The Fountainhead

Hi there !  

I ‘ve been waiting to write about this book from the day I started reading it. Its called ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand. All of you might not get what I will be talking in this post..its mostly for people who have already read it. Happy reading! 

Finally i have finished reading the book and this is my say:Lets start from the starting  

  The characters of the book 

Catherine (Katie): 

This girl never showed me any signs of being in love with Peter Keating, though she kept on saying those special words to him whenever they met. At first I thought she was a fool to let him use her to his pleasure, and as the destresser of his lonely evenings. But one day she drops at Keating's place asking him to marry her right away, I thought 'Clever girl'. Why did this marriage thing come to her mind suddenly? At this point of time I knew that she was expecting more from him. Deep down inside her mind she knew that no other guy would care for her as Keating did (of course, he had his own reasons to do that). She realized that at any point of time Keating could ditch her for other woman for his selfish means and that's why she wanted a 'marriage'. Both of them knew that they didn't belong together. And that's why accidentally when she happens to meet him after he ran away from her twice, she had no complaints and no regrets. Both of them completely redefined the word 'Need'. They named it as 'Love' and made me understand what exactly it means when someone says: 'I NEED YOU'.

 

Henry Cameron:

This old guy tried real hard to explain it to Roark that traveling on 'The Road Not Taken' is not that easy and pleaded him to back out. He didn't wanted Roark to live a life that he was living now. He played a role of a good teacher. I liked the way he supported Roark and taught him all the things he could.

 

Ellsworth Toohey:

Toohey, a man who could read ppl's mind. He made them believe what they wanted to, told them what they wanted to hear, used his skills to play with their minds and knew everything about them. For a moment he reminded me of MR. Khan, our family doctor and best surgeon of his times (I never believed in his medications though which cured me miraculously).The touch of his hands always gave a soothing effect to me. One day I gave him a silly reason when he asked me why I wasn't having a sound sleep at nights.Thats when he said: I have been into this profession from years my dear, there is something that's going on in your mind again and again which is not letting you sleep. And that was the only day when I was afraid of him for the first time. It was as if he could read something in my mind that I didn't wanted to share with anybody.

 

Peter Keating:

Keating always knew what he wanted from life and did every possible thing to achieve it. The riches and fame that he wanted came to him in such a huge quantity that he got bored of it. Now that he had all that he ever wanted, he didn't know what to do next and that's when he becomes unhappy.

 

Howard Roark:

The supposed and the ideal hero of the book. The only difference between Roark and Keating was: Roark waited for things to happen his way while Keating made things happen for himself. Roark wanted things to do his way and never cared if ppl approved of it (this is what he says initially). For whom was he designing the buildings, if he didn't care about those for whom it was to be built? Had it not been Dominique (grabbing ppl's attention to his work), Austen Heller ( who got him the customers) and the economically poor customers who had no option but to choose Roark, he would have been stayed in the Quarry forever. Roark knew that his work was going to bring a 'change' in the world of architecture. But how you present this change in front of ppl becomes more important, coz initially almost all of them are reluctant to welcome it. They fear 'change' even today. But instead of doing that he became indifferent to their thinking and thought they would never understand him.

 

He says: 'A truly selfish man cannot be affected by approval of others. He doesn't need it'. Yes, that's what he was, a 'selfish bastard'.I thought at least he would spare the woman he loved of his selfishness, But instead of protecting her, he left her for all those men out there. I found him no different from Keating. If he didn't care for ppl, why does he have to open his mouth in his last trial (which sadly went in his favor), to explain himself to ppl.Ideal or not ideal, I feel as long as you are not the only being existing in the world, you cannot ignore the fact that in things that you do (if not everything) you need to present yourself before ppl in the way they want you to. You cannot be indifferent to what they think of you. It's like 'Love them, hate them, you cannot ignore them'.

 

Gail Wynand:

 

Now this guy, was completely a surprise package for me. He did every wrong thing just to gain power. But when he tried to use it for himself, ppl reminded him that he had no rights to use the thing for his own purpose which they had given him. He marries Dominique, knowing the fact that she would leave him anyways one day. He gives her everything that she should have expected from the man she loved. He kept her like a precious pearl and treated her like a queen. I loved the way he addressed her every time with the word 'Dearest'. For once I wanted Dominique to love this man as she loved Roark. (Of course she showed all her love and respect for him in her own way). She remained there with him untouched by this dirty world.

 

Dominique:

 

Don't know what to say about her. Could relate most of her things to myself. I loved every bit of her. She was always there for everybody whenever she knew they needed her the most. She kept killing herself everyday, just to protect the man she loved. For me she was the hero. By any chance if I meet that stinky mouthed English lecturer, I will throw this book at his face to tell him that even a girl can be a center of attention in a story. (He always used to tell me that a girl can never be a center of attention in any story, even if that story is written by a woman).

 The Writer 

Ayn Rand:

The subject to me was completely unknown when I started reading the book. She framed known facts of life and its dirty truths in a very brilliant manner. The way she describes the erotic scenes, I never felt like skipping those pages (which I did religiously while reading other novels. Ex: Sydney Sheldon's: Are you afraid of Dark. No wonder the vulgarity was there while describing those scenes, maybe coz it was written by a man. Only recently I came to know that Sydney Sheldon is a man.) coz they were presented in a clean and neat way 

All the characters were fountainheads in their own ways.

After finishing the book I wondered why I have been avoiding reading from years. I realized that I get involved in them and start thinking about them too much. And may be that's why I have never touched 'Tuesdays with Morris' after reading the first few pages of it.