Chapter 1

Howard Roark stands naked at the edge of a granite cliff overlooking a lake. He sees himself as part of the harmonious view and thinks about what he will have to do that day. He also sees each thing as the building material it provides, waiting for him. He dives into the lake as usual, ever since he arrived at the Stanton Institute of Technology. This is his last swim, because he has been expelled. As Roark walks through the town of Stanton, he passes placards celebrating the graduation of the class of '22.

On the porch of his boardinghouse, Howard Roark meets his landlady, Mrs. Keating, who tries to commiserate with him over his expulsion. She comments that he will have to give up architecture and become some kind of clerk. She also tells him that the dean wants to see him. Mrs. Keating then rhapsodizes about her son Petey, who is graduating today from Stanton. Insisting that she does not like to brag, she declares that "if that boy isn't the greatest architect of this U.S.A., his mother will want to know the reason why!"

Roark goes upstairs to start packing, but he gets distracted while putting away his architectural drawings. He suddenly has an idea about how to fix one that he has never been happy with, so he sits down to work. A bit later Mrs. Keating comes in and is shocked to discover that he has not left. He washes his face and departs, despite her protestations that he cannot go to see the dean dressed as he is.

Roark walks one last time into the Institute, built to resemble a medieval fortress. He enters the dean's office, which resembles a chapel. The dean tells Roark about the vote to expel him, for no apparent reason. Roark learns that the dean abstained from the vote and that several of his teachers had ardently defended him--but Professor Peterkin, Roark's design professor, had insisted that he would resign if Roark were not expelled.

The dean encourages Roark to explain why he refuses to fulfill his assignments and design buildings in classical, time-tested styles. He suggests that after a year Roark could reapply to the school and finish his education, but Roark defends his decision to design things in his own way--whether he was supposed to design a medieval church or a gothic cathedral. He tells the dean that he has nothing more to learn from the school, so he has no intention of returning.

Roark explains his architectural philosophy: "the purpose, the site, the material determine the shape" of a building. He states simply that the days of classical design are over, and that he intends to have his own clients so that he may build as he sees fit. The dean becomes so angry that he tells Roark that the committee was right to expel him. Roark leaves the office, almost immediately forgetting their conversation, distracted by another image of a drawing with his signature shining in the corner.

Chapter 2

Guy Francon, the Institute's most successful graduate, is giving the graduation oration. He speaks about "the three eternal entities: Truth, Love and Beauty," wishes the graduates "rich, active careers," and cautions them against originality for originality's sake. A list of Guy Francon's honors, titles, and awards substantiates his position as the leading architect of the day, and as he walks to the hall for the graduation ceremony, he remembers that he designed this room twenty years before.

At the ceremony the narrative turns to Peter Keating, a startlingly handsome boy who is graduating first in his class. Peter is immensely pleased with his success, moreso because he is aware that he was almost bested by a boy named Shlinker. Along with his diploma, Peter is awarded a four year scholarship to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. As professors and classmates crowd around him to offer their congratulations, Guy Francon himself shakes Peter's hand and reminds Peter that he has a job in Francon's firm if he wants it. Peter's feelings continue to alternate between a glowing sense of his own accomplishments and vague unease at the possibility that others are more deserving than he. He gets some relief from remembering that Roark has been expelled, although this thought also brings guilty feelings, for Rourk has always been perfectly kind to Peter, even helping him with his drafting exercises--but Peter is quick to shake off such reflections.

At the class banquet, Peter Keating gives a speech where he echoes the ideas expressed earlier by Guy Francon. On his way out, several boys from his class stop Peter and tell him that they will pick him up in a few hours for a real celebratory dinner in Boston. Peter heads home to see his mother, and as he walks he thinks about what she had to sacrifice to help him make his way. Without Peter to think about, Mrs. Keating would never have taken in boarders. As he thinks about his childhood, Peter remembers that he once thought of being an artist, but his mother had suggested architecture instead.

Keating seeks Roark sitting on the front porch and is happy to see him, for he wants Roark's advice. When he sees Peter, Roark congratulates him, and Peter becomes a bit embarrassed when he realizes that his mother has been going on about him. He hesitatingly asks Roark's advice about choosing between the scholarship and Guy Francon's job offer. Roark's immediate response is that Peter should never ask anyone for advice; he needs to decide for himself. Before Peter can press him for an answer, Mrs. Keating sees them on the porch and insists they come inside and have cookies and hot chocolate that she has prepared in honor of Peter.

Once inside, Mrs. Keating asks Peter what they were discussing, and Peter begins pressing Roark to answer his question. Peter offers reasons for both courses of action, hoping to elicit some response from Roark, but he is distracted when his mother offers to leave the room so they can have this important discussion in peace. Though he wishes he could agree that she should leave the room, instead Peter asks her what she thinks he should do.

Mrs. Keating tells Peter that he might as well move to Paris to study, but of course Guy Francon will have to take someone else to fill the job--he will probably take Shlinker. This possibility upsets Peter, who turns once again to Roark for guidance. Reclining on the couch, Roark finally comments that the job with Francon is the lesser of two evils, because at least Peter will be building something, rather than spending four more years drawing imitations of the Parthenon. He casually mentions that Peter sometimes does good work and that four years in Paris would probably ruin him. Peter is very pleased by this compliment and becomes much more relaxed now that Roark has given him this advice.

As Mrs. Keating goes to get their food, Peter asks Howard about his plans. Roark tells him he is moving to New York to work for Henry Cameron. Peter is horrified, insisting that Roark is making a terrible mistake, for Cameron is considered totally washed up. Roark insists that his future lies with Cameron, but when Peter asks what Cameron said to him, Roark comments that he never met him.

Just then Peter is distracted by a car horn, and he rushes upstairs to change, assuring his mother that he will just be going into Boston with some friends and will return later to celebrate his decision to work for Francon. As Peter hurriedly throws on his clothes, he suddenly decides to wire a girl named Katie about his decision to move to New York. That night as he rides into Boston, Peter envisions his future, certain that a great destiny lies before him.

Chapter 3

Peter arrives at Francon & Heyer for his first day of work, haware of how much he has to learn about life in New York. Peter is immensely struck by the rich, beautiful design of the building, everything done in the classical style. Immediately the head draftsman directs him to put on the uniform grey smock of the draftsmen and sets him to work expanding someone else's design. Peter wonders how he ever thought he could become an architect, but he shortly looks around the room and feels reassured by the flawed appearances of the men around him.

Peter takes another look at the design, sees where he went wrong, and begins to work with much more confidence. By lunchtime Peter has begun to feel more friendly towards the other draftsmen, and he learns from a tall blond boy that Francon no longer does any of the designs for the firm. Everything important is handled by a man named Stengel.

Later that afternoon, after Guy Francon arrives in the office, Stengel sends Peter up to show him some plans. As Peter approaches Francon's desk, he is struck by the shiny, reflective quality of the office. Francon chats with him, calling him Kitterage and complaining about his hangover from too much champagne the night before. When Peter tells him that Stengel sent him up, Francon becomes irritated and confides in Peter that Stengel takes too much pride in the fact that he is a good designer. He continues to complain that Stengel does not realize what hard work it is to go to parties and secure commissions for the firm. Peter suggests a slogan that would make an appropriate comment at a party, and Francon is so pleased with it that he openly writes it down.

When Francon finally looks at the plans, Peter Keating realizes he is barely taking them in. Peter tactfully suggests that a change should be made in the design, implying that Stengel needs to be taken down a notch or two. Francon is clearly pleased by his attitude and approves of his suggestions, sending him away with a piece of sartorial advice. As he makes his way back to the drafting room, Peter sees an associate ushering in a client, and for a moment he imagines that the associate is rolling out a red carpet, bowing to her, and fanning her all at the same time.

The narrator next describes the Frink National Bank Building, an architectural monument to classical design down to its marble exterior, which has turned a moldy green in the New York City air, and then turns to the Dana Building, devoid of ornament or column, which few people ever noticed, though the people who worked inside it claimed that it was the most perfectly designed building in the world. This building was the brainchild of Henry Cameron, who had ruled the New York architecture scene in the 1880s. He had been able to pick and choose his commissions, and no one had dared disagree with his designs. This all changed in 1893 with the opening of the Columbian Exposition of Chicago. The Columbian Exposition housed a city of classical replicas from Greece and Rome, and it proved so popular that from that day forth all anyone wanted in an architectural design was as many columns and friezes as could be squeezed onto an exterior.

Thus, Henry Cameron was ruined. As his clients disappeared, he was forced to move his office again and again, looking for cheaper rent. He had chosen this last location because it was the only building that he could afford where he could glimpse the Dana Building from the window.

Henry Cameron's difficulties had been exacerbated by his arrogant, dictatorial manner even toward customers. As his commissions decreased, he began to drink, until Cameron had ruined his reputation completely. Howard Roark enters this office and tells a downtrodden-looking man that he wants to see Cameron about a job. Surprised, the man walks into Cameron's office and repeats the request.

Roark walks in and eventually notices a picture of a skyscraper on the wall. After Roark repeats his request for a job, Cameron rants at him, accusing Roark of trying to make a fool of him. Finally Roark takes some of his drawings out and puts them on Cameron's desk. Cameron continues to rant, but now he asks Roark more pointed questions about his goals. Finally it seems that he will send Roark away until, out of the blue, he tells Roark to show up at 9:00 the next day, working at fifteen dollars a week.

Chapter 4

In his office, Francon shows Keating an extremely favorable review of a recent building designed by the firm. The review was written by Ellsworth Toohey for a magazine called New Frontiers, which had made an uncontested claim to represent the "intellectual vanguard" of the country. Toohey had made a name for himself as a generally vicious reviewer. As Peter reads the review, it becomes apparent that the building Toohey praises is the one that Peter critiqued on his first day of work, and the design element Toohey favors most is the very one suggested by Peter. As Peter watches Francon smile over the article, he thinks about the information he has gathered about the firm and Francon. He is particularly interested in the fact that Francon married his wife for her money and that she subsequently died, leaving her fortune to her nineteen-year-old daughter. Peter has also learned that Francon's partner seems to do little for the firm besides provide old money connections.

Peter has also made a great deal of progress in establishing himself with the rest of the firm. The other draftsmen love him, and he is especially good friends with Tim Davis, the tall, blond boy he noticed on his first day. Davis is extremely upset because he must stay late, so Peter offers to secretly take his place.

When Peter leaves that night, he is extremely happy. He realizes that he wishes he had someone to celebrate his success with, and then he remembers Catherine Halsey, the girl he wired the night of his graduation but has not thought about since then. On a whim, Peter hops on a bus to Greenwich Village to see her.

Peter had seen a lot of Catherine Halsey when he was in school, but his relationship with her had never progressed beyond occasional dates and kisses. She was neither beautiful or vivacious, but he has been drawn to her--and she never minds when he neglects her for weeks. Catherine moved to New York after her mother died to live with her uncle. Peter does not think twice about dropping by unannounced--he knows she will not mind.

When Keating arrives she is as expected, and he feels happier than he has in a long time. They talk about old times, and then Peter turns the conversation to his new life in the city. She admits that she is "crazy about" him. Peter begins to tall her about how wonderful it is to be at Francon & Heyer, but somehow he winds up telling her that Francon does not design anything anymore--and that Peter is going to make Tim Davis obsolete and take his job. He tries to stop himself from saying these things, but somehow he cannot.

