The Fountainhead

goals to concern himself with others. This is a large part of the irony of The Fountainhead and this contest; the novel’s protagonist would not read it nor would he write and submit an essay on it. If Ayn Rand just walked up to her protagonist and asked him what he thought of her, his answer would be the same as it was for Ellsworth Toohey, not through any sort of…

In today’s world, people who are egoists are often thought of to be self-centered and selfish. Egoism is the theory that one should use himself to motivate and to achieve goals. Ayn Rand confronts egoism differently in Anthem. She views egoism as an extension to Individualism. Throughout the story Prometheus discovers that ego is not a bad thing and becomes an egoist. By the end of the book Prometheus uses his own self interests to drive himself, putting his own motives above those of his…

incentivize working with supporting the greater good society (Rand 21). Through this incentivizing, all of the citizens work, but they reap no benefits. Rand is showing that in the end, the giving of one's self will ultimately lead to time wasted. In The Fountainhead, Toohey describes self-sacrifice as giving up. Self-sacrifice isn't an ideal confined to the communist world. The now cliché quote from John Kennedy, "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,"…

people. They do this by taking the idea of equality and turning it against itself. The concept of equality is perverted by using ideals nearly identical to those used in the speech “the soul of the collectivist” in a different Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead. In the speech Ellsworth M. Toohey an architectural critic confesses his plan to make a society similar to the one in the book Anthem. The speech is about how he plans to create it. He says that he was doing this by perverting the soul of…

The difference between Roark’s path to success and Keating’s path to failure is their independence. Well, In Keating’s case his dependence. In Rand’s eyes, Keating is a completely dependent person. Keating lives not for himself, but for other people in his life. The most notable of which being his mother. Roark, however, is completely independent from others. Roark lives for himself and only himself. He does not let anyone get in the way of what he wants and never settles for less. This is why…

Creating Free Will and Individuality in an Oppressive Society In the excerpt titled “The Soul of an Individualist” from Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead she writes, “Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time.” She also mentions these individual creators got nothing but hate in response for their…

Equality vs. Society “True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s good”(Young). This quote states that you need independence and individuality to be good, and that is exactly what Equality demonstrates. Anthem was written in 1938 by Ayn Rand, who is from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Many novels first words have a huge impact on the entire story, this is especially true in the novella Anthem. “It is a sin to write this.” The opening line of Anthem suggests in the society, there is a…

expressed in her writings through her distaste of communism. Furthermore, Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is explored through the themes of individualism and rationalism that defined her most influential works, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Finally, the prominence of both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged is clearly reflected in modern day politics. During the early 20th century, Rand’s native country, Russia, faced substantial political and financial unrest as a result of the…

Exhibiting Ayn Rand’s voice the influential piece The Fountainhead, expresses the views Rand wanted shared. Ayn Rand, born in Russia in 1905, lived a normal childhood until Bolshevik soldiers took over her father’s store during the Russian Civil War forcing her family into poverty. The sudden change in lifestyle led to Rand developing strong feelings about the government’s involvement in people’s livelihoods. Rand continued to create new political, social and religious beliefs that led to her…

Forgiving Oneself The Russian Revolution was a tragic event that began on March 8, and lasted until November 8 1917. During this period of time, the communists conquered the entire country and began to confiscate property from people, including that of the novelist, Ayn Rand. In fact, the Rand family lost the majority of what they owned, including their pharmacy. This period of hardship and loss provided ideas for her novel, Anthem. Essentially, Anthem is a novella written by Ayn Rand in the…