Prompt A
Sometimes, although we completely dislike something, we cannot help ourselves but to agree with it. This is the case for the book "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. Some like her books while some hate her, however, Rand continues to push her philosophy though her literature. Dominique, is an excellent example for this. Through her characters, Ayn Rand portrays her innermost thoughts and thus, philosophy.
As mentioned before, the characters in the novel "The Fountainhead" are a prime vessel for Ayn Rand's points of views. Howard Roark, the novel's hero, is shown as what Ayn Rand believes to be the perfect man. He is determined, smart and, perhaps most importantly has integrity. Dominique, once she meets Howard Roark, becomes instantly attracted to him as she detects that he is the perfect man for her. However, she marries Peter Keating. Peter Keating, although more successful than Howard Roark and being charming, steals Roark's ideas and uses them to become rich. Roark did not mind him doing so and in fact helped. This, ultimately lead to him becoming poor and having to work manual labor which is where Dominique finds him. Here, we are shown a glimpse of Dominique's true character. Dominique harbors a masochist mentality within herself. She opts for their encounters to be all but calm, and they become to many degrees rape. She however, enjoys this and is what she describes as being the fiery passion that she admires in Howard Roark.
Dominique, is nonetheless a person who considers herself to be righteous and, as mentioned before, is a main way in which Ayn Rand shows the reader her philosophy. She realizes Roark's pure integrity and the fact that this aspect of him is like a flame amongst droplets of rain which could be extinguished at any moment. Realizing that he will eventually be destroyed takes it upon herself to destroy him before someone else has the chance. So, she is one of the main contributors to Roark's complete destruction. She is one of the main pushers for his trial, in which she goes as far as attacking him , which destroys Roark. And, although content with her work, Dominique feels guilty. Her guilt is aggravated when Roark simply takes the full hit of his ruin without any resistance. His calmness drives Dominique into an almost masochist frenzy in which she ends up marrying Peter Keating. She marries Keating to not only punish herself, as she is a masochist, but to in her own personal way, show Howard Roark her love for him. She successfully destroys Howard Roark, paradoxically saving him from the world or from others being able to destroy him; then, in a stroke of almost mindless-crazyness marries Keating, who leeched off Roark's genius to gain his current status, to punish herself and show her love for Roark. To this Roark responds by accepting his faith, not reluctantly but graciously. Ayn Rand wants to impact the reader so that we admire Howard Roark though this, how he calmly takes the situation and works his way through his problems.
The way that Howard Roark manages his challenges are another quality of his that Ayn Rand portrays as being correct. This is not limited to the way he remains calm after the jury. Roark knows that Peter Keating is using his ideas, and to a certain degree Roark prompted him to do so, he even helps Keating use him to become Rich. This demonstrates that Roark could in fact become very wealthy if he so wished to do so. He could gain all that Keating obtains and more if he would only give up his ideals. His ideals, his individuality, is the most important of his qualities and is what Roark struggles through the whole book to maintain. He maintains his indiviuality even if it means that he will suffer to keep it. And so he refuses any job that attempts to change a single aspect of his design and becomes poor for that reason. Which is where he shines again. As mentioned before, Dominique falls in love with Roark due to his courage and determination that he excels as he is doing manual labor even though he is intelligent enough to not have to do so. In this, Howard Roark is the complete opposite of Keating, who never had any individuality and has no integrity. Dominique knows this and chooses Keating, the worst person that she can think of to be her husband, punishing herself. Keating's behaviour becomes even more pathetic once he literally trades Dominique for more money, further demonstrating just what a terrible match for Dominique he is. Therefore, Roark is further glamorized by Keating's pathetic character.
Through her characters, Ayn Rand portrays her innermost thoughts and thus, philosophy. Roark is the perfect man while Dominique is his prefect pairing. Dominique notices Roark's perfection and individuality and to show her love for him saves him from losing this from other by destroying him herself; then, Dominique punishes herself by marrying Keating. Roark is then glamorized by the indirect comparison of Dominique's worthless husband and him. Finally, Ayn Rand manages to show her philosophy of what men ought to be by Dominique's actions.