Peter asks Catherine Halsey about her life in New York, and she tells him that her uncle has been immensely kind to her since she came to live with him. Her uncle is terribly brilliant but poor, because he does not care about money. She also mentions that he thinks she should not go to college, which greatly upsets Peter. Peter eventually realizes that her uncle is Ellsworth Toohey. He tells Catherine that she cannot introduce him to her uncle, because he desparately wants to meet him and he would never use Catherine like that. She is a little confused by his reaction, but he tells her that he will need to use many people and wants to make sure he will never use her among them. Catherine makes dinner for Peter, and when he leaves he tells her he will come again the next day.

One evening, Henry Cameron tells Roark to come see him. When Roark goes into Cameron's office, the other draftsmen decide that Cameron must be firing Roark, whom none of them likes very much. In fact, Cameron tells Roark that he is fired, being too good to throw his life away in this manner. Roark listens to him impassively and firmly disagrees. Cameron fervently tries to persuade Roark to give up his ideal of architecture, to compromise--to go to work for someone successful.

When nothing seems to be working, Cameron describes the many humiliations he has had to endure in exquisite detail. When Cameron is finished he says, "That's your future, Howard Roark. Now, do you want it?" and Roark replies, simply, "Yes." Cameron is overwhelmed, even confused. After a time he tells Cameron to go home because he has been working too hard. He says that tomorrow he will show Roark how to improve the plans for the house.

Chapter 5

A year has gone by since Peter Keating's graduation from the Institute, and he is now seen as the "crown prince without portfolio" of Francon & Heyer. Even Heyer, who barely recognizes many of the employees, has taken a liking to Peter since they spent a long evening discussing old porcelain. Peter had learned of Heyer's hobby and spent an evening at the library reading up on it before he knew he would be seeing him. Peter had also begun to do most of Tim Davis's work--so much so, in fact, that draftsmen often brought him projects that had been assigned to Tim. Tim had begun showing up late for work. Soon Tim loses his job, and Peter is promoted. Peter commiserates with Tim and even finds him another job. He takes great pleasure in the fact that he had "influenced the course of a human being, had thrown him off one path and pushed him into another."

Peter had not gone to see Catherine the day after his first New York visit. He sees her occasionally, but he stops speaking to her about his career. He tries to speak to Roark, but his efforts fail. He visits him twice, and both times he goes away confident that he is much more successful than Roark, but something about Roark's confidence is still very troubling.

On the morning after a night of heavy drinking Peter wakes up at Francon's apartment. They were at a party together the previous night, again. Peter tells Francon about a meeting he has arranged with a prospective client, but his hangover prevents him from remembering why she is so important. Francon explains that she belongs to an important family, and as he goes into greater detail, Peter thinks about how he will deal with Stengel. Peter knows that Stengel has been planning to leave Francon and set up on his own.

Two days later, Peter escorts Mrs. Dunlap, the possible client, through an art exhibit. When they talk about her new home, Peter frankly tells her that Stengel does all the real designing at the firm and that Stengel wants to start his own shop but needs financial backers. Peter suggests she have lunch with Stengel, and she agrees. When Peter tells Stengel, he looks at him derisively but agrees to the lunch. Stengel leaves the firm based on that commission, and Francon is furious, but he does not learn of Peter's role in Stengel's betrayal. He immediately appoints Peter to be Keating chief designer.

The first time Keating must actually design something, he stares at the blank paper in horror. He hears voices in his head--Guy Francon, Ellsworth Toohey--and forces himself to begin drawing. After days of labor, totally uncertain of his success or failure, he telephones Henry Cameron and asks to speak to Roark. He takes the drawings to Roark's rooms and asks for help. Roark transforms the plans in a few moments, but he refuses to help with the facade, saying only that Peter should strip it of ornamentation as much as possible. Peter feels grateful as they shake hands but "hurt and angry" as he departs. When he shows the redone drawings to Francon, he is extremely pleased, commenting, "it's just what I had in mind."

Some time later, in his office, Cameron sits before his desk, at which a letter is informing him that his plans for the Security Trust Company have not been accepted. For three months Cameron has been counting on this commission, telling the landlord he could not pay the rent, letting go of a draftsman, and keeping Roark and himself in the office until dawn. During these last two years, Roark has learned to accept Cameron's sporadic disappearances. Eventually he would show up at the office, having finally become so drunk that he was not ashamed. Roark had also become used to telling his landlady that he could not pay the rent. One night Peter Keating had come to his rooms and insisted on giving him fifty dollars. Roark had taken it gratefully, but he tried to give it back when Keating attempted to convince him to leave Cameron and come to work at Francon's company.

Roark remembers that night when Cameron walked into the drafting room holding the letter. He also is surprised to see a copy of the New York Banner, a trashy but popular newspaper, on Cameron's desk. Cameron explains that he sees a kind of symbolism in this newspaper. If this is what people like to read, then the rejection of their kind of architecture can come as no surprise. He tells Roark that he is giving up, sorry only that he could not last long enough to see Roark set up on his own. Roark assures Cameron that he will live to see him succeed, and Cameron tells Roark that he believes Roark will face all of their enemies and figure out "what the answer is to be."

Analysis

Architecture is the foundational metaphor of the novel. Each time a person or place is brought into the reader's focus, the narrator strips it down to its structure--its architecture--though other metaphors might be used to establish this structure. For example, when the narrator introduces important characters, the text provides a vivid, stripped-down description of each one's face, and this description provides immediate insight into the substance of the character. For example, Roark's face is

like a law of nature . . . It had high cheekbones over gaunt, hollow cheeks; gray eyes, cold and steady; a contemptuous mouth, shut tight, the mouth of an executioner or a saint.

his eyes were dark, alert, intelligent. His mouth, a small upturned crescent faultlessly traced, was gentle and generous, and warm with the faint promise of a smile . . . He held his head in the manner of one who takes his beauty for granted, but knows that others do not.

Even so, Roark is clearly supposed to be unlikable as a protagonist. Rand does not try to evoke much sympathy for him, for Roark too often works against his own interests. Rather, Rand portrays Roark as a true hero whom most people will misunderstand, since he is superior to ordinary human beings. In the first chapter of The Fountainhead, Roark encounters the first of numerous obstacles, being expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology. He has been expelled not because of any poor conduct or criminal act, but simply because he has remained true to his principles. When Roark goes to see the dean, he refuses to be cowed by the man's arrogant manner or bullying arguments. Instead, Roark in his own arrogant way (but without rudeness) stands up to the dean.

Similarly, when Peter Keating asks Roark for advice, Roark honestly tells Peter that he should never ask another man for advice. With this declaration he reveals his independence from other people. His theory of architecture further reveals his independence from social convention: "I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one." If other, weaker architects follow in his footsteps, their doing so apparently would prove their inability to think and act for themselves.

Roark's status as a hero is confirmed, however, by his relationship to Henry Cameron. Roark recognizes Cameron's worth despite Cameron's low social status and lack of worldly success. He goes to work for Cameron rather than for a more successful firm not because Roark is a martyr to virtue, but because Roark receives true joy from working in this manner and with this man. Roark might even be excused from accusations of hubris in light of his dedication to Cameron. When Cameron confesses the extent of his suffering and despair, Roark both acknowledges Cameron's pain and believably argues that he is willing to risk it. Roark says: "I shall consider it an honor I shall not have deserved."

Cameron ultimately proclaims not only that Roark represents a heroic ideal but also that Roark will actually try to reclaim their society from the degradation of the current form of architecture. He sets Roark up in opposition not just to the kind of buildings constructed by Guy Francon, but also to a way of life defined in Gail Wynand's Banner--in which, as the dean says, "each man collaborates with all the others and subordinates himself to the standards of the majority." Roark's standards are his own and are to be accepted or denied by the free assent of others.

Rand also constantly provides descriptions of buildings, clearly defining the moral content of each kind of architecture through Howard Roark's eyes. Roark tells the dean:

Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea.

[The door] was a miniature Doric portico, every inch of it scaled down to the exact proportions decreed by the artists who had worn flowing Grecian tunics: Between the marble perfection of the columns a revolving door sparkled with nickel-plate, reflecting the streaks of automobiles flying past. Keating walked . . . through the lustrous lobby, to an elevator of gilt and red lacquer that brought him . . . to a mahogany door.

This first section of the novel also introduces the theme of free will. The ideal of freedom from coercion is a central principle of the novel. It takes form as the ability to make independent choices. Roark never asks people for advice, not because there is no one he respects, but because he believes that each person is best fitted for making decisions for himself. If each person's experience and goals are different, there is a natural limit to the advice that anyone can offer. Roark looks down on Peter Keating in that Peter cannot make a decision for himself. Moreover, the negatively portrayed characters in the novel are all easily manipulated by each other. Mrs. Keating manipulates Peter into working for Francon by telling him that Shlinker will be chosen to replace him. Peter manipulates Guy Francon into altering the plans of a building by implying that Stengel needs to be taken down a notch. Peter also manipulates Heyer by pretending to share a passion for porcelain.

This contrast between those who are free leaders and those who are weak followers becomes figured in the relationship between creator and client. The dean tells Roark that he will need to design buildings to please his clients. This idea relegates architecture to an inferior position as something instrumental for others rather than something instrumental for oneself or (what would be even better) something beautiful for oneself. Great painters are not supposed to paint to please their clients, Roark would insist. Roark corrects the dean, explaining that if he is to have clients, he will engage them so as to build as he sees fit--he and his clients will freely agree to a certain design. The dean considers this an abomination, indicating the different views of architecture and the profession of architect. The dean's view is the more popular one; on his first day in Guy Francon's office, Peter sees a client being shown into an office, and he imagines that the associate is "bowing to the ground . . . waving a fan over her head." In Roark's eyes, this improper relationship between artist and audience enacts the corruption of Francon's outlook.

The idea of an overall social and moral corruption around Roark begins to escalate even in the first few chapters. Peter Keating and Guy Francon engage in bouts of excessive drinking, suggesting an obsession with decadence and a lack of respect for themselves or others--note that there is a moral center even in individualism. Like Francon, Peter Keating is not truly an architect; he succeeds in the firm because of his ability to manipulate people and to feed egos, as well as his sharp sense of whom to align himself with. It becomes clearer that Peter does not take pleasure in destroying other people's lives but in controlling them. He tells Catherine about taking over Tim Davis's work at the office and expresses jubilation over the fact that Tim will soon be made irrelevant. He is a social villain in the novel, because if the best thing is to be free, then the worst thing to do to another is to try to take away his freedom. Fulfilling one's potential is limited, from a social perspective, from inhibiting others' ability to fulfill their own potential. But it remains unclear whether a fully free individualist could choose not to be bound by that social ethic. Anyway, Keating demonstrates that there is some good in him--and that he might be able to save himself--when he refuses to use Catherine for the sake of an introduction to her uncle.

Chapter 6

In January 1925 Ellsworth Toohey publishes Sermons in Stone, a history of architecture for the common man. Toohey argues that "architecture was truly the greatest of the arts, because it was anonymous." Thus, no one should know the names of architects, because no one person creates anything important or lasting. The best architects represent the vision of the masses, and the people are the ultimate determiners of taste. Francon is praised for his dedication to classicism, and Henry Cameron is described as deserving oblivion. His book is a stupendous hit.

Cameron retires three years after Roark came to work for him. Cameron had begun to drink openly, and one day he collapsed. At home in bed, Cameron directs Roark to close the office, burn all the papers, and deliver the picture on the wall to him. He also tries to write Roark a recommendation letter for a job, but Roark refuses it.

