Abstract

Down through history, various political and philosophical movements have sprung up, but most of them have died. Some, however, like Democracy or Communism take hold and affect the entire world. Here in the United States, perhaps the most challenging and unusual new philosophy has been forged by a novelist, Ayn Rand. Ms. Rand’s point of view is still comparatively unknown in America, but if it ever did take hold it would revolutionize our lives. This quote was the lead-in to a 1959 interview of Ayn Rand by legendary broadcaster, Mike Wallace. His prescience could not be fully understood by viewers at the time and the extent of the fruition of his statement is still unknown to many to this very day. Though she had already been published repeatedly and was a successful Broadway playwright, Rand did not become a household name until she burst onto the national scene with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. Due in large part to the fact that Rand did not allow anyone to edit her work in any way, the book was rejected by twelve publishing houses before it was finally picked up by Bobbs-Merrill (Schleier 312). The Fountainhead’s two main themes, the consequences of determining one’s higher values through the opinions of others in lieu of using one’s rational faculties and the primacy of the individual through the projection of the ideal man, struck a chord with millions of readers who still identified with the tradition values of American Individualism and outraged Progressives who were turned off by its militant egoism. Quickly spreading by word-of-mouth, the book became a bestseller and was transitioned to the big screen in 1949 with Gary Cooper as the leading man for the box office hit. Having built a loyal fan base with the skillful intertwining of her unrefined philosophy with the story of individual heroism in The Fountainhead, Rand was granted the license to fill her next and final novel, Atlas Shrugged (1957), with the didacticism and preachy economics of her fully developed philosophy which she deemed Objectivism. Though Atlas has consistently outsold The Fountainhead over the decades, both books have enjoyed consistent success, remarkable staying power, and broad practical impact. Since the turn of the century, a combination of increased scholarly inquiry, startling parallels between events in the novels and real-world occurrences, and a general destigmatization of Rand has led to a boom in sales of all of her writings, both fiction and non-fiction. Combined sales of her three novels and her novella broke the 1,000,000 copy mark in 2009 for the first time since their publication more than fifty years earlier, a feat that would be repeated in 2012 (“‘Atlas Shrugged’ Sets a New Record”). That brings the overall sales of The Fountainhead to more than 8 million copies, and the total combined sales of all her works to more than 30 million copies (“Ayn Rand Hits a Million…Again!”). More than a quarter century after her passing, this Rand renaissance has catapulted her back into the limelight and has transformed her into one of the most influential figures in contemporary America. Having held a prominent status in politics and economics since the 1960’s, Rand has gradually evolved into the philosophical figurehead of the modern Republican party. In 2010 and 2014, the party celebrated sweeping electoral victories that gave them control of a historic number of governorships and legislative majorities at the state level. On top of their recent dominance in state and local elections, due to the election of Donald Trump in 2016, Republicans now occupy the top posts in all three branches of the United States’ federal government, as well. This amount of power across the board has not been held by party since the landslide wins of the Republicans during Reconstruction in the late nineteenth century. With one party now commanding such immense authority, it is especially noteworthy that all of these top Republican officials acknowledge that they have been influenced and inspired by the same writer/philosopher, Ayn Rand. Speaker of the House of Representatives and former candidate for Vice President, Paul Ryan, has said that Rand, more than anyone else, led him to become a public servant, and Ryan hands out Atlas Shrugged as mandatory reading for all of his new staff members. In addition, the longest serving conservative jurist on the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as the newly elected President Trump have both stated publicly that The Fountainhead has served as inspiration for them. Justice Thomas even holds a viewing of The Fountainhead film at his home each summer. It is difficult to comprehend that one writer whose last novel was published over a half century ago would have such contemporary practical impact, but it is even harder to believe that her ubiquitous popularity amongst Republican leadership and the conservative voter base continues to grow while staying under the radar of many in academia. Leading philosopher and professor at the University of Ljubljana, Slavoj Žižek, describes this phenomenon: Ayn Rand’s idea is an enlightened egotism, no compassion for others, like pure individualist, brutal capitalism. So while she tries to formulate the very hard