Integrity, according to Ayn Rand, is commitment in action to one's own best thinking, to one's own mind. His first-handed method is also the principle that explains Roark's integrity. Because Roark's method of functioning doesn't change, he is able to create and successfully fight for revolutionary designs. But his method of functioning, his devotion to autonomous thinking, does not change.

An independent man like Roark learns a great deal of content in his life - indeed, because of his commitment to the fullest use of his own mind, he is the only type of person who can. Roark is like this from the first moment of the story to the last - and, most likely, he has been this way since early childhood. The essence of his character is an unswerving devotion to his own thinking and judgment. He learns a significant amount over the course of the story - about architecture, the 'principle behind the Dean,' and other matters - but his fundamental convictions remain untouched. He is his own man.īecause Roark is his own man from the beginning, there is no change in the essence of Roark's character. Others (like Keating) may choose to submit, but Roark will not.

A man's thinking and values are not controlled by God or the fates or society or any external factor - but solely by his own choice. Roark is an example of free will - the theory that an individual has the power, by virtue of the choices he makes, to control the outcome of his own life. He is a product of the choices he has made. He is not the product of his upbringing, his economic class, his family, his religious training, or his social background. Roark is the antithesis of contemporary belief that an individual is molded by social forces. He is presented as the author's version of an ideal man - one who embodies the virtues of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy. He believes in the merit of his revolutionary designs and has the courage to stand for them in the face of an antagonistic society. Like Wright (1869-1959), Roark is fiercely independent. Although Ayn Rand does not base Roark's life on the specific events of Frank Lloyd Wright's life, Roark does possess many of the qualities and face many of the obstacles that the great, real-life, American modernist did.

Roark is a brilliant young architect of the modern school, whose bold and innovative designs are rejected by large segments of society.

The fountain head book