September 2009 Monthly English Blog

One of the questions that we questions we as a class never directly addressed during the Socratic Seminar about the fountainhead was question 5, asking about the relationship between the physical description of the characters in novel and the buildings they design and construct. I thought this question was particularly interesting because it was something that I was actually thinking about as I read the story, before I even read the questions, and I think it was a very creative idea for Rynd to compare the physical descriptions of the characters, and make them similar to their building concepts. For example, Howard Roark was described as tall, lean and angular, such as in the description of his hands and body movements even in the very beginning of the story as he stands on a cliff. His personality was stone cold and he said nothing that need not be said, similar to his buildings, he added nothing that had no purpose, like in the Heller House for instance, unlike his contrasts, Guy Francon and Peter Keating. Modern buildings such as the ones Roark drew were tall and angular with straight lines and little curves, show similarly to Roark's body structure, tall and muscular. Guy Francon on the other hand was described as very fashionable and flamboyant, keeping up with the desires of the public, both fashionably and architecturally as traditionally styled buildings were in demand from the public. His buildings like his personality, varies depending on what other people want it to be, similarly to Peter Keating,he adopted and added personalities to suit the needs of others, like the unnecessary pillars and moldings of the buildings that merely mimic those of ones famous from the past. Even in John Erik Snyte's firm, the buildings his employees design show resemblance to their actual personality, Gothic, Renaissance, etc. As it seems, Rynd employs stereotypes, or archetypes of sorts to make her characters real. Their architecture mimicking their appearance and personality, as we might say that as a stereotype that the hero character is strong and muscular and the sidekick is less so. I think that the factor of the characters mimicking their creations was a creative and innovative idea, that though is similar in other works, like in the case of a hero being powerful or a villain having an actual evil appearance stereotype, I like that she used stereotypes in a way unique to the story and I think that it is one of the greatest defining characteristics of the novel.