Howard Roark: character analysis

In the book, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, the ideal goal for characters is to become an objectivist. Naturally, there must be a character in the book that qualifies what Rand believes to be an objectivist. In her novel, Howard Roark becomes such a character. The beginning of the book opens with Roark standing on the edge of a cliff naked. This signifies that number one, he is at ease with himself and has no troubles in the world. Number two, it reveals him as the protagonist of the novel. This is in contrast with someone like Peter Keating who simply does not know what to do with himself unless someone is there to tell him that he is correct. Howard Roark does not compromise anything to anyone else's beliefs and that is an objectivist point of view. He believes himself to be the best however, he doesn't care if others think so. Along with his anti-social attitude comes a certain believable power that we see prominantly with Roark's interactions with Dominique Francon. This shows that an objectivist holds power above everyone else. After discovering what Roark does with his unique power, one can decide that he truly does only do what he wants to do and he cares for little else. He is not looking for fame or glory, he is looking for truth (in his architecture) and he is looking for happiness (which he finds even when money is scarce). He does not pay any attention to negative critisism such as what Ellsworth Toohey and Dominique Francon give him because the only critic in his world is himself. That is how an objectivist is to act. Howard Roark's talent for architecture labels him not only as the protagonist of the story but also as someone who has the power to be a protagonist in real life. He is the ideal person in Ayn Rand's mind. That is what makes Roark so interesting to readers. Most readers, I would dare to say, can not identify with Roark simply because the average human being cares about other people's opinions. However, people can identify with Roark's love for what he does and they are surprised and proud of the glorious way that Roark handles critisism as well as praise. His ability to read people makes him even more ideal and powerful. It makes people afraid and allured at the same time. The reader spends the entire novel to discover Howard Roark and at the end his objectivist personality shines through. He stayed himself to the very end. The only difficulty is that readers feel like there is more and that makes Roark all the more interesting because we shall never know the true story of Howard Roark.

Dominique Francon Character Analysis

In The Fountainhead, Dominique is a powerful woman that has fortune by way of her father, Mr. Francon. However, Dominique is completely different from her father. She finds beauty in many things including destruction whereas her father, being an architect cannot imagine greatness unless it is comprised in  his own office. Dominique has set her life in her own values and much like Roark, she does not compromise her values. However, Dominique is a woman and during the 1920s women were expected to get along with society. Dominique is a cold hearted woman until she meets Roark. Roark breaks down her control of her world simply by knowing her. When Roark moves away, Dominique is cold again and she and Keating agree to court publicly but in reality Dominique constantly snubs Keating. Dominique punishes herself constantly because she always believes that she has done something wrong to the world or the world has done something wrong to her. When Roark returns, she meets him at a party and they do not discuss the rape because she is still not sure what to think of it. Roark instills emotion in her that she cannot understand because she has been such a cold hearted woman for so long. Eventually, Dominique punishes herself as a substitute for punishing the world because the world does not understand Roark. She does this punishment by agreeing to marry Keating. Now, Dominique is showing her ability to not care about society and the expectations in it. Keating and her do not get along and their marriage is somewhat of a joke. However, society is entranced with their marriage and Roark has become “the other man” in Dominique’s life. She does not have a problem with going against society like this. Roark and Dominique continue to meet at nights and Roark and Dominique admit their love to each other. This is significant because up until meeting each other, both characters were freezing out the rest of the world and showing little to no emotion. Dominique has shown a powerful emotion by loving Roark and they both understand the need to push each other’s limits. Dominique pushes Roark by talking out against him in her column. That is, until she is fired. Dominique is just like Roark in her lack of ability to compromise her own values. This makes her and Roark quite alike.

Modernism: T.S. Eliot

The modernist movement in literature is one of the most important movements due to its dedication to modern life and reality of the time. The movement happened during the late 19^th and early 20^th century in accordance with the Great Depression. During this time the world was getting smaller and people realized how insignificant they were compared to the world. Literature of the time focuses on this alienated feeling and uncertainty. It also focuses on the breakdown of stability as is what happened in the Great Depression and during the World Wars. Modernist works tend to use a lot of allusions or references to something by implication in their works. One great poet of the time was T.S. Eliot. He was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic.

