Howard Roark In Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

Howard Roark made people uncomfortable. It can be seen all throughout The Fountainhead; the dean of Stanton University, Peter Keating, Guy Francon, the list goes on. Is it just because he is brilliant? Partly. But it is also because everyone else sees something in him that they can't identify, something that threatens their convictions and beliefs by just existing. Roark terrifies them, with his innocent honesty and his steadfast principles, because he reminds them that they could have been great too. Architecture is his passion and achievement in architecture his only primary motive. All other things are secondary, even people and relationships. Passionate people pose a threat to their mediocrity; they shake the very foundations of their world. So they try to push him down, they try to laugh at him, to hate him, anything so that his passion isn't allowed to develop. They know that Howard Roark is a revolution. He is an individual in a herd of cattle. He is a success in an incompetent world. But what is so different about Roark? The answer is brilliant in its simplicity. He is great because he is selfish. Selflessness is a misleading word. …show more content…
The erroneous assumption here is that the people pursue humanitarian activities out of their compassion for others, whereas they do it either because they want to impress others or because they want to cleanse their conscience and 'redeem' themselves. The second-rater is willing to do whatever it takes to gain the admiration of other second-raters. He can have no independent feelings, thoughts, judgments, or ideas because these are the functions of the self. As Ayn Rand says, "To say 'I love you' one must first know how to say 'I'." Therefore, only the real egotists have the ability to actually care about and respect other human beings as