Tuesday, April 21, 2009

blog 4

3. Wynand chooses Roark to build his home because he is in love with Roark's purpose and work. Wynand has a particular purpose for building this home, which generally revolves around both a tribute and a protective barrier for Dominique from the rest of society. Wynand finds Roark fitting to do the job because all of his designs are made for a specific purpose, and there is never anything useless in his buildings. Wynand wants every single part of the house to represent and encase Dominique, which he knows Roark will be able to do if given free reign over the plans. In a more symbolised sense, however, it is fitting for Roark to build the tribute to Dominique because he is, indeed, in love with her. Although Wynand loves Dominique, I don't think that at first he realized that it would take someone who shared that with him in order to build what he was asking. The essence of their bond dwells with ideals and perceptions. They are complete opposites, in a sense, but they think alike, as well. While Wynand is after power, Roark is simply after having his work constructed, but both of them see the differences between creators and second-handers. Both of these men are in love with Dominique, and while it is easily apparent to Roark, it was hidden from Wynand. Their bond is only understandable once many of the factors have been brought to attention, but it is very deep and very apparent. While they respect each other, they both have their own intentions and plans to carry those intentions out.6. Roark's design for the Cortlandt Homes is altered because the design went through Keeting, and Webb and Prescott knew that Keeting would be easy to step all over. Keeting has always given in to what others wished of him as to avoid being seen as rebellious or argumentative. Webb and Prescott were not aware that the design was created by Roark, but they stepped in to partner with Keeting and altered the design in order to, in a sense, give it a gilded appearance. The society in which this took place affected the outcome in various ways. The specific area for which the design was made was very poor and declined, hence the building was meant to be low rent and cost efficient. The society did not know the plans, the original design or who it was by, therefore they did not make even a notice when the plans began to change. Roark was away with Wynand at the time, so he could not enforce Keeting to stand up. Although Keeting did make efforts to stop the changes being made, he was ineffective for quite a few reasons. Keeting had never stood up for himself, and this once-in-his-life action probably seemed more like a joke than it did a real request. He had never cared before, so people didn't value his opinion. He had become a failure, so people didn't respect his wishes, judgement or threats.11. Roark is saying that individuals have conquered while second-handers have copied. Independent minds have created things, while dependant minds have simply been praised for making duplicates. He is saying that creators rise to the occasion, while followers copy stuff and expect it to be used even in a time when it is not needed. Roark is an individualist, and every part of his designs carry purpose and dignity, while say, Keeting, for example, always relied on past works and got help in almost everything he was challenged with. Roark's work has purpose and makes sense, while Keeting's work is simply praised because it was praised in the past. 12. Rand makes the point that anything can happen if you have your business in order. From the beginning of the book, Roark was expected to be a failure, but he ended up winning. In various places his work was always recognized and praised, because there were other people that thought like him. She makes the point that if you stick to what you started out with, you can achieve the corresponding goal that you set. Rand makes the point that success can be achieved even in the most heinous situations.Toohey failed at life. While he was a twisted collectivist, he was considered evil throughout the whole book. Toohey manipulated people and looked for power, while Roark used nothing but himself and looked for his buildings to be useful. Toohey was bad, and he lost. Roark was good, and he won. The power of evil can be used to manipulate and hide the truth, but with the power of good comes realizations that show the truth and everything real. Rand makes the point that the power of good is stronger than the negative power of collectivism.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

blog 3

1. Wynand has one set of morals that he uses, but his newspaper uses an opposing set. Wynand choose to follow societies rules and morals, while hiding his real self from everyone. Therefore, he created the biggest newspaper in the U.S. by backstabbing He discovered that putting corrupt stories into print made better sales than good samaritan stories.Wynand has forced himself to go along with the corrupt collective society around him, and, by doing this, causes himself emotional pain. He has entered a secret depression from the long-term effects of his lifestyle and is on the verge of suicide.Dominique saves him from his spiral of death and prolongs , inevitable.


2. why did Toohey presents Wynand with the statue of Dominique. His intentions benefit himself as well as Wynand and Dominique. First of all, Wynand benefits because he falls in love with Dominique and marries her. Dominique benefits because she sees Wynand as someone who is more of a threat to her true love, Roark. Later on, though, she sees him as Roark who merely acts corrupt like Keating and Toohey.But for Toohey, the benefits are far better. He wishes for Wynand to be happy and distracted. He hopes both of these wishes will be furfilled simultaneously. The distraction will give Toohey a chance to initate a coup on the Banner. Ironically, Toohey wants Wynand to be happy, and he wants to take over the Banner as well, two things that contradict each other. Like I said, Toohey's intentions are complex.Wynand falls in love with Dominique.