T.S. Eliot was a Harvard man, an Oxford man, so in general, an educated man. He got his name going in literary circles with his poem called The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. It was considered a masterpiece and T.S. Eliot was officially a significant man of the twentieth century. He proceeded to write other great modernist pieces such as the Hollow Men which people still analyze and study today. Eliot was destined to be great. As a young child he showed off his first poem and it was immediately published in a local newspaper. This trend continued throughout his career. In 1948 he obtained a Nobel Prize in literature and that toped his literary career. They say that T.S. Eliot found his inspiration in the book called The Symbolist Movement in Literature by Arthur Symon. Eliot found this book in the Harvard library and it changed the way he looked at his literature. The poetry of Jules Laforge was in this book and the voice that the poems had took Eliot by the heart. Later when Eliot did a post-graduate program in England, he met his wife and settled in Europe. He furthered his modernization during the war and his poetry was becoming better and better. However, he did not publish many poems compared to other remarkable poets. But his poems were so incredible that the few that came out, came out as great pieces of literature. In the Hollow Men, one can see where T.S. Eliot allowed his faith to come into his literature. The Hollow Men is one of his great pieces ever. T.S. Eliot had many great works and overtime his life modernized his work and his poetry modernized literature.

URL used:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/life.htm

The Jazz Age and Flapper Era

The wonders of the Jazz Era filled America in the 1920’s to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Jazz was started originally by African Americans but middle class white Americans made it an actual societal movement. During the 1920’s radio boomed and large scale radio stations would play jazz for hours at a time. Over time, the younger groups of people became aware of jazz and jazz officially became a pop-culture movement. Thus the Jazz Era was born. Most people are aware of Louis Armstrong, one of the main jazz artists around at the time. Dances became popular as well. The Charleston took off in tandem with its acceptance to white culture.

More stylized dance became an important part of society as well. The Jazz Era is also known for its flappers. The woman’s suffrage movement opened largely in the 1920’s after the women found the perks of a working environment during World War I. As women began to feel the need to be more equal, the flapper culture really started to show itself. This was through more and more women flaunting themselves in a manner of shorter skirts, bobbed hair, smoking in public, heavier makeup, and all around a freer atmosphere. In the 1920’s prohibition was also instilled and the flapper women tended not to follow in accordance with these laws. The flappers were responsible for pushing the boundaries of women’s “norms” new dances such as the Charleston as mentioned earlier and the shimmy came about and at the time these moves were considered scandalous. Women got jobs and held them for reasons other than family need for money, they advocated women’s voting rights, and in general caused a political havoc. The flappers also had their own ways of defining marriage, whereas before a woman could not wait to be married as soon as possible, the flappers often referred to a wedding or engagement ring as a handcuff or manacle. This shows their distaste for being tied down or under restrictions of marriage. While the flappers’ style was considered scandalous, a more toned down version became popular among non flapper women. The corset was removed from everyday wear in exchange for straight waistlines, short hair became popular and skirt length was raised above the knee. The style became more boyish other than the skirts. Overall, the flapper women had a major impact on both politics for women and culture for women. The Jazz age was a time of political and cultural change all across America.

Citations

“Flapper." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper>.

"Jazz Age." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Dec. 2010.                                <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Age>.

Are Real or Imaginative Stories More Appealing

Generally, a library has two main sections, fiction and nonfiction. The nonfiction section is generally populated by students gathering information for research papers, projects, etc... The fiction section is full of kids and adults alike scanning the books looking for something to spend their free time reading. In this case, the nonfiction section would be the realist section. The fiction section would be the romantic section. People like to read about perfection, perfect lives, perfect conflicts that work out perfectly. It appeals to our senses. We can look at many successful books based on imagination. We have the hugely successful Harry Potter, it has many realistic conflicts however, the way these conflicts are interpreted (generally through magic) is what makes these books interesting. It is something interesting to read about because we can not ourselves fathom this world that is being described. Twilight is another series that has been very successful and used romantic ideals. There are vampires and love and werewolves and hate. Over time, people just become engrossed in this new world opened to them. I suppose there are books that have been "best sellers" in the nonfiction section but I for the life of me, can not name a single one.
Another example of imagination being more appealing than real stories is the ever fantastic world of Disney. The Disney Channel relies on their shows taking place in a plot line that most people have not themselves experienced. For example, Wizards of Waverly Place involves wizards which none of us have ever had to deal with that sort of secret. Another prime example is Hannah Montana, no one can imagine how it is to deal with two seperate lives. Phineas and Ferb is definately unrealistic, no one can build a record breaking roller coaster in one day when they are not even in high school yet. Even the Disney Classics such as Peter Pan, Cinderella, Snow White, Mulan, and even the mascot himself, Mickey Mouse are all unrealistic with idealized traits and happy stories that appeal to people. Overall I believe that Imaginative stories are more appealing because of the unrealistic and unfathomable nature of them.

