Response to the Fountainhead
Response to the Fountainhead The excerpt of the brought me into the scene of a drastic debate between a unique young student and a strict dean. It is no doubt a conversation of age, as well as principle. Roark, a highly personalized architecture student, was facing the awkward situation to be expelled from his university because of his terrible performance and random attitude towards his final project. He received an interview from the dean who was trying to find out whether Roark was aware of the trouble made by himself. Unexpectedly, not a single sign of regret and acknowledgement did Roark show to the dean. In his point of view, it is pointless to do an architectural project which he would never consider to fulfill. Moreover, pure imitation and approval of a famous ancient architecture is ridiculous because fame isn’t necessarily equal to no mistake. However, Roark’s opinion was way far beyond the dean’s bottom line. According to the dean, later generation could only respectfully repeat those masterpieces, no need to say the blasphemy to correct mistakes of ancient architectures. The debate between the generations regretfully didn’t reach an agreement, resulting that Roark was finally expelled from the college. There is a “Roark” living inside everyone. Not all of us would act in Roark’s way, but might more or less think in Roark’s way. What makes up the difference is that we lack the courage to put our radical thoughts into action. Lots of fragment in the excerpt touched me, deep inside my heart. “Best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing.” It even took me certain amount of courage and strength to just put myself in that scenario. I stand aside with Roark, not only because I appreciate that kind of courage which makes up the difference between thinking and action, but also because Roark is a typical representative who advocates the power of uniqueness and origination. The generation I belong to, have accepted