The Strength For Individualism: Ayn Rand

Kristina Meyer
Ms. Whitaker
Honors American Lit Comp
20 April 2014
The Strength For Individualism Ayn Rand uses the themes of individualism and collectivism to demonstrate the shaping of society and what gives it its balance. Howard Roark and Lois Cook may both be individuals although in opposite ways. Individualism is derived from the natural tendencies and desires that one is born with. However, society is made of collectivists which makes individualism out of the ordinary. Society is shaped by the ideas of an individual and then supported by the collectivists. Lois Cook relies on society so that she can maintain herself as an individualist. She is a nonconformist writer that uses the help of an architectural critic, Ellsworth
Instead of formulating her own ideas like before, she takes society’s and goes against them. For example, when she hires Peter Keating to be her architect, she recommends that her buildings be “ugly” (241) and not a “commonplace.” (241) Therefore rather than giving her own individualistic ideas, she asks plainly to go against society’s to maintain her image of being unique. She also takes advantage of the grasp she has over other’s thoughts to make bad things, not so bad. When she is judging a newly written play, she is satisfied because the play is “so awful its [a] wonderful” chance for her to twist people’s minds into thinking its a good one. Her attempts at staying an individualist soon become a path of chaos for society. She degrades the rules that help maintain organization such as sentence structure, personal hygiene, and grammar. She even defies the belief in beauty and a comftorable living space. Before she knows it, Lois Cook becomes an example of nihilism. Instead of attacking the bad in society, she attacks the good and commits herself to a life of
Roark does not care about suffering, success, or society’s opinion. The Fountainhead begins with demonstrating Roark’s attitude to the reader when he is expelled for openly ignoring his teacher’s instructions and drafting his own buildings. When he is expelled, he is unaffected because he felt that his teachers had nothing left to teach him anyways. He also informs his dean that he “doesn’t intend to build in order to have clients, [he] intends to have clients in order to build.”(28) Throughout the novel, he consistently proves himself to be focused on his own thoughts and unlike Cook, he is put through many hardships before being accepted by the public. However, none of the struggles ever bring him to second guess his actions or give in under the pressures of society. Rand uses Toohey to be the antagonist of the novel so that the flaws in his collectivist thoughts shine bright. Toohey makes is a goal of his to make sure that Roark never sees a glimpse of success. However, over time society finally sees past what Toohey has to say. They recognize the talent that Roark has and praises him for it. Unlike Lois Cook, this fame does not affect