Peter Keating meanwhile was at Francon's firm for three years, and he was the picture of a successful man. He dressed well, lived in a fashionable apartment, and even appeared on the society page. He was no longer afraid of designing. He had learned that as long as a building looked impressive, his clients were satisfied. Mrs. Keating came to live with him in New York and tended to criticize him. At her prompting, Peter unsuccessfully tried to arrange an introduction to Francon's daughter. Peter was relieved, because he thought it likely that Francon's daughter was as ugly as he was.

Peter decides to go see Catherine. At her home, he finds her on the floor in front of a typewriter, with papers all around her, working on her uncle's fan mail and correspondence. She sits on his lap, and they speak about his career, but soon Catherine is going on about her uncle again and about all of the good that he does. Peter still wants to meet him, but Catherine thinks the time is not yet right.

They go for a walk and then sit on a bench. Catherine says she loves him, and they agree that they are engaged but will not tell anyone yet. She tells him that her uncle probably will disapprove, not believing in marriage.

Chapter 7

As soon as Peter reads of Cameron's retirement, he goes to Francon to get approval to hire Roark. Francon seems surprised that Peter wants Roark so badly, so Peter quickly moderates his enthusiasm, claiming that he wants to hire Roark primarily because of their long friendship. That night, Peter visits Roark in his room and tries to make small talk, but Roark immediately asks him, "how much?" Peter drops the facade and responds that the pay would be sixty-five dollars a week. Roark agrees almost immediately on the condition that he will do no designing but simply will draft structural plans. Peter happily concurs.

Before leaving, Peter tries to get Roark to admit that this change will help his career, but Roark refuses to allow him to insult Cameron, barely restraining his fury. Conciliatory, Peter invites Roark to go for a drink, but Roark refuses. Angry now, Peter asks Roark why he has to be so inhuman all the time--why he cannot just be a regular person. Finally Roark tells him to be satisfied with his agreement to work for Francon and to go home.

In the drafting room, Roark sometimes can hardly stand doing his job. It is painful to look at the plans he constructs, knowing how much better they could be. He has no friends, but at least some of the draftsmen respect him. Every so often Peter asks to see him, and every time Roark goes, but he knows what will happen. On these nights Peter shows him a design and tentatively asks for his thoughts. Roark can never resist trying to make the building better. Sometimes he works all night and cannot stop himself. Sometimes Peter's plans would be plainer and cleaner than usual, and Roark would tell Peter that he was improving, which would give Peter a deep, quiet joy. But later Peter would bark commands at him in the drafting room. Roark always did as Peter asked, but Peter somehow wanted him to explode and put a stop to it. Roark never did.

Roark was happiest when he was sent to inspect building sites. One day, walking through the structure of beams that would become an apartment hotel, Roark sees an extremely ugly man bending conduits around the beams. He tells him that he is wasting his time; just run the conduits straight through holes in the beams. The man jeers at him, telling him it cannot be done, but Roark takes the blowtorch from him and does it himself. The man is extremely impressed, and Roark tells him calmly that he has worked as "an electrician, and a plumber, and a rivet catcher, and many other things." He tells the man to do it that way from now on, and the man agrees. From then on, the man always says hello to Roark, and one day he asks him to go for a beer after work. The man's name is Mike, and he lives by working on various building sites. He is exceptionally good (despite Roark's easy solution to his problem), and he likes and respects other people who are exceptionally good at theirs. Over their first beer, he tells Roark that the only architect he ever really respected was the obscure Henry Cameron. With respect for Cameron in common, they become friends.

Chapter 8

In May, Peter went to Washington to supervise the construction of a project. One day, Roark is working in the drafting room when Francon asks Roark to come into the office. Francon tells him that they have a commission for a building and that the owner wants the building to look like the Dana Building designed by Henry Cameron. He wants to give Roark a chance to submit a drawing, but he cautions him that it also needs to have some classical elements. Roark begs Francon to let him submit a drawing of the kind of building Cameron would have designed. Francon is furious, and when Roark refuses to take Francon's offer, Francon fires him. That night Roark meets Mike at a speak-easy and tells him what happened. He says, simply, that he will find another employer and continue on his own way.

When Peter returns from Washington, Francon describes how Gail Wynand, the newspaper magnate, stole a girl from him. He also casually mentions firing Roark. Peter hears the story and understands, saying, "I can just see it."

Roark does nothing for several days but finally makes a list of the architects he could stand to work for. As he goes to look for a job, office after office turns him away, sometimes sympathetically, sometimes disdainfully. Once in a while he goes to visit Cameron, and Cameron offers to recommend him in a letter, but Roark keeps refusing.

In November he reads an article by Gordon L. Prescott arguing that young architects needed to be supported in order to get anywhere. Hopeful for the first time, he gathers his sketches and goes to Prescott's office. Prescott's secretary has him come back the next week, then keeps him waiting for over two hours.

When Prescott does see him, he flips through his drawings, lecturing him about the nature of good design. Finally, he tells him his work is "very interesting. But not practical. Not mature. Unfocused and undisciplined. Adolescent. Originality for originality's sake. Not at all in the spirit of the present day." He shows Roark a drawing by a young architect he recently hired for twenty-five dollars a week, calling him "a potential genius." Then he dismisses him.

Roark walks home. He considers that everyone in the city believes he will never build again. He shrugs and continues to walk, his shadow looming behind him.

Chapter 9

At another interview in John Erik Snyte's office, Roark watches as Snyte looks through his designs. Snyte hires him on the spot and asks him to start work that night. Almost immediately, Roark is at a drafting table with a pencil in his hand and his tools around him. He begins to work. Snyte was a successful architect who considered Guy Francon "an impractical idealist." His design method involved hiring specialists, each of whom designed in a different style. Every time he got a commission he would have a contest: each associate would submit a drawing, he would pick the best, and he would modify it using the best elements of the other drawings. Roark would be his modernistic designer. Roark was not happy, but he was content.

Suddenly all building in New York is halted by a strike in the building-trades union. Francon is especially furious, because the strike started at one of his projects, which was mentioned in the papers. Keating is also disturbed, and he calls Katie. But he does not want to hear any more about her uncle or that Ellsworth Toohey will speak at a prominent event supporting the strikers.

After dinner Peter goes to Catherine's door. He realizes angrily that she must be at the meeting where her uncle is speaking. He walks to the meeting hall and sees an exhausted Catherine handing out pamphlets at the entrance. When she sees him, she smiles happily, but Peter is furious. She insists that she had to go, while Peter tries to get her to stop talking about her uncle, yet she insists on staying to hear him.

Austen Heller begins to speak, and Peter listens to him, because he is famous. Heller comes from an old British family, was educated at Oxford, and is the lead columnist for a widely respected independent newspaper that is the strongest opposition to the Wynand publications. Heller is opposed to "all forms of compulsion, private or public, in heaven or on earth," and that is what he is speaking about. In his speech, Heller alludes to Wynand himself, and Catherine becomes afraid, for she knows that Wynand will take out his anger on her uncle. Peter's head has begun to ache, and before he realizes what is happening, the room falls silent and the monitor announces Ellsworth Toohey to head-splitting applause.

As Toohey begins to speak, Peter realizes that his voice is like music, so beautiful that Peter thinks that he does not need to understand the words. He feels mesmerized as Toohey speaks of the need to organize. Slowly, Peter begins to feel afraid. They leave and decide to get something to drink. Catherine comments that this is stupid--she will miss her uncle's speech--but she wants to be with Peter more than anything. Days later, Peter hears that Wynand gave Toohey a raise he tried to refuse.

The strike is settled, and construction resumes. Peter Keating is worked off his feet as orders pour in. When they complete the Ainsworth residence, the Ainsworths throw a reception to which Francon and Keating are invited. Peter is especially pleased that Heyer is left off the guest list, and Mrs. Ainsworth comments that she thought Peter Keating was a partner in the firm.

The next day Peter is confused by Francon's nervous irritation, but he quickly forgets it in his own happiness. As he walks towards the firm's library, he sees a young woman at the reception desk. Looking at her, Peter thinks that "he understood for the first time what it was that artists spoke about when they spoke of beauty." Peter learns that she is Dominique Francon, his boss's daughter. The clerk asks him if he's read this morning's Banner and points him towards an article written by Dominique: her column, "Your House," which had been "confined to home decoration, but . . . ventured occasionally into architectural criticism." Today's column was a heavily ironic, and ultimately vitriolic, description of the Ainsworth residence designed by Peter Keating. At first Peter is both angry and amused, but almost immediately he forgets the article and can think of nothing but the girl. He grabs three drawings as an excuse, and he walks towards Francon's office. Outside the office he hears Francon raging and his daughter merely laughing, "a sound so gay and so cold" that he becomes a little afraid of her. He walks back down the stairs, certain that they will soon meet again, though at the same time aware that it would probably be best if they never met again.

Chapter 10

Ralston Holcombe walks down a New York street. He is a large, formidable figure. He is the president of the Architects' Guild of America, and unlike so many of his colleagues, he does not believe that architecture should be an homage to the past. He insists that architects should always build "in the spirit of their own time." What distinguishes him from men like Cameron and Roark is that Halcombe believes that the style that best suits his time is the Renaissance. He has no truck with modern architecture, for "men who wanted to break with all the past were lazy ignoramuses, and . . . one could not put originality above Beauty."

Halcombe is also very socially important, and he and his wife host parties that everyone in the architecture world attends religiously. One afternoon Keating attends one of these parties, a little bored but aware that it is a social necessity. Keating goes through the necessary motions of speaking to the host and hostess, and suddenly he spots Dominique across the room. Francon cannot avoid introducing Peter to her. She immediately confronts Peter about the fact that he asked to be introduced to her. She teases him about the position he now is in, wanting to be nice to her without being an obvious hypocrite. Peter tries to flatter her, insisting that he wanted to meet her for her own sake, accidentally bringing up her newspaper column. She apologizes for the Ainsworth column, calling him a "victim of one of [her] rare moments of honesty."

Peter and Dominique continue their banter, neither giving much ground. She calls Wynand "an exquisite bastard" but admits she has never met him, while she admires Toohey as the most "complete" man she has ever met. Peter begins to understand that Dominique almost never means what she says. She tells him directly that she hates people telling her what they think she wants to hear, even if it is what she wants to hear. As their conversation becomes more successful, they are interrupted by Gordon Prescott, who tries to flirt with Dominique. She uses Peter to get rid of him, which makes Peter extremely happy, but almost immediately she walks away from him to say hello to Eugene Pettingill, the "most unattractive septuagenarian present."

Peter sees Dominique once more at the door as she leaves. She proactively rebuffs his offer of a ride. Francon is extremely surprised by how much Peter likes his daughter, and he wonders aloud whether Peter might actually succeed with her. She was an utter terror growing up--and still is. He essentially tells Peter that Peter has her father's blessing.

Snyte explains to his associates that Austen Heller himself has given them a commission, so they need to do their very best--but all he knows is that Heller said "he wanted a building he could love." Later that day they all go to see the site, and they see "a cliff rising in broken ledges from the ground to the end in a straight, brutal, naked drop over the sea, a vertical shaft of rock forming a cross with the long, pale horizontal of the sea."

While the four other associates immediately go to work, Roark returns to the site many times. When he is finally finished with his design, it seems that

The house on the sketches had been designed not by Roark, but by the cliff on which it stood. It was as if the cliff had grown and completed itself and proclaimed the purpose for which it had been waiting.

Snyte picks Roark's design, but he alters the material from granite to red brick, changes the windows, and makes numerous other modifications that are torture for Roark to see.

