The Fountainhead. I think it's safe to say that the majority of Mrs. Burnett's first period Advanced Placement English class enjoyed this book, which, along with the rest of the summer's required reading, raised controversial questions about individuality and the fight against the standards of society. It was easy for us as the readers to cheer on the protagonist, Howard Roark, Rand's "epitome of perfection", and it was also easy for us to boo the characters that dared try to stand in his way or force their ideals on him. During the Socratic Seminar, most of us had no trouble expressing our disgusted opinions of Rand's lesser characters such as Gail Wynand, Ellsworth Toohey, and that wretched woman that gave birth to Peter Keating... what was her name again? Ah yes, Mrs. Keating.
But, if you really think about it, weren't we essentially booing ourselves?
It's quite clear that Ms. Rand's opinion of society and humanity as a whole is not very high, and we see this through the way she portrays almost every character in her book whose name does not start with an "H" and end with an "--oward Roark." Apparently her opinion rubs off on her readers, who seem to fall into that same mentality as they read. I'll even admit to being one of them. I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose in disgust whenever I read about Keating's pathetic attempts at gaining society's fickle approval, or shake my head sadly at the way Katie allowed herself to be manipulated by her uncle until she became something quite unrecognizably inhuman and ugly.
But think about it. Think about it really, really hard. How many Howard Roarks do you know? Allow me to restate the question. How many people do you know that have absolutely no emotion whatsoever and never allow themselves to be influenced by the opinions of others? Personally, I can't think of one person who cares nothing whatsoever of the opinion of their family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, teachers, students, pets, etc. etc. etc. Whether we realize it or not, we all have some pretty ugly truths about ourselves that we hide from others for the sake of gaining their approval. But aren't those people the kinds of characters from The Fountainhead that we booed?
Let's take Mrs. Keating as an example. Yes, she was annoying. Yes, she was arrogant. Yes, she forced her opinions down her son's throat and used the guilt factor to twist his way of thinking. No, she probably doesn't deserve the "Mother-of-the-Year" award.
But you wanna know something else about Mrs. Keating? She was human. She had her flaws, no matter how exaggerated Rand might have made them, and she acted out of selfish impulses and desires the same way all of us have done probably more times in our lives than we would like to admit. Like all of us, she had motives behind her actions. I truly believe in my heart that Mrs. Keating loved her son and wanted to see him succeed, however twisted her view of success may have been, but at the same time she was also afraid of losing him and being left alone and friendless, and that's why she was always trying to keep him around.
You may not be able to find it in your heart to feel compassion for this woman, and that's okay, because she probably doesn't deserve your empathy anyway. However, I think we all should be able to find in our hearts the ability to sympathize with her. Remember the scene where Ellsworth yelled at her while talking to Keating and she reacted like a scared puppy? Did you really feel not one ounce of sympathy for her at that moment? If not, then forgive me for asking, but who can you sympathize with? Howard Roark doesn't need our sympathy. He doesn't need anything from us. We could spit in his face and laugh and point at him behind his back, or we could clap him on the shoulder and audibly praise his acheivements, and it wouldn't make a difference either way.
Now, I'm not advocating that it's wrong for Roark not to care about other people's opinions or let himself be influenced by society's ideals. Honestly, I wish I could be more like him sometimes, because trying to please people gets really tiring after a while. All I'm saying is, as much as we and the author may want to believe it, there's no such thing as Howard Roark. He isn't real. He doesn't exist. Mrs. Keating, on the other hand, does. So I think maybe we should do a little less booing and a little less judging; take our noses out of the books every once in a while and take a long, hard look at the reality that surrounds us; and try to fix our own problems instead of condemning someone else's.
-Kati Davis
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