Why does Roark make the Dean uncomfortable?

[Dufresne]

During Roark's meeting with the Dean of his former school, the Dean feels uncomfortable about Roark. He knows that Roark looks straight at him but he feels as if he were not there. Peter Keating's mother has a similar feeling. Can anyone explain to me why they feel that way?

[Tom Robinson]

During Roark's meeting with the Dean of his former school, the Dean feels uncomfortable about Roark. He knows that Roark looks straight at him but he feels as if he were not there. Peter Keating's mother has a similar feeling. Can anyone explain to me why they feel that way?

Roark is a rebel on several levels: against architectural traditionalism, against taking knowledge on faith, against collectivism. While Roark is no doubt superficially polite, he has no particular regard for the Dean or Mrs. Keating or the values they represent. For him, they are psychologically invisible. On the other hand, the Dean and Keating's mother, both authority figures, are used to blind, automatic respect, and Roark's not playing along makes them uncomfortable

[JMeganSnow]

I think it was more his lack of respect for their opinions than lack of respect for their persons that made them uncomfortable. They were used to using their words as tools to control people; when they spoke to Roark it was as though their words disappeared into an inexplicable void, as they had no effect.

The Dean and Mrs. Keating were not so much authority figures as manipulators. Later in the book Roark develops the principle of the second-hander ("The principle behind the Dean") to explain them.

[AmbivalentEye]

OH COME ON PEOPLE!.....

I mean I'm sorry, but I'm one of those that treats my Ayn Rand book like it's some sort of Bible so I guess it's hard for me to believe someone would actually ask this.

:::sigh:::

The whole thing about the Dean being uncomfortable is very symbolic to the book. I remember that when I read the book, I didn't necessarily start liking Roark until he was in his meeting with the Dean. The whole mood of the scene makes it quite clear that there is a very striking difference between Roark and the rest of society. As a reader, I remember a feeling of uncertainty over whether I was drawn by Roark's contrast to the universe around him, or if I was drawn by the fact that it could very well be me in that same situation one day. Both concepts intrigued me because on the one hand I was begining to know this unbelievable entity that appears to be insinificant because of the low approval he gets from others, but who is at the same time vital for the preservation of something in his character that makes him very appealing (this is defined later).

The Dean feels uncomfortable because Roark can't help but radiate that essence of inviolable ego that he has. It's incredible. Most of Ayn Rand's main characters have that quality, and they all make the people around them uncomfortable. It's like every time that Dagny walked in at a party during Atlas Shrugged, or when Francisco walked in to a crowd, or even Dominique's character at her job. He is uncomfortable because Roarks confidence and integrity seems to threaten his own high standing and I don't think that Dean ever in his life felt like he was below on of his students. He tries to assert himself by the fact that he runs the university and that it is his office, but the great thing about Roark is that when he looks at you he makes you feel like either you don't exist, or that you are the center of existence. Either of which puts people in an intellectual state of panick. There's more philosophy to all of this, but I'm very young and I honestly don't know how to use all the terminology. I hope I was of some help any way.

-J

[MightierPen]

Sometimes there are things you can just tell about people. Like how later on in the book Roark picks his jury simply by looking at them. Roark just emits this crazy ego-vibe that shakes up everybody who requires the approval of others for their self-esteem.

[iouswuoibev]

I don't believe it was a lack of respect that caused Roark to make the Dean uncomfortable, but a lack of recognition. He had no grasp of the manner of a second-hand consciousness; he assumed they faced existence the same way he did. But since they are second-handers, they expect a psychological mirror: they believe they have certain qualities because others believe they have them. Roark is just; he does not grant the unearned in any sense whatever.

If everyone you approached started bowing and scraping, you may - if you choose not to think - get a feeling of authority, a sense of importance. If so, you have invested your view of yourself in other people, rather than by an objective standard conceived by your own judgement. If, a few years later, you were to meet a person that absolutely does not recognise you as an authority, as automatically worthy of respect, and only responds positively when you do something worthy of it, you would realise then that to the extent that you built your self-esteem on the reactions of others, your actual ego is non-existent.

Someone who, throughout their whole life, has built their whole self-concept on the reactions of others, needs people as psychological mirrors to give them the illusion of a self-respect (and a self-concept, and a self) they haven't got. The man who won't mirror, forces him to search within himself for a guide to action and thought: and what he finds is nothing.

EDIT: Reworded sentences while retaining the original meaning, corrected some horrific grammatical errors.

Edited November 2, 2005 by iouswuoibev

[Andrew Joseph Sandberg]

.

Edited December 2, 2006 by Andrew Joseph Sandberg