Roark Begins Happy

[AMERICONORMAN]

The following is not a "Thesis" as in a Phd. disseration. It is a thesis in the form of a central idea for an essay. And thus it can inspire some to work on their own essay on the same idea; and introduce new fans to an idea that only now seems obvious to me. That Roark has to learn about the principle behind the Dean confused in the past my now obvious statement.

Americo.

On Roark's Happiness--by Jose Gainza

1

The idea is that Virtue is a whole. The Virtues listed by Ayn Rand in <The Objectivist Ethics> are part of a whole. In the process of validating each one, one will meet with the others. Each one represents “allegiance to existence.” “The virtues are differentiated from one another according to the particular metaphysically given facts they identify” (OPAR pg. 251). Rationality identifies the fact that reason is man’s basic means of survival. It is by this tool, which is valid, that a man must live. When a man chooses to live, because it is through life that he experiences happiness, he will find that it is only by using his basic tool that he will provide himself with the necessities of life. In this process, he must seek to evaluate positively the competence of his mind and that he is worthy of happiness that his mind will seek to grant him.

Independence identifies the loneliness of every individual mind. An individual mind can operate alone, and it can operate <effectively> alone. There is no collective consciousness that communicates with each individual consciousness. Each individual feeds his own soul, and its products are his alone. When a man chooses life, and recognizes that he requires certain objects and conditions to fulfill his needs, he will find that most of those needs will not be given to him. And more, his hunger will not be satisfied by another man feeding himself. And thus, if there is no man to grant him a gift, and there is no fruit tree to pick from, he will have to produce it himself.

The knowledge that his neighbor has of how to plant food, will not be in his own mind, and that foreign knowledge will thus be useless to him. Thus he has to discover the knowledge himself. By witnessing his neighbor initiate the thought process about production, will not initiate his own thought; he must initiate it himself. He must open his own eyes and spark his own soul, and feed his own life.

Thus speaks his independence.

And if he knows this, how could he not act accordingly? If he wants to live, and he knows that only he can provide himself with food, how could he <expect as duty> that another provide him with his sustenance? He will not and he should choose not. And if he judges that a friend is awesome, talented, and good, fills him with joy, yet he listens to some vague feeling that tells him to run away—how could he stand it? His integrity should command him to stop, stay, and pursue—by his integrity he should obey!

Rationality tells him that it is only by his mind that he can live. Independence tells him that he, like every other man, is an island; and that he must and can only think for himself … if he wants to live as man qua man. His integrity is the only possible commandment: that from within his own soul (his ego, his mind).

It seems that all our virtues are actually one. Just like the universe is the whole; so is knowledge that identifies the aspects of the universe correctly; and so is Virtue by which man deals with that universe … one aspect at a time.

2

Like Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, Howard Roark came down from his "mountain", as he plunged down into the abyss, his crash broken by a placid lake, to live among men. Roark began his journey a happy man; Zarathustra, weary. Roark already had within his own soul all the necessary virtues, and thus Virtue. His central purpose was to apply his virtue in his chosen career—not such a selfless act like Zarathustra: to teach other men. Consequently, and only incidentally, Roark did teach other men. With every one of his erections, he gave a certain type of man an inspiration to rise up to. By his integrity, he taught Dominique how to love, and how to will her will to live. On the Yacht sailing on the Pacific, Gail Wynand was lectured on the nature of the second-hander. Though on deck he left out one important application of his theory, in his court speech where he taught the world that reason is man’s basic means of survival, he finished his lesson to Wynand: Gail understood that he “wasn’t born to be a second-hander,” though he presently was.

Howard Roark suffers greatly, he is hurt severely, his desires are frustrated at the marketplace and in romance. But remember his famous introspective phrase, paraphrased here: the pain only goes down so deep. It now occurs to me that Howard Roark, at the beginning of The Fountainhead, is a symbol of the bare minimum of genuine happiness achieved (according to Objectivism). Thus Howard Roark is not a god—though a better god than any thinker had previously conceived of— … he is a man … man as he could be and should be.

This orange-haired, homely-faced man is happy even when getting expelled from school. It seems that only a happy man can experience the utter intensification of happiness. Surely, while ascending the elevator, to the roof of the highest structure in the world, the monument of the great achievement that is his soul, he is happier than he was at the beginning of the novel. What is different?

He has gained an unobstructed road as an architect. He has won himself a wife. (He has lost his best friend). He has grown wiser about the nature of the men he has to deal with. “She saw him standing above her, on the platform of the Wynand Building. HE WAVED TO HER.” (FH, last page; emphasis added). The last act of Howard Roark is simply to greet his beloved by the wave of his hand, as simple as his expectation that she would one day reach his height. This confidence of Howard Roark presupposes that he was always at that moral height. Happiness is an issue of Ethics. The pain only went down so deep because below “a certain point” there was a splendor of happiness—that of a good efficacious, and self-sufficient man. Now, at the end, when he experiences a combination of happiness intense like never before, the pride of this achievement will forever remain as part of his eternal happiness. Yes, he may still have occasion to “suffer” since men like Toohey are still slithering around the world. But his happiness will always remain so long as he keeps his integrity.

Edited March 16, 2005 by AMERICONORMAN