When Heller arrives, Snyte takes him into the drafting room to see the finished watercolors of the design. Heller looks at it for a while but says, "It's so near somehow . . . but it's not right." Roark suddenly grabs the sketch and begins to jab at it with a pencil as Snyte gasps in horror. Snyte tries to wrench the sketch away, but Heller stops him. When Roark steps back, he has transformed the sketch into his original design. Snyte screams at him that he is fired, and Heller responds by saying that "We're both fired." Heller takes Roark out to lunch and then offers Roark the commission. He makes out a check for five hundred dollars to "Howard Roark, Architect."

Analysis

In this section it is important to keep one's sight on the development of Peter Keating and Howard Roark despite various digressions. Peter Keating continues to be corrupted by his environment and his choices. He has acquired all the trappings of success, yet these trappings take him farther and farther away from a unified identity. The narrator informs us that Peter "looked like the picture of a successful young man in advertisements for high-priced razors or medium-priced cars." In other words, Peter Keating's attempts to distinguish himself leave him looking more and more like everyone else. Keating's actions reveal evidence of further decay, for while Keating finally tells Catherine he wants to marry her, he also recognizes the practicality of a marriage with Guy Francon's daughter. He is relieved to put off the possibility of such an alliance, but he in no way determines that it is an impossibility.

One of the most important events of this section is the introduction of Ellsworth Toohey as a hugely influential character. Toohey's alliances were made clear by his praise of Francon's and Keating's building. He places himself even more firmly against Howard Roark when he writes that Henry Cameron has been "relegated . . . to a well-deserved oblivion." In Sermons in Stone, Toohey also seems to support an idea of design that would tend toward the mediocre rather than the original, similar to the ideas espoused by the dean at the Stanton Institute. Toohey is Roark's enemy, because his popularity and his clear dislike for modernism may well make it impossible for Roark to suceed as an architect. Yet, Toohey's history and motives remain a complete mystery at this point in the novel.

Another complex and difficult character introduced in this section is Guy Francon's daughter, Dominique. In some ways she seems like a victim of society, being individually intelligent and clear-sighted. In a "rare moment of honesty" she tears apart Peter Keating's design in an amusing and eminently sensible manner. She seems to be able to recognize integrity without possessing any.

Roark's relationship with Keating continues along the path set at the Stanton Institute of Technology. Keating both fears and loves Roark. Keating reveals his obsession for Roark when he insists on giving him a job at Francon & Heyes. Of course, as soon as he realizes how he has exposed himself, he tells Francon that "It's not that I really need him. But he's an old friend of mine, and out of a job, and I thought it would be a nice thing to do for him." Keating is happiest when given evidence that he is much more successful than Roark, but he constantly exposes himself to the realization that Roark is the better designer by seeking Roark's help with his designs. Keating recognizes that he bullies Roark at the office in order to make up for asking Roark's help at the end of the day. Still, this understanding suggets that Keating's interest in Roark goes far beyond mere competitive feelings.

Keating's obsession with Roark stems from the same part of him that tries to make Roark become angry with him. That is, he wants to understand how Roark can have no feelings for him personally and can despise him as a designer, yet can still come to work for him and never become angry or upset. He wants to know why Roark can be faced with the proof of another man's greater success day after day and never be tempted to sell out.

After all of Howard Roark's apparent suffering and submission, the reader may begin to think she likes Peter Keating more. How is it possible to accept a hero who does not seem human? Rand establishes Roark's humanity, however, and justifies his continued idealism by introducing a few allies. When Roark meets Mike, they communicate not through false ideas or fake social exchanges but through actions. When Roark takes up the blowtorch and puts a hole through the steel girder, he shows Mike his true identity. When Roark sees Mike's real pleasure at seeing a job well done, he recognizes someone basically similar to himself. Their common admiration for Cameron cements the bond.

Chapter 11

With the money from his first commission, Howard Roark opens his own office. He is soon visited by Peter Keating, who claims that Roark will succeed, but Roark responds with uncertainty. Keating agrees with Roark that Roark is taking a great risk, while Roark cannot see how he could proceed in any other way.

Cameron had looked at Roark's plans and asked that Roark bring him photographs when he opened his office. Roark returned with them three days later, and Cameron stared for a long time at the picture of the nameplate over the door: "Howard Roark, Architect." He told Roark it was like those "mottoes men carved over the entrance of a castle and died for." This nameplate suggests that Roark is now on his "way into hell."

It was hard to find a contractor who would do so much work for so small a project. Roark now visits the site often; it is hard for him to stay away, and he spends so much time simply laying his hands on the building that the workers comment that he is in love with it. One day he sees Mike at the building site. Heller often visits the site as well, and as he watches Roark and the building he can barely tell them apart. Heller built his career by resisting compulsion, and he sees in Roark "a man so impervious to compulsion he became a kind of compulsion himself." Heller realizes that Roark might be the best friend he would ever have, since Roark does not actually need him. (When Roark complimented one of his articles, Heller felt that praise keenly, because there was no possibility of self-interest or deceit.)

One day Heller asks Roark why he likes the building so much. Roark asserts that this building has integrity, just like a person might. Every part of it is there for a purpose. Nothing is decorative or fake; the house is a whole. Heller agrees and comments that it seems as if Roark had thought a lot about Heller's comfort, since so many details of the house are perfect in ways that Heller only now notices. Roark replies, however, that he "thought of the house"--"perhaps that's why [he] knew how to be considerate of [Heller]."

The house is finished in November 1926 without fanfare but with some derision at Guild meetings. Guy Francon predicts that Heller will flee from the house within the year. Keating nominally defends Roark's talent, saying Roark just went too far. Others comment that Roark has no future in architecture.

Chapter 12

Alvah Scarret, the editor-in-chief of the Wynand papers, decides that they should sponsor a "campaign against living conditions in the slums." Such campaigns were in the papers' own interest. Scarret puts Dominique Francon in charge of the campaign. She lives onsite in an East Side tenement for two weeks and then writes a brilliant series of articles. She also describes this experience at a dinner party and a meeting of social workers, where she talks about healthy men who do not work and families with enough money to pay their rent but who waste money on luxuries.

Scarret tells her he will start a department regarding women's welfare. He wants to put her in charge of it, but she refuses. Scarret insists that no one else could do the job, but she surprises him with the text of the speech she has just given (casting blame on the slum residents). He immediately calls the paper to cut the article about her speech to the social workers. She adds that she would never want a job that she loved, because then she would have to depend on someone to be able to keep it. The whole world is a net, she says, and everyone is pressed together in a web of dependence, but she wants no part of it. She wants perfection or nothing, and since she cannot reach perfection, she chooses nothing. Similarly, she once bought a statue from a museum because she loved it, brought it home, and threw it down an elevator shaft so that no one else could ever see it. Alvah is horrified at her counterproductive individualism.

Guy Francon remembers his daughter's youth--one day when she triumphantly jumped a hedge. He cautiously thinks about Keating and wonders, hopefully, whether Keating might be exactly who Dominique needs. Francon arranges for the two to meet again at lunch. The arrangements work out, but Peter can tell that his existence is of absolutely no consequence to Dominique, and he finds himself despising her. Still, after lunch she invites him to take her to the theater that night, and she seems to genuinely like him when he replies that he will take her in spite of the fact that he knows she does not want to go.

Back at the office, Peter and Guy discuss Dominique. Peter thinks he is making progress. Guy is positive she remains a virgin, which seems abnormal to him for a girl of twenty-four. Weeks later, at home, Peter's mother asks him about Dominique--they have seen quite a lot of one another. Somehow he feels more rejected by her acceptance of his invitations then by her refusals. Catherine knocks; Peter has not seen her for over a month. She tells Mrs. Keating that they are engaged and tells Peter she wants to get married as soon as possible, even tomorrow. Smiling, Peter tells her that of course they can get married tomorrow. Catherine now says that earlier that night she felt a horrible foreboding that they would never get married and that she would never escape from her uncle. She got up and fled straight to Peter. Peter tells her he will come and get her in the morning and they will get a marriage license, which makes her very happy.

As soon as she leaves, Peter becomes defensive, prepared for his mother's criticism. Mrs. Keating outlines how he will ruin his career by marrying Catherine. By the time she is finished, Peter is terrified that she is right--if he marries Catherine he will wind up a nobody. Still, he has enough strength to insist that he loves her. Mrs. Keating relents a little and suggests that he simply wait a few months until Heyer retires and Francon makes him a partner. Peter goes to bed uncertain of what to do.

The next morning at Catherine's door he confesses that it might be a good idea to wait for a few weeks. He tells Catherine that Francon's partner is going to retire at any moment and that he is certain that Francon will make him a partner, while Francon has a strange idea that Peter Keating might marry his daughter, so if he married Catherine instead, Francon might react strangely. Catherine immediately agrees that they should wait and even confesses that she was thinking the same thing. They part, and both have an uneasy feeling that they should have gone through with it, but they shake it off and continue with their days.

Chapter 13

One day when the Heller House is almost finished, a young man approaches Roark and offers him another commission for a gas station. In December, both projects are finished, and Roark spends days alone at the office waiting for someone to come. Heller tries to encourage him to seek commissions, but Roark insists that he simply is incapable of handling people. He explains that he's "waiting . . . for [his] kind of people." He knows that thousands of people drive by the odd Heller House, and he just needs one of them to start another project. They agree that Roark seems not to need other people, but Roark does not understand why Heller thinks it strange. Heller adds that Roark is the "coldest man" he knows, "but also the most life-giving."

Mrs. Wilmot comes one day to ask Roark to build her a country house, because she adores Austen Heller. She speaks at length about how cultured all her friends say she is. Finally, she mentions that she wants a house in the tutor style, because her personality is "Elizabethan." Roark explains that he cannot build in that style, and he shows her some pictures of Heller's house. She is shocked that he is refusing her commission. He tries to explain, but he realizes that he is merely talking to a shell of a person filled up with undigested books and others' opinions.

In March, Robert L. Mundy (sent by Heller) asks Roark to recreate the "big house" in the small town where he grew up, because it is a symbol for all the obstacles he overcame in his life. Roark tries to convince him to build a different kind of house, but eventually the man leaves, puzzled by Roark's refusal. When Roark tells Heller what happened, he is not surprised, but he is concerned that Roark is running out of money and refuses to compromise.

In April, Mr. Nathaniel Janss comes to see Roark, because Austen Heller insisted on it, but he is willing to hear Roark out. Roark eagerly argues for his way of thinking, and by the end of their conversation Janss is willing to give Roark a chance. Two weeks later, Roark submits his designs and comes to speak to the board. As soon as he sees them, he knows that he has lost. A few days later, he receives a rejection letter from Mr. Janss, and Roark can tell that Janss is too ashamed to face him.

Finally, John Fargo asks him to design a department store that is bigger and better than any the city has ever seen. Businesses have begun to leave their neighborhood out of the belief that the "city's retail business was shifting uptown." Fargo wants to protect his old neighborhood. While Roark is working on the Fargo commission, Mr. Whitford Sanborn approaches Roark with a new commission. Years ago, Sanborn had an office building designed by Henry Cameron, and now he will trust Roark.

