Rand's 1943 novel follows architect Howard Roark, who refuses to design anything except according to his own judgment, is expelled from architecture school, works in a quarry rather than compromise, and eventually dynamites a housing project he designed anonymously when the design is altered without his consent. The trial that follows gives him the speech in which Rand states her position on the individual against the collective.
The contrast structure carries the argument. Peter Keating succeeds by giving people what they want and by advancing through others, and ends with nothing of his own. Ellsworth Toohey, a critic, deliberately promotes mediocrity and altruism as a means of acquiring power over people who have been taught to distrust their own judgment. Gail Wynand builds a media empire by giving the public what it wants and discovers he has no power at all, only the appearance of it. Dominique Francon believes that anything good will be destroyed by the world and acts to destroy it first.
Rand's stated theme is individualism against collectivism, expressed through creators who work from their own vision and second-handers who live through other people's opinions. Her treatment of integrity as the refusal to accept any modification to one's own work is absolute.
The novel is long and the characters function as positions. The rape scene, which Rand described as rape by engraved invitation, is indefensible and remains a serious problem in the text. The architecture is symbolic rather than realistic. As a moral argument about working from your own judgment it has been influential well beyond its literary standing, and its readership among founders is substantial.
Founders drawn to an absolute argument for working from independent judgment, prepared for a long polemical novel with serious problems in it.
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