The Ideal Man Defined in The Fountainhead :: Fountainhead

The Ideal Man Defined in The Fountainhead Ayn Rand has ground her novel, The Fountainhead on the projection of an ideal worldly concern. It is the portrayal of a moral ideal as an end in itself. She has placed man-worship above all and has brought aside the significance of the heroic in man. Man-worshippers are those who see mans highest potential and strive to actualize it. They are dedicated to the exaltation of mans self esteem and the sacredness of his happiness on earth. The Fountainhead has brought out the greatness of man - the capacity, the ability, the integrity and honesty in man - as an ideal to be achieved. It is based on the idea of love story which means that it is concerned not with things as they are alone with things as they might be and ought to be. The Fountainhead is the story of an architect, Howard Roark-, whose genius and integrity were as glowering as granite and of his desperate battle waged against the conventional standards of society. It is a tal e of hatred and denunciation unleashed by the society against a great innovator of a man who has great conviction in himself of a person who believes that mans first right on earth is the right of the ego and that mans first duty is the duty to himself, a man who redefines egoism. An egoist, in the absolute sense, is not the man who sacrifices others to self. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. Roark doesnt function through others. He needs no other men. His primary goal is to achieve perfection. He is a man with uncompromising values and integrity. In order to make her philosophical system clearer, Ayn Rand has simultaneously given an account of wad like Peter Keating and Ellsworth M. Toohey. Peter Keating - a man who cheats and lies but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest but others think he is honest and he derives his self-respect from that. His aim in life is greatness - in other peoples eyes. Other people dictat ed his conviction which he did not hold but he was satisfied that others believed he held them. Others were his prime concern. He didnt want to be great but to be thought great. He borrowed from others to make an impression on others.