5. Dominique realizes that Wynand has the qualities of a perfect man. Because of this, she sees him not as torture for not finding perfection, but as a similar person to Roark. Her conflicting emotions make her question her knowledge of Toohey. Because she sees the real Wynand, she tells him what she feels.Her presence with Wynand is strange. She tries to treat him as she did Keating, but she occasionally treats him like Roark. These conflicts, in turn, make her wonder how she didn't know the real Wynand beforehand. She realizes that Wynand is Roark, except he chose to hide his individualist self and played by societies rules. This threw Dominique off after she married him.Dominique visits Roark for a variety of purposes, some obvious and others unnoticeable.


6. Dominique visits Roark because she wants to give him another chance. She asks him to give up architecture because she doesn't want the world to see his work. Roark refuses to accept her wishes because he realizes that she doesn't want him to follow his dreams ,she wants him to not furfill his dreams and live. Roark doesn't want society, or even Dominique, to force him to give up his individualism. Dominique visits Roark for other reasons. One is because she yearns for his presence, even though she had been torturing herself by marrying Keating. Another reason is because she truly can't forget him, as evident when she sees Wynand as Roark. Dominique's meeting with Roark is questionably one of her greater moments in the story, as her entire purpose and intentions are revealed in one scene

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Fountainhead Blog 2

Fountainhead Blog 2
1.) At the granite quarry, Dominique is deeply attracted to the red-headed worker who stares at her insolently. She pursues him aggressively, but resists him in the moment of her triumph. Given that Dominique is eager to make love to Roark, why does she physically resist? Ayn Rand once stated regarding this scene that, if it is rape, “ then it is rape by engraved invitation.” What does she mean? Is this actually rape, i.e., is Dominique an unwilling victim?

I think that this was something imbedded in her mind. This was only because she had an image of things being perfect and imperfect that caused her to react to the situation the manner in which she did at that time. Her state of mind in which she was in encouraged her to make the situation seem as if it was a rape when it was just to get her off. This was a result of her control issues.

2.) Though strongly attracted to Roark, Dominique both pursues and fights him. Is this inner conflict regarding her love representative of some deeper aspect of her character? How does this ambivalence relate to her destruction of the Greek statuette that she loves? To joining forces with Ellsworth Toohey in an effort to wreck Roark’s career? To refusing to pursue a serious career in spite of her great intelligence? Are Dominique’s motives for thwarting Roark the same as Toohey’s?

In my opinion Dominique doesn't know what she wants at all. Its as if she is confused. Its not the first time that she has done something to destroy something that she loves. Maybe its something going on within herself that she can't allow herself to become submissive to anything.Dominique to me is a selfish female. She doesn’t want to except what she wants or love. Instead she try to recreate reasons to gratify her options’; which is to me wrong. I think that this later on will be exposed when she lets her insecurities flow out. And her reasons for wanting to destroy him are much different from Toohey's.

4.) At Kiki Holcombe’s party, Keating gives advice to Roark. He says: “ Always be what people want you to be.” What is the meaning of such a statement? Why does Keating believe this? What does such an approach to life reveal about the soul of Keating and of people like him?Keating advice is actually what it sounds like.

Basically he is telling him to be submissive to everyone around him. To me this is taking the life from your life because your no longer an individual you have become someone else. Keating thinks that when someone is an individualist they are somewhat setting themselves up for failure. This is enslavement of life from yourself. Roark has then makes everyone happy when he does what they want and expect him to do. This exemplifies his lack of confidence by excepting this advice from him.

5.)Dominique thinks of Roark as the face of a god. This description is not to be taken as literal; everything is a representation of something has a deeper meaning. By face, Dominique is describing Roark's representation of an idea or maybe belief. By god, she is describing the ideal of architecture in my opion. Thus, the meaning of the saying is simplified: Roark represents the true ideal of architecture, which is also part of Roark's belief system. By the statements made by Dominique she reveals her exceptance of something which she belived to be an ideal world.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Blog 1 Fountain Head

1)Though Keating often leaves Catherine Halsey waiting weeks for him to call, the author makes it clear that Catherine is special to him. How does the author show Keating's love for Catherine? In contrast to Keating's motive for pursuing his other values (in work, for e.g.), what personal significance does his relationship with Catherine have? What fate will befall Peter if he betrays his love for her?

