Review

‘The Fountainhead’s’ literary style is distinguished by its depth of philosophy, aggressiveness, and clarity. Ayn Rand uses simple language to make difficult concepts understandable, frequently emphasizing her points with strong metaphors and vivid imagery. Characters in ‘The Fountainhead’ work reveal a strong sense of authorship through passionate statements and thought-provoking conversations that clarify her philosophical stances.

Style of Prose

Rich imagery and vivid prose in ‘The Fountainhead’ bring the characters and architectural surroundings to life. She gives structures like the Wynand Building and the Stoddard Temple a feeling of grandeur and importance by painting rich portraits of them using her descriptive words. This novel’s use of imagery highlights its thematic significance and draws readers into the work’s world.

Rand also employs symbolism to convey abstract ideas and themes throughout the story. Individualism and collectivism are represented by characters such as Howard Roark and Ellsworth Toohey, who represent opposing worldviews and moral principles. These symbolic allusions give the characters more nuance and reveal the philosophical underlying themes of the book.

Symbolism in The Fountainhead

In ‘The Fountainhead,’ Ayn Rand uses symbolism to communicate abstract ideas and themes. Howard Roark, a well-known emblem for autonomy and artistic integrity, is one example. His architectural creations, such as the Wynand Building and the Enright House, stand as testaments to his uncompromising devotion to his vision and his reluctance to deviate from his ideals. A further metaphor for the novel’s philosophical tensions is the Stoddard Temple, which symbolizes the conflict between conventional and avant-garde architectural forms.

Paper

A recurring symbol in ‘The Fountainhead’ is paper. It represents the unwavering continuity of years connected to a newspaper published by the media, such as Wynand’s Banner. It also represents a thing that is thrown away once it has served its purpose. For instance, Wynand’s company’s unsold newspaper stacks are referred to as “white stacks of paper like marble slabs.” The way Catherine throws away a napkin is similar to how Dominique throws away the cablegram Wynand sent to terminate her. Wading it up, Catherine puts it into her teacup. The gesture seems definitive and contemptuous in both situations, as though it’s ending all connections. Dominique has given up on Wynand, just as Catherine has given up on Keating.

Skyscraper

In ‘The Fountainhead,’ skyscrapers stand for bravery since they represent the pinnacle of human effort. They represent the aspiration of people’s ideas and their steadfast will to see them through to completion. The New York skyline, according to Dominique, is “the will of man made visible” and deserving of adoration. According to Wynand, despite the misconception held by people, that a skyscraper dwarfs the guy standing in front of it, man constructed the skyscraper, making him “greater than the structure” and displaying “the heroic in man.”

Toohey agrees that the New York skyline is evidence of the heroic, but he also believes that these structures highlight how most people lack the skill of their architects and are inferior to them. For this reason, he finds the skyscrapers to be self-serving. One of the first architects to truly understand skyscrapers, Henry Cameron created them with “straight, vertical lines, flaunting their steel and height,” as opposed to mimicking the Greek architecture of his contemporaries. Cameron concluded that “no building must copy any other” while working on skyscrapers—a notion that Roark holds in the highest regard. Thus, uniqueness, skill, and strength—all admirable qualities according to ‘The Fountainhead’—are highlighted by skyscrapers.

Granite

Rand connects Roark’s persona with granite. Granite represents both his exterior and interior characteristics. Similar to the stone, Roark’s features are tough, unique, unwavering, and exquisite. But Roark is more resilient than the rock that represents him. Roark can be seen smashing stones or utilizing them for his ideas in several instances. By the book’s end, Dominique has come to appreciate Roark’s power to mold the granite to his will, even if, when she first sees him at the granite quarry, she wishes the drilling would harm and destroy Roark. The story celebrates man’s victory over nature since it holds that man is the ultimate superior being.

Light

In ‘The Fountainhead,’ light and how it affects people and structures create an atmosphere and a psychological framework. According to the description, the institute’s building is a “lace [cathedral] splendor, a fragile defense against two great enemies: light and air.” After his disappointing meeting with Prescott, Roark sees things in a very different light. This picture conveys the idea of boundless creativity. The narrative states that “he saw a lighted triangle of concrete suspended somewhere hundreds of feet above the ground.” He “thinks of what he’d want to see there, what he would have made to be seen” when he sees that image.

Critical Reception of The Fountainhead

Upon its release, ‘The Fountainhead’ garnered mixed reviews and divided critics. Lorine Pruette of The New York Times commended Rand’s writing, calling it “brilliantly, beautifully, and bitterly” and saying that she had “written a hymn in praise of the individual” that would make readers reevaluate fundamental concepts. Orville Prescott described the book as “disastrous” in a piece for the same newspaper, citing its “crude cast of characters” and “coils and convolutions” in the plot. The New York Journal-American columnist Benjamin DeCasseres called Roark “one of the most inspiring characters in modern American literature.”