As the project proceeds, Mrs. Sanborn objects at every turn. Finally Roark gets Mr. Sanborn to approve the plans, but he then has difficulty securing an architect. Mrs. Sanborn begins to insist on certain changes, and costs slowly mount. One day Roark has a new plan for the east wing, but Mr. Sanborn refuses to change it, insisting it will be too expensive. Roark offers to pay for it himself, even though the cost is more than his entire commission. Mr. Sanborn feels very guilty and wants to pay for it, but Mrs. Sanborn refuses. When the house is finished, Mr. Sanborn loves it, but Mrs. Sanborn and their daughter refuse to live in it. Too exhausted to argue, Mr. Sanborn leaves the house unfurnished and takes his family to Florida. At the last minute, their son insists that he loves it and will live nowhere else, and they furnish three rooms. That summer an unfair item is printed in the bulletin of the Architects' Guild, stating that a house built by Roark was found by the family to be entirely uninhabitable.

Chapter 14

Heyer absolutely refuses to retire, despite his recent stroke. Keating begins treating him with much less respect. When Heyer complains to Francon, Francon simply comments that Heyer obviously needs to retire, since he is starting to imagine things.

Cosmo-Slotnick Pictures announces a worldwide contest to design a ten-million-dollar building to house their new movie studio. Francon encourages Peter to enter, telling him that he will share the billing with the firm, and if he wins, Francon will give him a fifth of the prize money.

Peter works feverishly on his designs and shows them to Roark. He casually asks Roark about his entry for the contest, but Roark replies that he does not enter contests. Peter asks Roark for some comments anyway, and wordlessly, Roark quickly corrects it, making tremendous changes. Peter is immensely impressed, while Roark insists that while he can fix someone else's designs, he could never create a "popular" design. He grows angrier as he works, then sends Peter home. Peter recopies the drawings and submits them.

Roark has received no more commissions. He has paid his rent on the office for the next thirty days, and after that he may have to close. The Fargo store is a failure, since one new store cannot save a district. In the Guild Bulletin, Athelstan Beasely, considered a great wit in the profession, has written an article making fun of Roark's entire career.

Roark reads an article about a millionaire, Roger Enright, who is building a new kind of housing development and has rejected several prominent architects. He sends in a submission, but after meeting with Enright's secretary, Roark is peremptorily sent away. The next month, one more month's rent paid, Roark is asked to submit drawings for the new Manhattan Bank Building. He has been recommended by Richard Sanborn, Mr. Sanborn's son.

Henry Cameron has a relapse, and the doctor tells him he does not have much time left. He sends for Roark, and Roark comes immediately. Roark stays for three days. On the third day, Cameron begins rambling about Roark's future. Finally, he whispers, "Do you remember the day when I tried to fire you? . . . Forget what I said then. . . . It was worth it." Cameron dies half an hour later.

Peter sees Catherine frequently, though they have not announced their engagement. He tells her they should wait until after the competition to announce their engagement. Peter also sees Dominique Francon frequently, and he finds himself drawn to her though he wishes he were not. It frustrates him that she does not seem attracted to him, yet one night they are at a ball, and when Peter touches her more than usual, she seems to understand. That night, when Peter takes her home, she is unusually silent in the cab and she lets him come up to her apartment. Inside, he tells her she is beautiful and that he loves her. He kisses her, but it feels like kissing a plastic doll. He draws away, confused. She tells him that she is "an utterly frigid woman." Peter, still confused, asks her to marry him, insisting that she will change. She tells him that if she ever "want[s] to punish herself for something terrible" she could marry him. When he leaves he despises her with all his heart, but he knows that if tomorrow someone offered him ownership of the firm in trade for marrying Dominique, he would do it.

Chapter 15

Peter is absolutely terrified that he will lose the competition and that Francon will give someone else Heyer's partnership. He remembers what Francon told him about Heyer's bad reputation, and he goes through the office files until he finds a letter about a payment of twenty thousand dollars to Heyer for a building that should not have cost so much money. Peter Keating realizes that the letter was sent earlier in the year that Heyer had started his porcelain collection. Keating takes the letter and goes to Heyer's house. After he is shown in, he shows Heyer the letter and tells him that if he does not retire, he will give the letter to the Guild, which will take away his license--it will be in all the papers, and Heyer might even go to jail. Heyer cannot seem to understand; he says over and over that Peter will not and cannot do that. But Peter continues to speak forcefully, insisting that Heyer must retire. Suddenly, Heyer begins to have an attack, while Peter continues to scream. Heyer collapses and dies. For a moment Peter feels horror, and then he rushes out and calls for the butler.

A few days later, Peter is still in shock. He is ashamed to learn that Heyer left him two hundred thousand dollars, plus his interest in the firm and his porcelain collection. Peter tells his mother and then goes to a speakeasy. That night he tries to convince himself that everyone is selfish, so he has nothing to be ashamed of. His questions disappear the next morning when he learns that he has won the Cosmo-Slotnick competition. Suddenly Peter is overwhelmed by phone calls, telegrams, interviews and public events. He finds time to see Catherine once, and even with her he cannot stop thinking of his new fame. He also sees Dominique once before she leaves, and he is irritated by her refusal to acknowledge his success.

"One thing did spoil his triumph": Peter hates to hear people actually talk about his design, for whenever they speak about " simplicity . . . clean ruthless efficiency," he thinks of Howard Roark. One day he realizes that he actually is afraid of Roark, and then he knows what to do. He immediately goes to Roark's office.

Roark has spent his days waiting for the phone to ring about getting a commission for the Manhattan Bank Building. His rent is two months overdue, and he has received a final notice from the telephone company, but for now the phone is still on. Peter begins asking Howard about the state of his business. Unable to hold himself back, he berates Howard, trying to convince him that he must best his principles, and if he does, he will be worked off his feet. He insists that he says these things against his own interest, only to help Howard.

When he is done, Roark says they will never talk about this again, and he asks him what he wanted to tell him about the competition. Peter assumes a planned air of friendliness, and he tells him that he wants to give Roark credit for helping him, but he knows that Roark would not want that, so he at least wants to give him some of the money. He writes him a check for five hundred dollars. Calmly, Roark takes it, writes on the back "pay to the order of Peter Keating," and tells Peter it is a bribe to never mention his involvement in the building. Peter is furious, and he begins to shout at Roark about how he thinks he is better than everyone else but is really nobody. After a few moments, he stops, ashamed. Roark calms him down, and Peter promises to tear up the check. Finally, he leaves.

That Monday the telephone rings, and Mr. Weidler tells Roark to come to his office to discuss the Bank project. Thrilled, Roark goes immediately. But when he arrives, the chairman of the board tells him that the Commission is his--so long as he is willing to accept a minor alteration to the façade of the building. They show him a mock-up, not something he would be expected to follow, just a suggestion, and he realizes that they want him to design a classical façade. After attempting to convince them to change their minds, he tells them that he cannot accept the commission. He leaves, goes to his office to pack up his things, and goes to Mike's house. He tells Mike what happened, then asks him to help him find a job in the building trades. Mike is furious and tries to talk him out of it, insisting that he will give him financial backing for a while longer, but Roark refuses. He explains that he will save his money and start over. Finally Mike says that he could not bear to get him a job in town, but if Roark is willing, his friend at a granite quarry in Connecticut could can get Roark a job.

Two days later Roark takes a train out of the city. As he departs, he watches the skyline of the city and thinks about how he could change it. A light shines from a restaurant where Peter Keating is attending a party held in his honor to celebrate his becoming a partner at the firm now called Francon and Keating.

Analysis

Throughout this section of the novel, Roark achieves what seem like small but important victories. Each time Roark gets a commission, a reader could hope that the public will no longer fail to recognize his talent. If Roark sees his buildings as acts of independence, then men on the other side (such as Guy Francon, Peter Keating and perhaps Ellsworth Toohey) see them as acts of terror threatening to undermine the "proper" architectural order. By placing these two groups in such direct opposition, Rand makes clear that Roark's kind of architecture is not just a different version of the kind practiced by Francon, Keating and other popular architects--it is of a different order altogether. Francon's kind of building can survive only so long as the public fails to recognize the superiority of Roark's work. Every time Roark puts up a building, Francon fears that people will see the different qualities of buildings as what they are--if so, anyone who recognizes the beauty of a Roark building (or a Cameron building) would look at Francon's kind of building with disgust. Luckily for Francon, Ellsworth Toohey knows that the people will only change their minds if they are told to change their minds. Francon's type of architecture survives because the common person cannot see a new building as beautiful until someone suggests to him that it is beautiful. (Note here the difference between conventional and inherent beauty.)

Two exceptions to this rule, of course, are Mike and Austen Heller. They are almost unique themselves, for they represent other possible models of independent men. Roark's securing such allies helps us understand how Roark continues to struggle. Roark must hold on to the idea that there are other people in the world like Mike and Austen Heller, and that they need only see one of his buildings to come over to him. At the same time, Mike and Austen Heller are clearly inferior to Roark. They are allies, but they are not equals. Austen Heller repeatedly tries to get Roark to accept commissions he knows he will not accept, and when Roark once again experiences tremendous failure, Mike wants him to allow either him or Heller to support him financially.

Thus, among Rand's wide range of characters weak and strong, Roark stands alone as her ideal man. He has no real competition. Projecting her ideal of independence, Rand does not allow for the possibility that Roark might develop or change over the course of the novel. This kind of independence, however, is very troublesome in an alien world. Moreover, this kind of stubborn independence requires a hubris that Rand might also be presenting as a tragic flaw; the refusal to change in the face of compelling reasons, even more radically the refusal to change on the basis of truth, makes a person a prisoner of himself rather than of external forces. This kind of independence is far from, for example, Ralph Waldo Emerson's, who wrote derisively of a "foolish consistency" being a constraint on "little minds."

Nevertheless, by the end of this section it is clear that the focus of this story is not what happens to Roark as he tries to survive in this less than ideal world, but what happens to the people around Roark as he exerts the force of his will on an imperfect world.

One such character who will play an important role later is Dominique Francon. Dominique has not yet met Roark and does not yet know of him. But as Dominique begins to reveal the philosophy that guides her life, it becomes more and more necessary that she and Roark will be drawn together. Dominique Francon tells Alvah Scarret that if she liked her job and was afraid to lose it,

I'd have to depend on the whole world. Everything has strings leading to everything else. We're all so tied together. We're all in a net, the net is waiting and we're pushed into it by one single desire. You want a thing and it's precious to you. Do you know who is standing ready to tear it out of your hands? ... Someone is ready, and you're afraid of them all ... I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Fredom, Alvah, freedom ... To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.

She recognizes a stark ideal of freedom and condemns the network of people that forces dependence or outright coercion. Yet, she lacks Roark's strength and passion, so she is unable to overcome this net. Her response--to embrace nothing, to reject everything--is morally vacant. Even so, Dominique's refusal to accept anything less than perfection shares important elements with Roark's philosophy.

Dominique Francon and Howard Roark are also connected through their relationships with Peter Keating. Keating's attraction to Dominique is similar to his attraction to Roark. Both are almost entirely one-directional; Roark and Dominique tolerate Keating without taking any pleasure in his company. Keating is fascinated by their certainty, their independence, and their lack of admiration for him. Of course, Keating is also fascinated by Dominique Francon's beauty, but in some ways that beauty is attractive like Roark's talent. Keating wants to conquer Dominique; he wants her to admit that she is not superior to him and that there is something wrong with her because she is not attracted to him. But when Dominique admits there is something wrong with her--that she is probably frigid, so Keating should not take it personally--he still feels rejected. Dominique represents something that Keating cannot have, no matter how successful or how rich he becomes, and Keating cannot stand the idea that there is anything he cannot have.

