The Fountainhead

Even a Rapist Can Be a Hero

from JoeUser Forums
I've been reading Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" for about a week and a half now and I'm halfway through PART 2.

I really enjoy the book, it has that great "can-do" spirit going on. You know, build yourself up from nothing and take no prisoners, I don't need anybody... fierce independence.

The characters are very interesting and I like the little complexities. You can never really put your finger on anybody. You cannot say "oh he is the good guy, she is the bad one" etc.

A few thoughts, though, for anyone who has read the book. At end of Part 1, why does Roark ask Mike to get him a job? Roark has the work experience to get a job on his own and before this moment he never asks for anybody's help so why start there?

Also, what is up with the brutal sex? Is this something symbolic I am missing or was Ayn Rand just kinky like that?

===I.W.A.
books
11,173 views 1 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Good questions...Rourk does seem very self sufficient until that point doesn't he? But he trusts Mike, one of very few people in the whole world at this point. He seems to have put his entire past behind him, so he cannot go back to his past work in the quarries. He also makes it clear that he doesn't want anyone to know who he really is, or where he is. They just call him Red. He asks Mike, because he trusts him, and because he wants anonymity and Mike has the connections to make it work.
As for the kinky sex thing, well, I hadn't thought much about it, but I think that Dominique had to be broken. She had set her mind to have no men, and suddenly she was drawn to this one. It was going to take a lot to break a lifetime of expections. He needed to be a thunderbolt in her life. He was. Still is. Always will be. The real strange stuff comes later..