The Fountainhead Rhetorical Analysis

Howard Roark’s speech in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead displays the author's personal philosophy of objectivism. Objectivism is an idea that Ayn Rand had developed and promoted in her works of literature. Objectivism advocated for the rights of individual freedoms such as someone being able to do whatever that person desires with their own creations. In this case, Ayn Rand’s character Howard Roark; who had dynamited his own building . Through Rand’s persuading diction, immense detail, and powerful organization, Ayn Rand takes a stand through a fictional character to promote the idea that an individual should be able to live freely without society or the government scrutinizing him.

Howard Roark’s diction strengthens his testament of being his

own man, how people did not deserve to live off him by taking away his creation, how he was an individual with his own mind to make up. Roark compares himself to creators who he envisioned as independent thinkers, “[h]is creation - not the benefits others derived from it - the creation which gave form to his truth.”Cortlandt was Roark’s creation, but others had cheated his original vision through breach of contract; henceforth, Roark decided to blow up his soiled Cortlandt. Roark starts to conclude his testament with “[t]he world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.” Roark’s choice of diction using “orgy” can be alluded to the sin of being heavily indulged and making the world become rampant with the sin of self-sacrifice. This choice of diction is used because of Roark’s perception of individuality being taken away from independent thinkers such as himself. Roark chooses to not accept being cheated by the breach of contract and the unwanted change of Cortlandt, he chooses to not be apart of the orgy of self-sacrifice, which is killing the world.
Throughout Roark’s speech, Ayn Rand’s use of detail strengthens Roark’s testament. Roark uses the great creators in his defense, their “every new invention was denounced. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. The fought, they suffered, and the paid. But they won.” This line shows the struggle of the people who had to keep progressing when society and their brothers had denounced them. It shows this through the mention of fighting for independent ideas without others destroying it, as the men did at Roark’s Cortlandt. Roark talks about the people who change a man's creation, ones who destroy independent ideas as parasites. “The creator stands on his own judgement; the parasite follow the opinion of others” “the creator requires independence” “the parasite seeks power.” Roark compares the men who cheated him as the parasites who were hungry for power and had changed Roark’s ideas, a creator’s ideas.
Roark’s syntax moves to historical, to the present day, to the future of humanity and its endeavors.

In the beginning, Roark talks about the humble beginnings of man and the great creators that lived before him. These people gave humanity their creation without the interruption of others, before the orgy of self-sacrifice in the present. This is talked about because these men were allowed to act alone and create what they wanted to create, no input from others needed, unlike Roark’s present that contains cheaters and other parasites. In the middle, Roark talks about how parasites are collectivists who essentially want to bound all men in shackles. The philosophy of Rand’s objectivism and the idea of collectivism contrasts at this point of Roark’s speech; it voices the flaws of Rand’s opposing viewpoints. In the end, Roark’s speech moves to a call to action for “every man of independence left in the world.” Roark’s speech moves away from his own defense but to the defense of every individual who refuses to rely on society. It’s Roark’s and Rand’s main idea of the whole speech, the individual should be unhindered unlike the plot behind Roark’s back. The individual has the rights to their creation and can do whatever they want to do with it, without society’s say in

it.
This speech in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead has remained relevant in modern-day politics to right-wing Libertarians. Roark’s testament has been used in many arguments to try and justify the rights of the individual versus collectivist ideas. The author’s purpose is to promote that a man should be able to roam free with their body and with their mind. According to Rand, individuals are free while collectivists and parasites are slaves.