Selfishness In Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

A common belief is that selfishness is a repelling quality in a person. Children do not go a day without hearing the words “sharing is caring” being preached by their guardians; there was no escaping the concept that not letting people use each others things was rude. Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead shares with readers a different viewpoint of selfishness when it comes to the creation of what some call art. Howard Roark, a man with mysterious amounts of confidence, had not a shred of doubt when preaching his belief system of egoism and criticizing altruism when it came to his line of work. Roark turned down reasonably sustaining commissions when his business hit rock bottom simply due to his opposition to the proposed design and he did not want to associate his name with the classical style of the building. There is no doubt that people would think his decision was illogical and unreasonable, but Roark stayed true to himself and
Roark did promote egoism and felt that giving up himself for others was wrong, but he did it for his passion. He was not a man that would hinder other people’s growth for his own to thrive. Not accepting the Manhattan Bank Building and destroying the Cortlandt building projected passion, not selfishness. His creativity belonged to himself; forcing it on others to change their ideas was not his motive when promoting his business and when people forced adjustments on his ideas, it was unacceptable. In that way, he stuck to his morals and practiced what he preached. The denunciation of altruism that was evident to every reader of The Fountainhead had no shame behind it. Ayn Rand created Roark as a shameless yet powerful man, having him start at the bottom and literally finish on top. Roark’s drive to get his artistic view unapologetically recognized definitely was backed by egoism but also fueled by passion to stay true to