The Fountainhead

 I felt myself letting out a sigh of relief when I finally reached the end of the gargantuan 700-page book that is the Fountainhead. Written by Russian American author Alice O'Connor, better known as Ayn Rand in 1943. The book narrates the story of Howard Roark, a brilliant architect whose artistic genius is ignored by a society that prefers to follow trends dictated by a few rather than forming their own opinions. Throughout the book, the perspective shifts from characters such as Peter Keating, Dominique Francon, and Ellsworth Toohey. The main character Roark, funnily enough, gets the least amount of screen time. Here is a summary of my impressions of each of these characters:

 Peter Keating stands for the opposite of everything Roark is. He is- on a surface level- the antagonist of the novel. He is praised and worshipped by society and the press for his architecture despite all his works being unoriginal and mimicries of existing pieces. He creates buildings he believes will be well received by the public, instead of structures that he genuinely enjoys. At first glance, it seems as if Keating is merely money-hungry - later, we learn that the desire for prestige is underlying. Keating craves the fame and envious adulation of his peers more than anything. This is a common theme that Rand emphasizes throughout the book. 

 Dominique Francon is our protagonist's partner and finds herself eternally pessimistic due to the mediocrity of the world around her. She craves unattainable perfection. Before I analyze her further, the Fountainhead is controversial for including a section wherein Dominique is raped by Roark, which is entirely unnecessary and glorified as romantic later on in the book. This entire plot didn't help further either character and made no sense to me, but carrying on: She appreciates greatness, such as Roark's buildings, but despairs that such beauty can exist in the same world where other horrors reside. She constantly inflicts pain on herself and surrounds herself with things she despises so that she doesn't have to experience losing things she loves. 

 Ellsworth Toohey is the genuine antagonist of this story. He is someone who pursues power above all else and understands how to manipulate the people around him to wield it. He recognizes Roark's genius but instead of appreciating it, wishes to kill it. He understands how to identify people's weaknesses and exploits them so that they have no choice but to turn to him for help, as is the case with Peter Keating. 

There are a few other characters that I won't go into further. I found the book extremely annoying. All the protagonists seem conceited and hold the view that they are superior to the rest of society. Roark is heralded as an incredible architect which he may well be, but constantly demeaning other architects simply because they preferred more classical styles of design was aggravating. Art, as a rule, is meant to allow for different perspectives. Another issue I had was with how stagnant and boring all of the characters are throughout the book. No character growth is shown, and they are all too 'ideal', with no flaws, the main character most glaringly so. 

Overall, I struggled through the book, even if I did complete it, I would not recommend it.