Similarly, Keating sees Roark as someone whom he can never beat, because Roark will never give him the compliment of competing with him. Keating desperately wants Roark to admit that there is something wrong with him because he is unable to compromise his aesthetics the way that Keating has done; he also wants Roark to admit that Keating is the superior architect, because the public thinks so. After Keating wins the Cosmo-Slotnick award and goes to Roark's office, he tells him: "Look at me! Remember how we started? Then look at us now ... Just drop the fool delusion that you're better than everybody else--and go to work." When Roark coldly rejects his offer of payment for his help on the building and tells him he would never want anyone to know he had helped, Keating screams, "Who do you think you are? ... You don't even have the wits to know you're a flop, an incompetent, a beggar, a failure, a failure, a failure! ... I have the whole world with me!" Keating continues to suffer from the same fatal flaw that revealed his character at the beginning of the novel: unlike Roark, Keating cannot stand up and say that he is successful because he knows he has accomplished something great. He relies entirely upon the opinions of others, clinging to the idea that numbers are the only thing that can substantiate greatness. Of course, if Keating truly believed this, he would not fear Roark; his fear and hatred demonstrate that Peter Keating actually has the capacity to recognize greatness as something beyond the numbers, even though he does not have the personal means to stand up for it.

Throughout this section of the novel, Keating's character continues to deteriorate. Keating's love for Catherine provided the reader with a rare opportunity to sympathize with and root for Keating. Now, Keating's inability to withstand his mother's manipulation and cleave to Catherine suggests he will lose the only good and true part of his life. Catherine's fear of Toohey also foreshadows the imminent disclosure of flaws in his character. Keating's total corruption is symbolized by his involvement in the death of Francis Heyer. Thus far Keating's manipulations have let others no worse off than they were (Tim Davis) or even improved their situation (Stengel). He benefited himself and took pleasure in the act of control. When Keating goes to Heyer, he knows that he is not manipulating Heyer but is forcing him to do what Keating wants. Now, Keating's actions have left the social realm and become objectively criminal. He blackmails Heyer, which results in Heyer's death.

Some critics are disturbed by Rand's championing of the supremacy of individual action. They see little difference between Roark and Keating, for both act entirely to serve their own ends. But while Roark may demonstrate a certain kind of selfishness, the depiction of Keating makes it clear that Rand's moral code does not allow people to use others to get what they want. Roark does not manipulate others; he simply refuses to bend to their will. When Keating's actions result in Heyer's death, he has clearly crossed a point of no return. Keating seems beyond saving, and the reader can only hope that someone will stop him from continuing his energetic but immoral rise to success. In this sense, Roark's inner moral constraints are a healthy product of his freedom in a selfishness rightly understood.

As Peter Keating's career suddenly accelerates, Howard Roark's achievements are stripped of their meaning. By the end of Part I, his life appears almost hopeless. Peter Keating's multiple rewards after Heyer's death seem to determine that this world is utterly corrupt and that Roark's ideals can never overcome a reign of bitter selfishness and speciousness. Yet, the tiniest element of hope remains in the fact that the most praised elements of Peter Keating's Cosmo-Slotnick plans are those which were designed by Howard Roark.

Chapter 1

Howard Roark has been working in the granite quarry for two months. All he asks for is that he think of nothing but the granite in front of him and the tool in his hand. He likes the work, struggling with the stone and getting exhausted every day. He stays in the village with the other workers and eats with them, but he is apart from them. Sometimes he enjoys lying in the grass as he studies the colors and shapes around him. All the while, however, he suffers from thinking about all the buildings he could be building, all the work he could be doing.

Meanwhile, Dominique Francon is spending her summer vacation alone in her father's mansion three miles from the granite quarry (it is a quarry owned by Guy Francon). The only other people there are the caretaker and his wife, and Dominique enjoys not only the solitude but also the knowledge that the people who provide all of her comforts make themselves invisible for her. When she sees another person, she has "the sensation of a defiled pleasure." She takes long walks and horseback rides and enjoys listening to the sound of the blasting in the quarry because it is "the sound of destruction."

One morning Dominique forces herself to take a walk to the quarry, for she takes pleasure in making herself do things that she hates. She enjoys the painful contrast of her own cool beauty and the misery of the workers below her. Suddenly, she sees Roark and cannot stop looking at him. She knows "it was the most beautiful face she would ever see, because it was the abstraction of strength made visible." The foreman sees her and shows her around, but all the while she is thinking of the red-haired man she has seen.

When Dominique returns to the mansion, she cannot stop thinking of Roark, especially his hands. She is disgusted by her pleasure, but at the same time she enjoys how her pleasure degrades her. For two days she makes a pretense of preparing to leave, but finally she goes back to the quarry and watches Roark. She hopes that he has a jail record. Finally she approaches him and challenges him for staring at her. He replies only that he stares at her "for the same reason [she's] been staring at [him]." She orders him not to look at her anymore, and he refuses. He speaks to her coolly and respectfully.

Chapter 2

Dominique lives to stop herself from going to the quarry. Her freedom has been destroyed, for she knows "that a continuous struggle against the compulsion of a single desire [is] compulsion also." She goes to visit people, and one night a young poet drives her home from a party and tries to kiss her. She flees from the car, revolted. She is confused, because through many such incidents she had never felt anything at all. She realizes that the man in the quarry wants her, and suddenly she feels power over him.

She wants to see the man suffer for her. She chips some marble in her house, then goes to the quarry and tells him she has a job for him. He agrees to come to her house that night, but she leaves angry, because he has acted as if there were nothing unusual about her request. Later she realizes that his casual acceptance reveals some intimacy. When he comes that night, she realizes that "she had expected him to seem incongruous in her house; but it was the house that seemed incongruous around him." He goes to the fireplace and breaks the piece of marble in half, telling her, "Now it's broken and has to be replaced." As he works, Dominique is acutely aware of the contrast between his dusty clothes and the objects in her bedroom. He tells her that the fireplace is "atrocious" and tells her about the different kinds and grades of marble. When he finishes, she calculates his pay, 48 cents, and gives him a dollar. He says only, "Thank you, Miss Francon," and departs. She is furious.

Dominique Francon waits feverishly for the new marble. When it comes, she sends a note to the quarry, but that night the man who comes is "a short, squat, middle-aged Italian with bow legs, a gold hoop in one ear and a frayed hat held respectfully in both hands." Dominique goes to the quarry against her own aversion to going, and she asks Roark why he did not come. He asks her why it makes any difference, and she hits his face with a tree branch and runs away.

Three days later, Roark enters her home, his clothes dusty, his face "drawn, austere in cruelty, ascetic in passion, the cheeks sunken, the lips pulled down, set tight." He comes to Dominique, and she fights him passionately but makes "no sound." He takes her

as an act of scorn. Not as love, but as defilement. And this made her lie still and submit. One gesture of tenderness from him--and she would have remained cold, untouched by the thing done to her body. But the act of a master taking shameful, contemptuous possession of her was the kind of rapture she had wanted.

When he is done, Roark gets up and leaves. Dominique drags herself towards the bathroom for a bath and sees herself, purple and bruised, in the mirror. She knows she will not bathe, because she wants to keep the feeling of his body on her. She collapses on the bathroom floor and remains there until morning.

Roark wakes up and thinks of Dominique. He knows that "had she meant less to him, he would not have taken her as he did; had he meant less to her, she would not have fought so desperately." He continues to think of her at the quarry, though he does not think she will come, and she does not. He does not need to see her. He takes pleasure in knowing that she exists.

He reads in the paper that Roger Enright still has not found an architect, and he feels a stab of pain. He is surprised when he realizes that he also thinks of Dominique Francon. A week later he finds a letter forwarded to him through Mike from Roger Enright, stating that he would like to discuss the house with him. He is on a train in half an hour.

Dominique thinks about Roark and is more furious in her knowledge that it is not the rape, but the fact that she took pleasure in it, that makes her furious. She knows she will never forget that he gave her "the degradation she had wanted and she hate[s] him for it." One morning she gets a letter from Alvah Scarret asking her when she will return to New York, and she thinks about what he would say if he knew.

After a week she realizes that she has not seen him for that long, so she rushes to the quarry. She learns he left for New York the day before. She leaves, knowing she is safe so long as she does not ask for his name. She has something to fight against now, and she wins so long as she never asks for his name.

Chapter 3

Peter Keating likes to see if he or his Cosmo-Slotnick building is mentioned in the newspapers. One day he sees a story about a man leaving Ellsworth Toohey $100,000. Toohey immediately turned the money over to a progressive institute of learning, commenting that he did not believe in private inheritance. Keating is impressed, because this is something he would never be able to do. He remembers with irritation that he has not yet been able to meet Toohey.

Keating has to pick a new sculptor for the Cosmo-Slotnick building, because the first sculptor, Steven Mallory, produced "a slender naked body of a man who looked as if he could break through the steel plate of a battleship and through any barrier whatsoever." As Keating thinks about different sculptors and how it might benefit him to pick each one, he enjoys the power he has over their fates. Suddenly, he notices an envelope on his desk. It contains a proof copy of Mr. Toohey's column, "One Small Voice." Its title is "KEATING." Keating realizes it is an homage to his greatness as an architect, with a detailed analysis of the brilliance of the Cosmo-Slotnick building. Keating notices a note at the top of the article from Ellsworth Toohey, asking Keating to come by his office sometime. Immediately, Keating makes an appointment with Toohey's secretary for the next day.

When Keating returns from lunch, a young draftsman asks him who it was who "took a shot at Ellsworth Toohey." Shocked, Keating worries whether the column will be published the next day. In the afternoon paper, Keating reads that the shot missed Toohey and that Toohey afterwards acted as if nothing unusual had happened. The shooter was Stephen Mallory, who refused to give any explanation for his actions. There was no connection between Mallory and Toohey. Toohey said he would not press charges, but Mallory was in jail awaiting trial.

That night Keating lies awake, afraid, knowing that he never wants to learn Stephen Mallory's motive. The next day when he sees Toohey, Toohey looks like "a chicken just emerging form the egg, in all the sorry fragility of unhardened bones," but his clothes are tremendously good. Toohey's eyes "held such a wealth of intellect and of twinkling gaiety that his glasses seemed to be worn not to protect his eyes but to protect other men from their excessive brilliance." Toohey immediately begins talking about the "temple of Nike Apteros," asking Keating what he thinks of it and rhapsodizing about its beauty. As Keating attempts to keep up with the conversation, he suddenly feels incredibly at home with Toohey, who seems to acknowledge the falseness of their situation. Toohey begins to speak again of how great an architect Keating is and how great the Cosmo-Slotnick building is, and suddenly Keating realizes that "Toohey knew he had not designed the plan of the Cosmo-Slotnick Building." He is frightened because "he saw approval in Toohey's eyes." As Toohey speaks, Keating continues to realize that Toohey knows everything they are saying is a lie, and he is afraid.

Finally, Keating turns the conversation towards Toohey's close escape the day before. Toohey shrugs it off but asks about Mallory. Keating gives a general and prosaic explanation for Mallory's attack, and Toohey looks at him as though he can see his insides and is reassured. Toohey tells Keating that they will be "great friends." He tells him about a group of architects he has thought of forming, and he hopes Keating will agree to be the chairman. Keating is extremely flattered, and the conversation almost immediately turns to a young authoress in whom Toohey has taken an interest, Lois Cook. Only as Toohey escorts Keating to the door does he remark that Keating is engaged to his niece, Catherine. Keating tells him fervently and truthfully that he loves Catherine, and Toohey responds lightly and a little disparagingly, commenting that Catherine is "innocent and sweet and pretty and anemic."

