Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged

The mere mention of the name Ayn Rand alone is provocative, not to mention, controversial. But I am a firm believer in the saying that "a novel is only as good as the words that the author has put into it"; and therefore, an author's autobiography has got nothing to do with my take on his or her works. So despite Ayn Rand's Machiavellian maneuvers to manipulate people's lives in order to inspire her to write, I am thoroughly in awe of her masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

In sharp contrast to what I'd just said, Rand's novels are greatly influenced by her own life's philosophies. In the case of the The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, she speaks extensively about her philosophy, Objectivism. The book, The Fountainhead, follows the story of Howard Roarke, an architect whose approach to his craft and his interactions with several characters in the book, more intimately, his lover, his arch-enemy, his newspaper publisher, and his architectural critic, epitomizes Objectivism. Here is a supremely ethical man who reasons with his own mind, lives his life according to his terms, uninfluenced by society and standards other than his own, and who has himself at the center of his purpose. It is not surprising that the author herself follows the same philosophy; and although the character of Howard Roarke is patterned after world famous Chicago architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, much of Rand's life is portrayed in her novel. Howard Roarke's character is commonly misunderstood; despised by many readers believing that he is unfeeling and incapable of sympathy, which I do not agree with completely. Roarke is a romantic in the truest sense of the word. Don't forget that this is ROMANTIC literature. Ayn Rand, like Roarke, lived the life of a romantic; she admired and imbibed passion, love and art that reflected life long range. Both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged took what was good and "evil" in her characters and magnified it mockingly to an extreme. It was a mirror to society and her personal scorn for their constipated bourgeois attitudes about life. I thought it was brilliant.

Literature must be either romantic, dramatic, provocative, or inspirational for it to be worth the time to read. When I read, it is for three reasons, mainly to take what I can learn from a book, but also to bask in the beauty of its composition - the weaving of words, and to gain another's perspective. Ayn Rand has aroused in those that have read her, so many curious aspects in human behavior that her popularity often supercedes her greatest literary works that anybody worth his or her ink and pen would agree that The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged should not be left to gather dust and mites on bookshelves. Written by one of the greatest thinkers of the century, Ayn Rand's two masterpieces are definitely worth reading.

• Objectivism
  
• Barnes and Noble: Ayn Rand Books and Reviews
  

More on Books and Literature

• The Best Things in Life are Often Forgotten