Trancendental schools

This week we had to create a Trancendental school and present it to the class. The trancendentalists beleived in simplicity, connecting to nature, and individuality. Schools in our systems today have rules that limit individuality, complicated lives that are far from simplistic and often the closest we get to nature is the documentary about reproduction in biology class. Some groups had creative and innovative ways to create trancendental schools. Many had outdoor classrooms and or gardens. Some had drawings each day to decide the class schedule for that day as well as to avoid a pattern of life. I thought that this was exceedingly smart because many other groups simply let you choose what classes you take which is similar to what we have now anyways. Regarding nature many groups had bird watching clubs and classes outdoors. Many had environmental science which helps to connect to nature. For the project it was required to make a model of the school. Some had pictures, others had small scale 3-D boards.
Thinking about what a trancendental school would be like is interesting. Every student must maintain individuality and must not respond to others with feelings of jealousy, envy, or any other strong emotion. This in of itself would be extremely difficult since it is often times almost impossible not to compare yourself with others. A trancendental school however, may seem to be more laid back due to individuality and non conformity. This means that often, these model schools would have had only a few classes a day or short classes depending on the teacher's schedule for the day. There is a constant change of atmosphere for the children of these schools. When comparing this type of school to the type we have now, it is extremely different. We often have some sort of drama going on in one place or another and there are clubs that keep people together and on a similar schedule. This is the opposite of nonconformity and individuality. There are other interesting differences in the way that a trancendental school would be focused on connecting with nature and feeling your outside surroundings through calm and slow days while now we focus on how to work the next big piece of technology or study research effectively. We also have busy schedules that often keep us running around until dark or later. I find it interesting that some people lived like this at one point and right now it is impossible to imagine how they survived. Overall I think I prefer the way my life is lived now, active and conformed.

Elaboration of Transcendentalism Survey (3 examples)

It's ok to be jealous sometimes-theres always someone who has it better than you. I beleive that this is true. It is ok to be jealous of someone sometimes. The world is built on jealousy. We go to the gym not because we want to be in shape but because we want to be as skinny or skinnier than that model on the magazine cover. We are jealous that the other girl has a small figure and want the same for ourselves. The same goes for grades. When the person next to you gets a 97 on a test and you get an 81, then you get jealous of the 97 and work harder to bring up your grades yourselves. This is constructive and helps more often than not. However, there are times when one should not be jealous. It should not take over someone's mind, that is like a virus spreading. Too much jealousy leads to conflict which leads to more jealousy. Therefore, jealousy can be a constructive tool, however; there is such thing as too much. Jealousy quickly transforms to a green monster.
You should always trust yourself. I beleive this to be true as well. In school, teachers tell us to go with our intuitive answer and it will often be the correct one. I have  had first hand experience with changing my answer and changing it incorrectly so I understand where this trust comes from. It is sometimes difficult to understand that you may not think you are right but you are. It is unnerving to beleive in yourself but it is often rewarding. However, if you are trusting in yourself that you are wrong, that is correct too. Not everyone can be right all the time so trust your intuition whether it tells you that you are doing the right or wrong thing and just go with it, see what happens.
It's ok to contradict yourself; it's okay to change your opinions often. I think that this is true as well. Everyone has stated an opinion and during a conversation changed their mind. Do not be embarrassed to admit that you are wrong. Instead be embarrassed that you didn't want to admit your wrong. It makes a better person to change opinions openly and often. It gives more perspective to a situation and that trait comes in handy later in life.