Chapter 4

On a Sunday morning, Peter Keating attempts to read Lois Cook's book Clouds and Shrouds. He enjoys it because he is certain it is deep and meaningful--since he does not understand it. He looks at the paper and sees a reproduction of Howard Roark's drawing of the Enright House, "a rising mass of rock crystal. Here was the same severe, mathematical order holding together a free, fantastic growth; straight lines and clean angles, space slashed with a knife, yet in a harmony of formation as delicate as the work of a jeweler." Keating looks at Cook's book and feels that it is somehow a defense against Peter Roark. His mother comes in, sees the picture, and dismisses it immediately.

That night is Keating's first visit to Toohey's and Catherine's new home in a "distinguished residential hotel." Keating notices only that it is elegant, simple, and full of books before he is distracted by Toohey. He does "not like the way Catherine sat at the edge of a chair, hunched, her legs drawn awkwardly together." As Toohey makes light, social conversation, he slyly critiques Catherine, making Keating extremely uncomfortable. When Keating comes straight out and asks him if he approves, Toohey says vaguely that it is a "superfluous question." They discuss the possible marriage until Keating comments that Catherine will have to give up her job at the Clifford Settlement House when they are marred. Catherine, suddenly lively, insists that she loves her job in the day nursery and does not want to give it up. As she speaks eloquently about the children and her work, Keating sees her affection for her uncle, and Toohey also begins to look at her much more seriously.

When she pauses, Keating changes the subject. He asks Toohey what he thinks of the Enright house. He is incredibly happy when Toohey dismisses it. Keating tells Toohey about his past with Howard Roark, and Toohey asks him a series of strange questions, not about architecture at all. When Toohey asks Keating whether Roark always wanted to be an architect, Keating tells him that Roark would "walk over corpses ... but he'd be an architect." Toohey returns to the possible group of young architects. He tells Keating that they are very pleased that Keating will be the chairman.

Keating takes Catherine out for a walk, but he suddenly begins to think of how ridiculous it looks to walk hand in hand. He wonders whether Catherine looks a bit anemic.

Later, Keating sits in Cook's living room, exceedingly uncomfortable, as they discuss the house she wants him to build her. He attempts to speak to her about how much he likes her books, but she seems irritated by his attempts to suggest he understands her work. He also learns that she is chairwoman of a group of writers started by Mr. Toohey. As they talk about Mr. Toohey, she seems to laugh at Keating, and he becomes confused. When she tells him that she wants her house "to be ugly. Magnificently ugly," Keating doesn't know what to do. He accepts the commission. After a while he stops feeling strange. The drawings appear in even more publications than the Cosmo-Slotnick house, and people speak very respectfully of him.

Chapter 5

Dominique Francon returns to New York three days after her last visit to the quarry. She hates the people on the streets because they might have links to Roark. She goes to the office of the Banner to resign, but at the last minute she changes her mind. One morning Ellsworth Toohey stops by to visit Dominique. She responds in her usual ironic way, and he tells her they will never be enemies. He sees that the article about the Enright House is on her desk, and she tells him that the builder should have killed himself rather than build such a perfect thing and allow it to be defiled by human beings.

At Stephen Mallory's trial the man refuses to defend himself. Ellsworth Toohey himself takes the stand and pleads for lenience. The judge gives Mallory a two-year suspended sentence.

At the first meeting of the young architects, Peter Keating is elected chairman unanimously. Of the group of eighteen, only Keating and Gordon L. Prescott are of any standing. Besides architects there is a contractor, a female interior decorator, and some draftsmen. They name themselves the "Council of American Builders," and Toohey gives a speech about the importance of architecture. He argues that architecture is the noblest of the arts because it creates shelter for mankind. Keating listens, enraptured and ennobled by Toohey's words.

The doorbell rings, and Dominique Francon walks in uninvited. After a nod from Toohey she sits down and watches. Keating feels oddly uncomfortable at Dominique's presence. After the meeting, Toohey greets her and suggests that she join their club, but she refuses, commenting that she doesn't "hate [him] enough to do that." She asks why they did not invite Howard Roark to the meeting, and Keating experiences a jolt.

As Dominique leaves, Keating walks with her. He asks her what she has against their meeting, but she refuses to discuss it. As he helps her into her cab he tells her he will not let her get away from him again. She turns to him, and for a moment he sees something different in her and seems to realize that she is no longer a virgin. He asks who it was, and she replies, "A workman in a granite quarry," which makes Keating laugh. Dominique tells Keating that she once thought she could want him, but now she knows she never will want him--and she wants never to see him again. She adds, "you're everything I despise in the world and I don't want to remember how much I despite it ... This is not an insult to you, Peter ... You're not the worst of the world. You're its best. That's what's frightening." As angry as he is, Keating cannot let her go, and he tells her, "I'll never give you up." She accepts his words and drives away.

Analysis

Part 2 of The Fountainhead is titled "Ellsworth M. Toohey." This name immediately suggests that Toohey will dominate this section and that Toohey's full character will be revealed. At first it is difficult to understand how either of these things will happen, for the first section focuses predominantly on Dominique Francon and Howard Roark. One way to explain this imbalance is to recognize Toohey as the omnipresent observer. When Dominique and Roark meet, they are out of Toohey's range of vision but as soon as they come back to New York, the reader waits to see how he will discover their relationship and how he will make use of it.

Dominique Francon's meeting with Howard Roark is one of the most important scenes in the novel. Unlike August Heller or Mike or any of Roark's other allies, Dominique recognizes Howard Roark from the first moment she sees him. She does not need to see his drawings or to hear him talk about his work. Before she meets Roark, Dominique appears weak and erratic. Her philosophy, as she explains it to Alvah Scarret, is purposeless. She rejects everything in a simple attempt to be free, but her success does not matter. When Dominique meets Roark, she feels less free because suddenly her philosophy has a purpose, a reason to exist, namely Howard Roark.

Of course, Dominique's behavior surrounding this meeting demonstrates that she was never free to begin with--she had only deluded herself into believing that she was free. When Dominique took pleasure in the idea of feeling sexual desire for a quarry worker, that pleasure came both from her sexual desire and from her belief that she was acting against the mores of her society. Thus, Dominique was controlled by society just as she is now controlled by Howard Roark. When Dominique does not go to see him at the quarry, she is still performing an action dictated by his existence. Dominique's and Roark's sexual relationship, and their first experience in particular, is one of the most complicated symbols of the book. Rand took a great risk in choosing to give rape a positive symbolic value. It is possible for the reader to accept it, because it is only a rape in relation to the violence it employed. Rand makes it clear that consent of both parties lay at the heart of it. That the violence was consented to was understood by both Roark and Dominique. Dominique's simplicity in degrading herself as a warped expression of freedom perhaps cannot be defended, but Roark's consent is worth further study.

After meeting Howard Roark, Dominique's vision is clearer, and her philosophy more articulate. She may be less free, but her actions are purer, and she understands them better. Now Dominique can see Peter Keating and Ellsworth Toohey for what they are. Before she met Roark, she had believed that she could love Peter Keating, because she would get pleasure out of embracing the epitome of the characteristics she rejects. Now Dominique understands the difference between the meager pleasure of rejecting that which she wants or embracing that she detests and the real pleasure of fighting to maintain her self in the presence of true greatness. Dominique underscores her worthiness to be Roark's match when she recognizes the brilliance of Enright House without knowing anything about who designed it. Once again, Rand emphasizes that Roark the architect is a natural extension of Roark the man. Somehow he has built up Dominique through their encounters.

As Dominique's character is refined, Keating's slowly deteriorates. At the beginning of the novel, Peter Keating seemed genuinely a person. Despite his weaknesses, his love for Catherine Halsey and his own sense of himself as a student, friend and son supported the idea that he was a free self. Now, all of the things that helped Keating understand himself are being stripped away. As Keating gains in worldly success, he no longer has the confidence to believe that he can sustain the person who goes along with this new position. When Keating first meets Toohey, he is disturbed because Toohey seems to recognize his falseness while also sanctioning it. Keating is relieved to meet Toohey because he needs someone to form him, someone to help him be the kind of person that he is supposed to be.

When Roark returns to New York city and resumes architecture, Keating becomes even more vulnerable to Toohey's manipulation. Just as Dominique's vision becomes clearer around Roark, Keating's vision deteriorates. In an interesting twist on an old metaphor, Keating is like the ivy that must cling to something stronger and more independent than himself. Now he has Toohey to rely on, but Keating will always be drawn to the strongest person he knows, Howard Roark.

Chapter 6

Roger Enright had transformed himself from a coal miner to a millionaire without any help. His fortune is entirely his, for he does not believe in the stock market. Other wealthy people hate him for "becoming wealthy so crudely." He hires Roark after half an hour, for he knows what he likes and does not care about anything else.

Roark reopens his office and hires draftsmen based solely on the drawings they show him. Sometimes Roark thinks of Dominique. He thinks he knows where to find her and that he will go to her when she will be "ready either to kill him or to come to him of her own will."

Just before the construction of the Enright House begins, Joel Sutton approaches Roark about designing a huge office building. A week passes, and Austen Heller forces Roark to go to one of Kiki Holcombe's parties, telling him that Joel Sutton will be there and that it will help him get the commission. But Roark only agrees when Austen Heller mentions that Guy Francon's daughter will be there and that he should meet her.

At Holcombe's party, Ellsworth Toohey is teasing Kiki herself, calling her charming but then going on to point out that charm is useless. He adds that the most useless people of all are aristocrats--so Kiki decides she does not mind being called useless. Keating basks in the glow of admiration that surrounds him until he and Toohey come face to face--Toohey comments that everyone in the room is trying to attach themselves to Keating except Dominique Francon. Keating approaches Dominique, but she treats him with such frustrating disinterest that he leaves after a moment.

Roark and Heller enter the room, and Holcombe greets them. She tells Roark that she admires the Enright House. It is not to her taste, but she considers herself very broad-minded. Roark comments that he has never been broad-minded, which Kiki takes as "insolent." She takes Roark to meet Dominique, and they speak as though they never met. Heller concludes regretfully that Dominique does not like Roark, and then Kiki leads him away to speak to someone else. Roark and Dominique discuss a friend of Austen Heller's, and Dominique perceives that Roark is trying to humiliate her by forcing her to bring up their acquaintance before he does.

Suddenly John Erik Snyte interrupts them, and then Heller pulls Roark away to speak to Joel Sutton. Joel tells Roark that Roark will get the job. Roark begins to talk about the building, but Sutton, surprised, quickly turns the conversation elsewhere and then turns to talk to someone else. Keating congratulates Roark on landing Joel Sutton but makes snide comments about Roark's social graces. Roark notices that Keating is drunk.

That night Roark meets many people who compliment him in the only ways they know how, and he finds their compliments worse than their insults. He does not look at Dominique again, but she cannot take her eyes off of him. After he leaves, Dominique waits a few minutes and then tries to depart. Kiki stops her at the door and asks her what she thought of Roark. Dominique replies that she found him "revolting" but that he is "terribly good-looking." Toohey approaches and comments that he knows something about her now, and she responds by noting that he may be more dangerous than she realized. As she leaves, Kiki asks Toohey what the meaning of that conversation was, and he explains that the first time you look at someone is the only time you can really know them; the human face is the most revealing thing in the world.