Keating is truly in love with Catherine Halsey. He thinks about her all of the time. Early in the book Fountain Head he talks of marring her. He is hastening about meeting her father. He and her father works in the same field of architecture. From what I know he is a critic and that played a major part in their relationship.

2) Explain in detail the reasons for Howard Roark's expulsion from the Stanton Institute of Technology. The Dean states that Roark has "a determined little group of defenders" among the faculty, while other professors "felt it their duty" to vote for his expulsion. Why do the faculty members on each side evaluate Roark and his work so differently?

Roark was expelled from Stanton because his work was too “extreme”. Roark had a lot of great ideals and wanted them to be challenged. Roark stated that he didn’t want to do the same thing over and over and that he wanted to do his work, his way. Roark was called into the Deans office and he explained that some of his Professors did want him to stay, but the disapproval of his work weighted more then what his approval was. The faculty views Roark as being a know it all person. .

3) Roark gains employment with Henry Cameron. Cameron, though a genius, is a commercial failure. Why has society rejected his work? Why does Roark nevertheless revere him? What qualities do Roark and Cameron share in common? What is the fundamental difference between them and Francon and Keating?

Cameron was a well known architect. Like Roark he wanted to be challenged. He had made buildings that were more then buildings, but pieces of art. Roark and Cameron to me are very similar because they don’t allow the society around them to dictate to them what they should be doing. Francon and Keating have a great firm but they do what is expected of them and nothing involving their creativity.

4.) Keating goes to work for Guy Francon, the most successful and prestigious architect in the country. What are the methods by which Francon has achieved commercial success? Does he have anything in common with Keating? In what ways do they both differ from Roark?

He has achieved success by having his workers create buildings of beautiful work of art. He has a wide spread of clients and he has lots of brillant wonderful designs that .Francon has achieved and mantain his sucess by using others, and Keeting what he sees fit for himself, as well.Keeting and Francon both manipulate others, and they both know it. They both differ from Roark because he actually does all his work in relation to his own ideas. Roark publishes nothing but his creativity and logic, while Keeting and Francon both use others. Francon does none of his work, and Keeting uses others ideas.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

blog four

In my opinion this society lives a person unmotivated. The quality of their lives in which they live are short; people basically no matter how old are young had to live to the same standards. This to me is a life worth dreading, because their living their life what I call dead.
Personally I think this book was based on the past, and didn’t give good facts, personally.
The discovery in this chapter was electrically.


1) central heat and air
2) music are news
3) light to help me see
4) heating for the stove


5. I believe the reasons for rejecting equally ideal was out raged. The council forced to move away.

Friday, December 12, 2008

blog five

1) At first I was unsure of what the Uncharted Forrest symbolized, but after close consideration I found out that it’s where he finds true freedom for the first time and adopted new names that represent their true identities.
4) In this part of the book he now realizes what life he has is a less noble goal than what his efforts are.
3) a) Those quote is something that didn’t really make me think. I think that everyone in this life is on a journey. Each one of us has a life to live, but something pushes us to do what we do wheather right or wrong.
b) I am a very out spoken person so it’s hard for me to keep a lot of things in. Some things should just be spontaneous and without thoughts. I feel this way because life really doesn’t give you a chance to really think things out throughtly. With that being said I can kind of feel what this quote is talking about.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

blog three

1. What might it be like to be in a society where there are no "selves" and "we" has replaced "I"? This question that has been opposed opun me is one quit puzzling in a way. I think that this would take away a lot of misunderstood perceptions of people which others oppose on them at times. When speaking of no "selves" this could stop a lot of greed but at the same time courrpt a person because no one is the same, because if there are no selves then it's we. Then again, if there is I how can we become we?2.I think that names give an effect of what her concept is, as far as what the book is about. Often as the reader, reads you can notice that the character is not exactly addressed with a name but, with a number. Which is strange to me ,because I haven't yet graspped a full understanding of Ms.Rands writing.3. I believe that the unspeakable word could possible change if used. This may happen only if, the people who take offense to it changes it's purpose. With this being said, over time in history we have seen the effect of words that it may have on one, but then in the long run it changes meaning for the one it was meant to take offense to but still has the same history in pass behind it.