TheFountainhead is not just the story of man who wanted to live by his own rulesbut is also a socially and politically relevant
story. It is a comment by adie-hard capitalist against everything that communism holds sacred. It’s aboutthe virtues of selfishness and almost narcissistic obsession with oneself andone’s work. Ayn Rand believes that if one did only one’s job honestly therewill be no need for charity. But this is not the way she puts it. She does nottake a lecturing tone, neither an advisory one. She comes out hard and straightagainst those who preach selflessness. The Fountainhead takes a dig on thephonies but in doing so she completely overrules the fact that there may a fewpeople who might be genuinely interested in the welfare of others thinking verylittle about their own. In the novel, a character is either
perfect,semi-perfect, imperfect or downright evil, but all of them have some element ofworldliness about their perfection or the lack of it. A common thread stillbinds them. Ayn Rand does not dwell upon real world, she does not even try tocreate an artificial world resembling the real one but goes all the waycreating a world that has only such people who either
conform or conform herphilosophical inclinations, and no other. That’s where the novel fails becauseit tends to philosophize for the real world in an almost entirely fictionalworld that has little resemblance with the real one.