Chapter 7

The chapter begins with an excerpt from Dominique's column about the Enright House. She appears to be insulting it but is actually calling it the most beautiful, most wonderful building in the city. Instead she is castigating it for revealing the inferiority of everything else and everyone else around it. Toohey walks into Dominique's office, and he comments that he and Roark will be able to tell what she was really saying; she replies that she was writing it for everyone else. He talks about Peter Keating--that he was an old friend of Howard Roark's--but she doesn't respond. He presses her for a reaction. Toohey continues, discussing the parallel lives of Roark and Keating, acknowledging that Roark finds Keating's work extremely mediocre, but focusing on Keating's incredible successes. Toohey finishes by pointing out that Roark must have been suffering from a worse torture than the Spanish Inquisition. Dominique finally screams at him to get out; he tells her she has revealed too much. As he leaves, he comments that he thinks "Peter Keating is the greatest architect" they have.

That evening Joel Sutton calls Dominique and asks her if she really meant what she wrote in her column. She invites him to lunch, where she tells him that Roark will design him a "great" building. But minutes later she has him convinced that he cannot hire an architect whom nobody else hires--unlike Roger Enright, he wants people to like him and agree with him. Sutton is set on hiring Peter Keating.

Sutton calls Roark to tell him the news. He is very apologetic but disturbed that Roark does not object or fight for the project. He had many arguments prepared, and it no longer makes sense to use them. He feels somehow cheated by Roark's lack of resistance. Finally he tells Roark that Dominique persuaded him to pass on Roark. Roark laughs and asks Sutton if Miss Francon told him to tell Roark this, and Sutton admits she said that he could. Roark continues to laugh.

That night, Roark sits alone in his office, looking at a picture of the Heller House. He hears a knock on the door, and Dominique walks in. She is wearing a severe black suit. She takes off her hat. He asks her what she wants, forcing her to say it. She tells him:

I want to sleep with you. Now, tonight, and at any time you may care to call me. I want your naked body, your skin, your mouth, your hands ... I want you like an animal, or a cat on a fence, or a whore ... I hate you, Roark. I hate you for what you are, for wanting you, for having to want you. I'm going to fight you--and I'm going to destroy you ... I will hurt you through the only thing that can hurt you--through your work. I will fight to starve you ... I have done it today--and that is why I shall sleep with you tonight.

Roark tells her to take off her clothes, and this time her "surrender [is] more violent than her struggle had been." Afterwards, she asks him about working in the quarry. She tells him the Enright House is the most beautiful building in New York, but Roark cuts her off, telling her not to say something she will regret. She tells him she still wants to destroy him, and Roark tells her that this is why he wants her. She tries to say something else, but he cuts her off again. He tells her to go to sleep and that he will cook her breakfast in the morning--then she can continue trying to destroy him.

Chapter 8

Toohey visits Dominique and observes that people Dominique used to snub are now happy to be friends with her. He finds that she has secured four commissions for Peter Keating. He adds that she is lucky that Keating is her father's partner, because it appears as if she is just being a dutiful daughter. He also notes that while Roark secured the Norris country house, overall Dominique is being very successful. Toohey begins to be much more direct, explaining that they are allies after all, for they have a common enemy in Howard Roark. She agrees. He tells her to be less obvious about badmouthing Roark. As for Toohey, he hurts Roark simply by ignoring him in his columns.

Dominique asks him why he hates Howard Roark so much. He denies that he hates him. They look out at the view of the city, and Toohey says the magnificent skyline can be traced to about a dozen people in history, and that there are two possible reactions. One can either love and admire these people, or one can despise them for showing the rest of mankind how inferior they are by comparison. He notes that one of these is the more "humanitarian" view, and that he is a humanitarian.

Slowly Dominique gets used to her new plan of praising Keating and vilifying Roark, flirting with disgusting men and flattering revolting women. Often, late at night she goes to see Howard Roark, and each time they make love with the same violence and the same feeling of connection. She tells him about the commissions she has taken from him, and he laughs at her. She is happy when she sees he reads her columns and knows about her insults. At the same time she wishes she hurt him enough to force him to avoid them. She forces him to tell her how badly he wants the buildings she is fighting to take away from him. Sometimes he makes her wait as he finishes a drawing, and she sits and watches him. Sometimes he comes to her apartment, and if she has guests he makes her send them away without explanation. They are never seen together. In her apartment they talk for hours, but they never speak of their battle. Sometimes they sit in her living room, looking out the windows for hours. One night she tells him, "Roark, everything I've done all my life is because it's the kind of a world that made you work in a quarry last summer."

Heller gets very angry with Dominique for being so strongly against Roark. He calls her "an irresponsible bitch." One morning Roger Enright comes to see her and takes her to see the Enright House. He tells her, "I can understand stupid malice. I can understand ignorant malice. I can't understand deliberate rottenness." As they enter the building, Enright is confused by the expression of love and awe on Dominique's face. They meet Roark, and he shows them around the building, behaving as if he and Dominique have met only once. Dominique asks him many questions about the building, and he answers them all. In her column she writes that the Enright House ought to be blasted out of existence rather than be allowed to be degraded by people living in it. Roark tells Dominique that Enright doesn't know what to make of it, he cannot tell if it is an insult or extravagant praise. He cautions her to stop writing such things, because someone else might notice. She laughs at him, but then asks him what he thinks of Ellsworth Toohey. Roark merely scoffs at him.

Dominique loves meeting Roark at parties. She enjoys the stir they create as everyone watches them, wondering if there will be an explosion. She loves how he speaks to her, politely and vaguely as if he barely remembers who she is. At the same time she hates the people on his street, the people who think they can speak to him, smile at him, or laugh at him. She tells him that she alone does not degrade him through contact.

Keating is bewildered; he does not understand why Dominique Francon has suddenly devoted herself to his career. He also thinks that he is "the only man in New York City who did not think that Dominique Francon was in love with [Peter Keating]." He sends her flowers but does not bother her. One day he sees her in a restaurant and approaches. He tries to thank her, but she only assures him she will not stop helping him; she sees no need for them to speak about anything.

Keating continues to attend meetings of the Council of American Builders and likes them, although all they do is have meetings and listen to speeches given by members and once in a while by Ellsworth Toohey. Toohey attends every meeting. One night, they walk home together and have a cup of coffee in a drugstore. Toohey essentially hypnotizes Keating as a speaks of a "beautiful new world" where everyone will "love everything, the humblest, the least, the meanest," and "the meanest in you will be loved."

Chapter 9

We learn about Toohey's own history. He was not popular in school, but he was left alone, because he was so weak. He was very smart, and he knew how to tell people, especially teachers, exactly what they wanted to hear. In high school he won every speech and debate contest. He began to make friends as he learned that he could win over the misfits, the weak ones, the stupid ones, the unsuccessful ones, and that they would do whatever he asked. Until he was sixteen Ellsworth thought he wanted to be a minister. At sixteen he discovered socialism and abandoned religion. At first his Aunt Adeline tried to argue him out of it, but she stopped when she realized that he was unlikely to become one of those radicals who started riots.

Toohey then went to Harvard and majored in history. He became popular at Harvard. "It became amusing, at first, to accept 'Monk' Toohey; then it became distinctive and progressive." He spoke about the beauty of the masses and how one must give up the ego to achieve goodness. He was very successful with the second- and third-generation millionaires who felt "he offered them an achievement they were capable of." Ellsworth graduated and moved to New York, his fame somewhat preceding him. He got a master's degree at NYU and wrote his thesis on architecture. He began to write reviews and served as a vocational advisor, at which he was thought a tremendous success. Toohey almost never let a boy pursue the career he had chosen. He told boys they must think only of what they could do for others, not what they themselves wanted to do. These boys continued to cling to him, and some flourished; only one committed suicide.

Toohey donated money to certain charities, and when wealthy people asked his advice, he encouraged them to give money to the same charities. He was uninterested in sex, and he thought the family an outdated institution. Slowly he became known as "an eminent critic of architecture." In 1921 Catherine Halsey's father died, and she came to live with him. He had planned to have her live separately, but when he saw her she looked oddly beautiful, so he changed his mind. In 1925 Toohey wrote Sermons in Stone and became famous. Suddenly everyone wanted to know him. Many were surprised when Toohey agreed to write a column in the Banner. It was supposed to be about architecture, but Toohey's contract allowed him to write anything he wished, so he wrote about architecture only once a month. His columns "never seemed to say anything dangerously revolutionary, and seldom anything political. It merely preached sentiments with which most people felt an agreement: unselfishness, brotherhood, equality."

The artists and writers he organized all tended towards the extreme and the unpopular. People were surprised and pointed out that they were all "rabid individualists." Toohey took these comments as a joke, just as he took it as a joke when people made fun of his councils. His favorite title was "Ellsworth Toohey, Humanitarian."

Chapter 10

At the opening of the Enright House in 1929, Roger Enright invites a few friends, unlocks the entrance doors, and throws them open. A few press photographers are there uninvited. One, from the Banner, takes a picture of Howard Roark standing alone across the street looking up at the building. When his editor sees the picture, he cuts it from the paper. The Enright House is quickly filled with tenants who want only to be comfortable. Everyone else spends three weeks insulting the house and its architect. Toohey never mentions it in his column. Roark begins to get more commissions. He expands his office and hires more employees simply by looking at their work. His employees love him; "they know only, in a dim way, that it was not loyalty to him, but to the best within themselves."

Dominique stays in the city for the summer, knowing that she cannot leave because of Roark. She goes to see all of his buildings. One night she takes the ferry to Staten Island merely for the pleasure of returning to the city where he is. She goes immediately to his apartment for the night, desperate to see him. On the weekends they go away together. Sometimes Dominique tries to exert her power over him, staying away, but he spoils it by readily confessing her power over him. He tells her everything she most wants to hear, but he does so too easily for any kind of victory.

In late June, Kent Lansing comes to see Howard Roark. He tells him he is a member of a board that will build a luxurious hotel on Central Park South. He wants Roark to have the commission for the Aquitania Hotel. One morning Toohey sits in his office reading about the commission, and Dominique walks in. He comments that this is the first time she has ever been there, and finally he asks her what she wants. Dominque tells him that she tried desparately to take that commission away from Roark, but that he got in anyway. She admits that this makes her terrifically happy. She suggests that the world may be different after all, but Toohey assures her it is not. He sends her out to continue battle.

That night Toohey thinks about Hopton Stoddard, a multi-millionaire with a lot of respect for Toohey, who was spending his old age desperately trying to find a religion that would promise him a happy afterlife. Now, Stoddard wants to build a magnificent temple dedicated to all the world's religions, just to hedge his bets. Toohey has been trying to get him to build a home for sub-normal children instead, but Stoddard has thus far refused to be swayed. A few days later Toohey goes to Stoddard and tells him he has changed his mind. He now agrees with the idea of the temple and wants to recommend an architect. He explains that Stoddard can pick no one else but Howard Roark, and he tells Stoddard exactly how to persuade him. Furthermore, he outlines a plan to generate a lot of publicity, which involves building a huge fence around the construction site and not taking it down until the building is unveiled. Stoddard follows Toohey's directions to the letter, and a few days later Roark agrees to build "The Stoddard Temple of the Human Spirit."

Analysis

In this section of the novel, the conflict at the root of The Fountainhead finally becomes clear. This conflict consists of simultaneous battles, conscious and unconscious, between Howard Roark and Ellsworth Toohey, Howard Roark and Dominique Francon, and Ellsworth Toohey and Dominique Francon. The most interesting of these three is the fight between Toohey and Roark, for Roark does not yet acknowledge that he sees Toohey as an adversary, much less a dangerous one. The battle begins the moment Toohey sees Roark, and it is interesting to note that, like Dominique, Toohey does not need to know who Roark is or what he has done to recognize