CAUTION, THIS CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS BUT NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE A CLIFF’S NOTES FOR A HIGH SCHOOLER.
The theme of the Fountianhead according to Ayn Rand is: “Individualism vs. Collectivism NOT in politics but in men’s souls.” The crux is that she uses the character and plot show how individualists and collectivists operate on a personal level in the world. There is conflict between them that is not only carried throughout the Fountainhead but through all of Atlas Shrugged. The individualists are far outnumbered by the collectivists, or second-hand people, as Roark calls them. Then second-hand people can be further divided into “dictators”, or those who rule the second-handers, “conformists”, those who follow the “dictators”, and “rebels” who rebel against the dictators and conformists but add nothing of their own. The “dictators” set the style in fashion, architecture, drama, philosophy, religion, etc…by mostly borrowing old ideas from the past and stealing new ones from the innovators and passing them off as their own. The “conformists” wand to know what’s in style and how to blend in to succeed and to avoid sticking out too much.
“Selves”, on the other hand, are innovaters. They aspre to and create from their own private vision. The vision could be anything as long as it’s totally new and not just an outgrowth or a reaction against the “dictators” of society. The hiroes of the Fountainhead are the “selves” whose visions and innovations keep the human race going. The dictators of style can only copy off them or most frequently, copy off the styles of the past. The “style setters” work on the cycle: they keep bringing back old fashions, stories, etc from the past to be in style again as if they are new with just a few changes. The selves chuck all that mess and start from scratch. The “selves” think out of the box because they were never in the box to begin with.
Each of the characters in the Fountainhead fall somewhere within or between these four categories. Let us examine them.
#1 Howard Roark: The Hero
He is the ultimate “self”. Orphaned at an early age, he is forced to work since his teens. He learns the building trades from an early age then follows his personal vision to attend college and become an architect. Kicked out of college, he goes to work for his idol, the disgraced Henry Cameron. Throughout the book, Roark faces challenge after challenge even nearly starving to death in a tenement apartment, but never giving up his personal vision nor his morals. He is Rand’s prototype for a man and her ultimate hero until JOHN GALT comes along over a decade later.
#2 Peter Keating: The Foil, a semi-villian
Peter is not really the villian of the novel, but he does go against the hero more than once. He is the opposite of Roark in everything. He is the prototype of the conformist. Having lost his personal vision of being a painter and also the woman he loves to the pressure of his pushy mother, he can only live to please others and try to make money through connections to the wealthy architects of New York, all the while shamelessly taking advantage of Roark’s work.
#3 Henry Cameron
Henry Cameron, hero, bitter defeated self
He is the architectural genius of the past. He is considered the inventor of skyscrapers. He has had not had real work since 1893 and he is introduced in about 1922. He is Roark’s mentor. He does not compromise. Cameron lost his career and now rents an office in the slums by the river. He has a heart attack at work and Roark takes over his business for awhile until he is literally starved out of business in his early career. He is considered a semi-developed “self” by Berkstein. He is not considered a complete failure. He is a very angry man and has been driven to drink. He can operate as a “self”, but the rejection it causes hurts him emotionally.
#4 Guy Francon, semi villian, father of main heroine
Peter Keating’s famous boss. The most important architect in New York. Speaks at the commencement of Stanton where Peter meets him. He is charming and sweet. He has great people skills. His fame rests on one building he did when he was young. Now, he depends on his staff and his partner to come up with his great ideas. He is an expert on clothing, food, wine, and parties.
#5 Dominique Francon, heroine, self
Guy Francon’s daughter hates people but has high ideals. She is very similar to Dagny Taggart of Atlas shrugged. She is considered to be Ayn Rand in a bad mood. She is a typical female Rand character: cold, remote, highly intelligent, sarcastic, hard working, thin frame, and more of a MAN than the male second handers of her novels.
#6 Ellsworth Toohey, villian, complete second hander
He is a leftist fascist. Having had a inferiority complex since childhood, he is totally anti self. He has a huge “posse” of hangers on that he advises and mentors. He immedately hates Roark. Toohey works with Dominique at the Banner newspaper owned by Gail Wynand. Dominique conspires with Toohey against Roard at first. Toohey hates Roark, but Dominique wants to snip Roark’s career in the bud to save Roark further hurt as she discovers she LOVES him.
#7 Gail Wynand, semi-hero, semi-self
Wynand is a Roark wanna-be. He is the tough abrasive owner of the Banner newspaper. Toohey introduces Wynand to Dominique. Wynand marries her leaving Peter alone. Wynand also hires Roark to build his country home not knowing that Dominique and Roark are lovers. (Rand has a similar love triangle in Atlas Shrugged between Dagny Taggart, Henry Rearden, and Francisco D’Anconia until John Galt blows that out of the water.) Roark and Wynand become very close friends before the affair is found out. Wynand and Roark have a “platonic love affair” that gets very close to a “real” one at times IMHO. The scenes on Wynand’s yacht could be interpreted as borderline gay, but are not. I think that Wynand is Henry Rearden in an unevolved form.
Minor Characters:
#8 Lois Cook, “rebel”, neither hero nor villian
She is the august author of the Gallant Gallstone. She rebels agaist society without adding ideas of her own. She writes strange books which are then praised by Toohey and his cultural posse as “art”. She is like certain rock stars of this and past eras who are totally angry but have no vision of their own. Berkstein brought up Sinead O’Connor and her tearing up a picture of the Pope as an example. She hires Keating to build her the ugliest house possible in the worst neighborhood in New York, the Bowery. Her famous quote is “let’s be ugly”…maybe it’s a good name for a blog.
#9 Dean of Stanton, conformist, neither villian nor hero
Likes Roark, but cannot retain him in his school because Roark won’t give up his principles. The Dean is the first person Roark has to stand up to in the Fountainhead.
#10 Mrs. Keating, conformist, villian?
Crushes Peter’s dreams then tries to rebuild him to be what she sees as a success. Peter and Mrs. Keating end up clinging to each other in the end.
#11 Louis Heyer, conformist, neither hero nor villian
Francon’s partner that Keating hustles out of a job and later virtually kills later on by frightening him to death. One of Keating’s sly coup de etats to get ahead.
#12 Catherine, rebel????, neither villian nor hero
Keating’s love. Artless and unsophisticated, the status oriented Peter still loves Catherine. She is Toohey’s neice. Peter rejects her for Dominique due to pressure from his mother and cannot get Catherine back in later years. She becomes a bitter harsh social worker. (Rand has a hatred for social workers: see also the “Cheryl” suicide scene in Atlas Shrugged).
#13 Mike Donagan, hero, self
Construction worker who befriends Roark. Is not an innovator but takes pride in a job well done and no crap from others. He is not smart enough to be a “college boy” but is a great electrician.
#14 Steve Mallory, hero, failed self
Sculptor forced to take demeaning work in ceramics just to get by. Roark recognizes his brilliance just in time. Is near starvation when Roark actually tracks him down to his apartment to give him a job. He is the man who attempts to kill Toohey but gets off at trial when Toohey plays the whole thing down. His career is ruined and he chases women and drinks. He is literally resurrected by Roark. Roark supports him then gives him work until Mallory’s own assignments start coming in. The very emotional scene with Roark in his apartment parallels the tragic death scene in Atlas Shrugged with Rearden’s assistant, Tony, the “wet nurse” assigned to him by the government. This scene ends much less tragically, though.
These are some of the characters in the Fountainhead. There are others, but I omitted them due to time and space. Some other characters of note however are Enright and Heller, who give Roark a chance in architecture.
