The Fountainhead

What is the fountainhead? It is one of the novels written by Ayn Rand, an American author lived between 1905 and 1982. She was born in Russia, just before the first revulation, in 1905. She lived in Russia until 1925, studied philosophy and history at Petrograd University. In 1925, she could have a visa to visit her parents live in the US and went to the USA. She was impressed by Nietzsche, Dostoyevski, Schiller and Rostand while studying at university. February, 1926, she arrived in the US after a long and tiring cruise travel. Decided to stay in America to follow her ideals.

All her books are about her ideals and the idea she created/developed as known objectivism. She wrote at some magazines and published 3 long novels to describe and explain her thoughts. The Fountainhead is one of them, others are; Atlas Shrugged and We the Living.

According to Rand, people should not be identified or described as groups or classes, but with their individual rights and their own existance. This idea was new in the era she lived because capitalism had been growing and it was stucked in its theoratical base. She gave it another look and became famous. Of course, living in Russia and observing the revolution in 1917, helped her to have her fame.

About the book, as in all novels of her, we have an ideal human being as a main character: Howard Roark. It is basically about his life and ideals, surrounded by other people who want to make his ideals and works bad. Howard's old friend, from elementary school, Peter is an architecture like Howard. They both work in the same business and design buildings. Howard has been always the better one comparing these two, but in the mean time, Peter is the one who always gets the oppurtunities and gains more money and fame than Howard.

I do not want to continue more, if you want to read this 1943 novel, here you have a main subject. I would like to write moreover about objectivism and Rand's philosophy. It is really essential to me to understand the structure and development of capitalism. Eventhough her novels are not good enough to me, in the way to criticize literature, it is a good way to understand her ideals and thoughts through her novels and long stories.

It is worth to try, you wont regret it.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
myself