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The Fountainhead Quotes

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The Fountainhead: The Primacy of the Individual in the Modern Jungle Ayn Rand’s magnum opus The Fountainhead centers around the narrative of Howard Roark, an aspiring architect who defines success on his own terms. Rand captures the common struggle of trying to find one’s place in society where everything is already manufactured to endorse conformity. The Fountainhead explores concepts of morality and reason through complex character arcs that challenge what it means to be an individual. Rand establishes the significance of the primacy of the individual through emphasizing the virtue of selfishness, creating a dichotomy between the productive and indolent, and recognizing the drive for competition. In The Fountainhead, Rand clearly sets forth …show more content…

Mallory was hired by Roark to sketch the Temple’s structure and he initially tries to kill Ellsworth Toohey, a symbol of the evil in mankind. Toohey manipulates others to belittle their potential stature into one of mere mediocrity, permitting humility to become a vice rather than a virtue. In comparison, Roark and Mallory represent the virtue of selfishness which underscores the primacy of the individual. During this tumultuous time, Roark offers advice to Mallory: “[Y]ou’ve gone beyond the probable and made us see the possible, but possible only through you… I came for a simple, selfish reason . . . to seek the best. I didn’t come for your sake. I came for mine” (Rand 285). Roark stands for the perfection of man and though he acknowledges Mallory’s architectural finesse, he underscores how he embraces ego to further his own success. The value of the human ego is crucial to shattering the herd mentality that possesses society. There is an inherent need to be selfish in order to work for one’s own values and to one’s benefit, untethered by the needs of others. Literary critic Mimi Gladstein observes that “One of [Rand’s] stated purposes in writing [The Fountainhead] was to develop a defense of egoism” (Gladstein). Roark’s reasoning

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In Ayn Rand’s book “Anthem”, we see a world where everyone has to be the same. Individuality doesn't exist, and people must follow strict rules. The main character, Equality 7-2521, shows us what happens when society pushes conformity too far. Rand’s story warns us about the dangers of having too many rules. In this essay, we’ll look at how “Anthem” shows these dangers and why it’s important to let people be themselves.

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988 Words | 4 Pages

Ayn Rand’s method and use of vocabulary explained their findings and the way they experienced their findings stayed inspirational “[Such as] never had we seen rooms so full of light. The sunrays danced upon colors, colors, more colors than we thought possible” (90). Subsequently, these items were so forbidden to Equality and Liberty the way they described their findings was exalting, “We found a room with walls made of shelves, which held rows of manuscripts, from the floor to the ceiling” (95). If Equality did not contemplate himself first, then discovering the wall of the books or the house with Liberty would never have occurred because, they remained in their city performing their jobs and would not have met each other. In addition, they were to gain their own process of philosophies about issues, with more of an open opinion and the many ways they could act upon or us their egos to guide their judgments through

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

Could you imagine living in a world where you were not your own individual? In the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand, everyone is the same and no one can be “better” or more intelligent than each other. In this book, the characters can not even speak the word “I” without getting executed. Think about having rules that restrict individuals from having their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions. In the book Anthem, the readers will discover that these rules and restrictions become a reality.

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Individuality allows every person to be themselves and be different from each other. However, In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Rand describes a society where the people were not allowed to openly be themselves, or else they would be punished for being different. The main character, Equality, notices he is different slowly throughout the novella, but kept continuing to be like everyone else for awhile. These rules exist in this society to strip human individuality in order to achieve total equality.

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1128 Words | 5 Pages

In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, mankind is a philanthropic machine. The brotherhood nobly works together to achieve a common goal. In doing so, each man is asked to disregard his own personal means and goals. For every decision must be a collective thought and every advancement, a joint action. However, one man in this machine malfunctions.

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295 Words | 2 Pages

In order to counteract this sociological phenomenon, the late Ayn Rand’s Anthem should be required reading for all high school students. Although I have several intellectual qualms with the book’s author, its core message is incredibly powerful: even in the midst of oppressive powers, individualism is the most important aspect of the self. The main character discovers in his brief adventure that his ultimate purpose in life can only be created by himself, not by anyone else. He learns that it is more important to be a freethinking individual with a unique personality than to become one of the many impressionable robots of which his society is

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518 Words | 3 Pages

Austin Xu Ms. Thixton English Pre-Ap 10/5/17 Individualism Is a Right Equality 7-2521 lives in a collective society where individuals only exist as part of a group and the rights to be an individual in the city is forbidden. In the novel, Anthem, Any Rand employs significant symbolism and artistic imagery in order to passionately display that individualism is a human right. Ayn Rand uses symbolism to display the importance of individualism to humanity.

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“An individualist is a man who says: I will not run anyone’s life nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself nor sacrifice anyone to myself.” - Ayn Rand.

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2031 Words | 9 Pages

In Ayn Rand’s novella “Anthem” the story which holds no plot but rather philosophical lessons takes place in a primitive authoritarian future world “dark ages of the future” where individuality has been suppressed in favor of collective identity, in the world of Anthem, the characters are taught to not think independently and not be pursue their own thoughts, their own goals, their own values, but rather be held by the power of collectivism “there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone.” In the novella the villain, by contrast, do not hand, who allow themselves to be run by others, and are in a literal sense selfless. The theme of the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand is the power of individualism, selfhood, collectivism verse individualism,

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“Individualism is the idea that the fundamental unit of the human species that thinks, lives, and acts toward goals is the individual. This means that the adult individual can form his own independent judgments, act on his own thoughts, and disagree with others” (Y). In this abstraction design, Rand has become a true creator. Throughout her life Rand has seen communism destroy her family’s life. It only made sense for her to create her own fabrication based on trauma (X).

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His mindset soon becomes to be very selfish even by ignoring Liberty. Rand gives her theme of selfishness that she believes would benefit us all if we would only try

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1284 Words | 6 Pages

We can see their eyes, green and yellow as coals, watching us from the tree branches beyond” (84). When he was living under the protection of the City, he was unaware of how to perform these tasks. However, once he left, he had to employ cognition to determine what he should do and how he should go about doing it. This was important to his survival, as Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism states. The desire for individuals not to sacrifice themselves for others is present in

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1219 Words | 5 Pages

However, he fails to realize that collectivism still exists outside his tunnel of intellectual and individualistic refuge. Thus, the council is horrified by his invention using personal thought and they mock and ridicule him, even threatening to burn him at the stake. One member of the council, International 1-5537, points out the major issue with Equality’s invention, saying “what is not done collectively cannot be good” (Anthem 73). The Council fails to understand the basic idea that Rand proposes in “The Soul of an Individualist” in which she says that “no work is ever done collectively, by a major decision. Every creative job is achieved under the guidance of a single individual thought” (Rand).

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771 Words | 4 Pages

Individualism not only helps a society grow, but also help the people in it realise that they are good at doing. Richard Koch in this article “In Individual Good or Bad,” compared the pros and cons of individualism. He believes that “individualism has been an enormous success in encouraging ordinary people

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The philosopher Ayn Rand believed that an individual’s life is of the utmost importance, as is her well-being. She knew that altruistic ethics require individuals to sacrifice their own wellbeing and lives for the sake of others. With ethical egoism, and will value their own wellbeing above all others. So, she was for ethical egoism. Ayn Rand also had an argument against ethical egoism believing it is a mistake to treat the interest of some individuals as being less important than the interest of others.

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