The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead 

by Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead is the story of an architect Howard Roark, a perfectionist and modernist, who struggles in a difficult work environment and a conservative society which constantly challenges unconventional thinking and modernistic thought. The story deals with his life of struggle as he manages to survive amidst architectural firms which discourage innovation, critics which thrive on the criticism of the Davids of the world, a strong negative public opinion and, most importantly, a girlfriend who is conflicted about whether to support him or not. The story ends with Roark finally fulfilling his vision of designing an unconventional building, a design which is eventually accepted and, in fact, praised by the society.

At the outset, I would like to praise the way the story is written. Every character is so well developed and the story arch is so well woven and binding, that, by the time you reach half-way reading it, you start visualizing and understanding each situation, each character and each element of the story arch. If you really agree with the theme, you start putting yourself in Roark’s shoes and start feeling the pain and the struggle. Though I have read a couple of books on struggle, but, the portrayal of struggle in this book is the most realistic I have found so far.

Coming to the theme, or themes I might say. Due to the way the story is written, it is true that every person reading it will have different interpretations. I will share my bit.

The struggle to gather support

I learnt that the most difficult thing for an artist is to think out of the box, break the convention and to have mass support. The society, at any point of time in history, is used to the conventional form of art and thinking. This mainly emanates from the fact that human beings, by nature, are sheep-like. This is further worsened by the lack of courage and motivation among artists, at large, to undertake the painful struggle in making people see things in a new light.

If one person agrees with an idea and appreciates it, and if that person is a person of some standing (let’s call him the Head), the others just end up following the Head without applying their own sense of appreciation. Now, if another person (let’s call him the Thinker) challenges that conventional way of thinking, the Head will do everything in his wits to undermine the Thinker. This is because of two reasons – one, out of jealousy and second, if the Thinker actually gathers mass support, the Head will go out of business (in most cases, quite literally so).

And that, is the true struggle that the Thinker has to undertake. It may happen while the Thinker is still alive or it may happen after his time. Lastly, and this is my personal belief, even though an artist may not have set out to seek approval or gather mass support, but, unless the society (preferably at large) sees his work, either while he is alive or afterwards, there is no point of creating art.

There are numerous real-life examples of this struggle and the Fountainhead portrays this struggle well and in a realistic manner.

Internal conflict and faith

I learnt that when an artist sets out in this world, he has his own way of thinking and his own ideas and expressions. He may or may not follow them to the core throughout the course of his struggle. People do adjust, and the extent of such adjustment depends on a number of factors. Perfect rigidity may not be the best approach, especially if you are preaching something unconventional. The conflict becomes internal to every artist and in those times, all he should do, is keep faith. The Fountainhead is truly inspiring in this sense. People find the individualistic portrayal of Roark to be a bit extreme. But without depicting this extremity, I think Rand would not have been able to show a man who had nothing else but faith in himself and his art, at a time when the society out rightly rejected his art. He kept his faith, against all difficulties he faced from people at large, the Head and even his own girlfriend. I find this extreme portrayal of individualism quite alluring and inspiring.

All in all, the Fountainhead is a must read for anyone who has unconventional ideas and who has or plans to set out to portray his ideas in this world. And the lessons of this book will always remain relevant, true and realistic, in every age and era.