The relationship between Roark and Keating dominates the first two parts of the novel. Rand uses the comparison between Roark and Keating to express two opposite poles. Roark is Rand's hero, the epitome of everything Rand attributes to being good. He holds to the ideals of honesty, integrity and hard work in a world marked by personal and social corruption. Despite situations of unemployment and poverty, he always lets himself be guided by his individual opinion and makes extremely difficult choices with foolish courage. Peter on the other hand represents everything Rand deems empty or worthless. He is portrayed as a man motivated by the praise and approval of others. Without any sense of personal integrity, his only means of identification is success, which he achieves primarily through manipulation, servility, and hypocrisy. The extreme contrast between these two characters serves as the cornerstone for the beginning of the novel, and Rand uses it to develop Roark's character as that of an extremely objective and individualistic man driven by the desire to actualize himself through his work. This becomes clear at the very end, when Guy asks Roark to create the biggest and best building New York will ever see, "...as a monument to [his] spirit..." - the largest project ever built from Roark. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBoth Keating and Roark begin their journey into the professional world from the Stanton Institute of Technology. Peter is the teacher's pet, a competitive young man, inspired to achieve greatness through achieving all the social parameters that define him. He graduates with honors and is offered an extremely lucrative job at America's largest architecture firm. At the same time Roark is expelled from school for insubordination and non-conformity. He is believed to be talented, however his lack of respect for traditional architectural techniques makes him appear as a "disobedient" and "arrogant" individual. Despite appearances, internally Peter finds himself a little unsure about what he wants for himself. He has difficulty making decisions about his future and only decides to accept a particular job position when his mother suggests that if he doesn't it would definitely go to his arch-rival Shlinker. Roark on the other hand is calm and clear-headed despite his expulsion and the uncertain professional future that looms in his light. When Peter asks him for advice he tells him: “If you want my advice, Peter, you have already made a mistake. Asking me… Never ask people. Not about your job…” This demonstrates a fundamental difference between their approach to interpreting life events and the philosophies that continually guide them through their career paths. At Francon and Heyer, Keating continues to be a conformist. He believes his success is completely dependent on deworming himself as close to Francon as possible. He uses Francon's every weakness, be it his dislike of Stengel or his lack of design ideas, to achieve this goal. Keating takes on the role of Francon's best ally, completely conforming to Francon's professional, social, and personal standards. His relationship with Francon is fundamentally based on manipulation and connivance. When it comes to planning, however, Peter finds himself completely at a loss, unable to put all his successes and accolades into practice. Howard Roark goes to study with Henry Cameron, a modernist now considered one of the best. Roark's motivation to work under Henry is not driven by any social opinion. Yeshe turns to Henry solely out of respect for his work and with the goal of learning architecture through design, which would essentially mean building from scratch. At Henry's, Roark's days are filled with intellectual challenges and physical labor. Unlike Keating, Roark does not weaken Henry but strengthens him as an example of courage and solidity. Howard also has a profound impact on Henry. Henry begins to believe in the value of individual work again and on his deathbed says to Roark: “Remember the day I tried to fire you? …Forget what I said then… It was worth it. indicating that he was wrong to be pessimistic about the world. Where Henry symbolizes individualism and integrity towards work, Francon represents moral loss and degradation. Roark never used Henry like Peter uses Francon. In contrast, Roark brings some stability to Henry's life as Henry helps him complete his understanding of architectural design. Peter quickly gains popularity after starting his profession and proceeds to adorn himself and everything that represents him with luxuries that help him identify with the most successful men. of his time. At one point in the novel Peter ends up blackmailing Heyer into (Heyer's) death in an attempt to further his own career. It is an important stage in Keating's life. He reaches a point where his desperation to control people grows to a highly immoral capacity. Rand uses this event to establish that his manipulative antics have a serious criminal character and are not just innocent, helpless attempts to gain social approval. Roark, unlike Keating, does not adopt or impose on himself any false social practices to obtain commissions. He does not patronize clients by attending parties or joining guilds, nor does he compromise his designs to incorporate irrelevant elements of popular architectural forms in order to impress his clients. He continues to work and thinks that his own work will help him acquire more challenging assignments. Rand freely used dialogue and speech to express important aspects of her philosophy. Toohey and Wynand have important career relationships with both Roark and Keating. A comparison of their contributions to the professional intricacies of Roark and Keating proves a powerful means of analyzing the topic of this discussion. In Toohey, Peter seeks redemption and comfort. He wants to blind himself from the Roarks of the world and reassure himself that being imperfect and dishonest is a common practice and therefore not wrong. Toohey states that preference must be given to the disabled over the able-bodied and able-bodied and that mediocre individuals must be loved and not denigrated. These ideas make Peter feel better and worse about himself at the same time. Peter began his career manipulating others and now ends up being used and manipulated by Toohey until Peter's true self is completely annihilated. Although Toohey campaigns aggressively against Roark and his ideals, Roark unlike Peter is not completely influenced by him. When Toohey successfully destroys Roark's version of Stoddard's Temple and asks him on one occasion what he thinks of him, Roark only says "But I don't think of you." Guy Wynand offers projects to both Keating and Roark but with different motivations. In giving the Stoneridge project to Keating, Guy performs an act of indifferent derision while Roark is offered each project out of respect and friendship. Roark does not have to trade anything with Wynand for his assignment, but Peter is encouraged to trade his wife for the project. Peter decides to end his relationship with Dominique and literally sell her to Wynand just for the purpose of obtaining the Stone Ridge Commission...