Thus, to Roark (and to Rand), a group of people working together is inefficient and unthinking. Roark declines to be part of it, saying that he doesn’t “work with collectives”-he doesn’t “consult, co-operate, collaborate.” To Roark, doing so would be impossible because he would have to submit to the will of the majority when working as part of a group. According to him, egotists are the ones who “do, think, work, produce” because “very creative job is achieved under the guidance of a single individual thought.” When Roark’s popularity grows, he is asked to be part of a council of eight architects who would work together on an exposition for a World Fair. He lives out this principle through the novel by never compromising on his architectural design style, even when faced with a lack of work and money.

Roark believes that “very man creates his meaning and form and goal,” and that the mere number of people who think differently from oneself is immaterial. When Toohey encounters Roark soon after, he asks Roark what he thinks of him, to which Roark replies, “But I don’t think of you.” Despite the personal cost to Roark, his sense of self is immune to Toohey’s underhanded schemes. As a result, the building is destroyed, Roark’s reputation is tarnished, and he has to pay a hefty reparation. For instance, Toohey, the villain of the novel, sues Roark over the design of one his buildings, the Stoddard Temple. For him, the streets empty.” He does not give his attention to just anyone-one must earn it by being worthy, and most people are not. At the beginning of the novel, he walks through the small town of Stanton, completely unaware of the people who stare at him “with sudden resentment” because most sense his immunity to their opinions and immediately dislike him. Roark comes across as an independent individual, extremely confident in his talent as an architect and in his worth as a person. By contrasting the hyper-individualistic Roark with the collectivist mindset of those around him, Rand makes the case that individualism is the only path to morality, success, and fulfillment. Roark believes this and lives his life by it-it is the very reason for his excellence in his field of architecture, as well as what makes him ethical by Rand’s standards. According to Rand, when a person focuses solely on his or her own happiness, rather than the wellbeing of the collective, it leads to the fulfillment of that individual’s potential without him or her being dragged down by society’s dictates and the mediocrity of the masses. Rand described Objectivism as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” The protagonist of the novel, Howard Roark, epitomizes the tenets of this philosophy. The Fountainhead is an exploration of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism.

The fountainhead sparknotes