapter was the elaboration of what Ellsworth truly wants out of all of this, the masterminding behind all the organizations and groups he helps forms but draws no power from. He wants to control the world by the conscience of the people. “I shall rule…You. The world. It’s only a matter of discovering the lever. If you can learn how to rule one single man’s soul, you can get the rest of mankind” (Rand, 635). He also elaborates on the means to this end of his. By making selflessness a virtue, it kills the aspirations of people, considering that, “Not a single [man] has ever achieved [selflessness] and not a single one ever will” (Rand, 635), and that by promoting the things that people should not follow, they then find people worshiping an ideal they cannot follow and make themselves feel insignificant and then willing to follow others who appear to be selfless, such as Ellsworth. He also preaches the use of serving and sacrifices as virtuous, and points out how this helps gain power for a man like him as well. “It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And he intends to be the master” (Rand, 637). He elaborates on many other aspects of how he feels the will of people can be bent and molded, but all have the common denominator by glorifying things that have not value to oneself but in the eyes of another, and no one is truly happy, “Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient…Happy men are free men” (Rand, 636), and so by making people feel that happiness is only achievable in the serving of others, it breaks their spirit because they become unhappy on something people tell them should make them feel good.

The concept in general of what current society holds sacred calls many values of society into question. We have many systems where the many help the few, both within regions and around the world, for the sole purpose of helping our fellow man. We also glorify lifestyles of loving and caring, but not in the sense of making oneself happy by what one wants, but by a standard of morals that society tells us is what we should want and desire. This issue of where one’s morals come from; if one’s morals and ideals do not come from within, does it not stand to reason that one is without morals at all? No man’s conviction should change based on the opinions of others if they are truly his, but rarely in society is this the case. To succeed in any political or public light, one must make their ideas embody what everyone else wants them to be, regardless of what they truly believe. Many people who hold their convictions will not move through society or survive. Galileo had to renounce his works because it went against the church, the strongest power in the world at the time. Darwin was ridiculed for decades for his idea of evolution, which some still argue over today. People will not value ideas by their own worth, but by what everyone else says their worth, and that is one of the biggest problems with our society.

The Fountainhead p. 616-630

Dominique is saved from her near death experience and is brought back to Wayward’s Penthouse to recover. When she regained consciousness, Wayward was there, “he looked amused…she remembered seeing him as the hospital. He had not looked amused then” (Rand, 617). This shows how Wayward is attached to Dominique in a way that losing her would destroy him. Howard sees her later in the day and she has already been told by Wayward that he stayed at the scene, was arrested, and is out on bail, posted by Wayward. Howard tells her that if he is acquitted, then they can finally be together, but if he is convicted, then she is to stay with Wayward, because, “he and you will need each other” (Rand, 620). Howard is very caring of both Dominique and Wayward, as can be seen in him planning to keep them happy if the worst comes, but it also shows how he is unbending and uncaring of his own well being over the ideals he holds. He would gladly sit in jail for the sake of preventing the destruction of his work.

Wayward begins a crusade for Roark, going against every other popular opinion and hurting the sale and popularity of his paper to do so. “He was granted the impossible, the dream of every man” the chance and intensity of youth, to be used with the wisdom of experience” (Rand, 624). Many people try to persuade Wayward of his unpopular stand defending Roark.

Toohey is also mentioned here briefly in the end, as now being ready thanks to “the right moment….handed to me on a sliver platter” (Rand, 629), to take over The Banner. How he plans to do so is not elaborated on, but it seems as though he has a plan in mind.

The Fountainhead P. 608-616

Howard and Wayward return from their long journey to find a dramatic change. The Cortlandt housing project is already under construction and while, “the building had the skeleton of what Roark had designed” (Rand, 608), but despite the efforts of Keating to fight off the forces of influence, the building was butchered and had “the remnants of ten different breeds piled on the lovely symmetry of the bones” (Rand, 608). This is the example it once again being ‘too late’, for Keating to change what he is; a second-hander. This time, however, he has dragged Howard’s unbending mind and body into it. Because he cannot conform to society, he also cannot allow his ideas to be shaped by it so long as he has the power to fight back. It’s this exact mindset that makes Howard his own person, and what propels him to seek Dominique’s help in distracting the warden of the Cortlandt housing project as he blows it off the face of the earth.

This portion also exhibits a change in Dominique, who has always been afraid of seeing Roark hurt by society, as she was at the Stoddard trial. Here she is in control, and not phased by society being able to hurt Roark, “She was free and he knew it”(Rand, 613). But in her following of orders of Roark to hide in a ditch until after the explosion and “see that your found in the car and that your condition matches its condition – approximately”, she returned to the car and, “slashed the skin of her neck, her legs, her arms. What she felt was not pain…she was free…She did not know she had cut an artery” (Rand, 616). And with this line they end the chapter, Dominique free of her fears of the world as she is almost leaving it and Roark not letting his work be butchered.