core of the liberal capitalist ideology, she does it in such a way that she is an embarrassment. She is very popular. Her books are, I think, second after the Bible and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind on the list of eternal bestsellers. But nobody publicly refers to her although her influence is crucial. (“Žižek about Ayn Rand…”) Though her “crucial” influence went largely ignored in the scholarly literature for decades, the recent establishment of a journal devoted strictly to Rand related research has exponentially expanded the knowledge base about the author. The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, established in 1999, has shed light on Rand’s work and her influence by publishing hundreds of articles by some of the top intellectuals in the world. Papers in this journal have explored topics such as Rand’s biography, her philosophy, and her literature while also delving into her far-reaching influence, as well. Her sway in the fields of economics and architecture have been noted for years, but recent investigations by academics writing for The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies have proven that her mark reaches far beyond these areas. Fresh research by these leading thinkers shows that she had a profound effect on some of the famous writers and businessmen of the twentieth century including the co-creator of Spider-man, Steve Ditko, the Noble Prize winning author, John Steinbeck, and world-renowned entrepreneur, Steve Jobs. Though many such issues regarding Rand have now been examined in depth, several key subjects have yet to be fully analyzed. Though Rand claimed to be an independent thinker without a philosophical inheritance, many scholars have addressed her connection to the ideals of the American Founding which also help to explain her opposition to American Progressivism. In order to give context to the deeper theme, this dissertation exhaustively explains her place in the American Individualist lineage and her position in the modern American political dichotomy. This dissertation will demonstrate that Rand forms a pivotal link in the chain of the American Individualist tradition, the goals of which were announced by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and the principles of which have served as essential tools for American leaders at every major turning point in American history. These values were almost universally accepted amongst the American people until the late nineteenth century when the Progressive movement brought with it an opposing mindset that called for a more powerful central government, a more subjective worldview, and a collectivization of the Enlightenment concepts regarding individual rights. This movement dominated American politics in the first half of the twentieth century, but it was without a true written doctrine until the Progressive manifesto arrived in 1971 in the form of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. Alinsky’s tactical guide to community organizing has become the primary tool for his political progeny which includes former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Thus the two sides of the American political divide are now headed up by individuals who have long since passed, Ayn Rand of American Individualism and Saul Alinsky of Progressivism. Though the split is now quite clear, one aspect of Rand’s influence makes it even more remarkable than that of Alinsky. Rand’s vast political influence has been spurred almost exclusively by her fictional literature and not by her smorgasbord of non-fiction, philosophical writings. Most scholars and commentators have focused on Rand’s philosophy and economic leanings while they have overlooked the fact that her popularity started with and is maintained by her two novels, “Many people do like Rand’s novels because of her individualist orientation. But how many like them solely for that reason? Would Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal or The Virtue of Selfishness have attracted any audience at all without the prior success of her fiction?” (Cox 19-20). Throughout history, it is rare that works of fiction become so hugely influential that they inspire a political movement in a leading global superpower. Rand’s enormous influence has been well documented, but the facets of her fiction which give rise to its popularity and make it a more effective vehicle for the communication of her philosophy have not been thoroughly examined to this point. METHODOLOGY AND OBJECTIVES This dissertation will present a comprehensive exposition of Rand’s scope of influence and her place in the American philosophical landscape while delivering an innovative analysis of The Fountainhead that dissects the aspects of Rand’s fiction that cause it to strike such a profound chord with American readers. The literary, historical, and philosophical nature of this dissertation presupposes a qualitative method of investigation. A pragmatic strategy will be employed, focusing on change and the real world. Sources used for this dissertation include first-hand observation and personal interviews as well as audiovisual and textual analysis. While particular attention was paid to primary sources, numerous literary criticism and academic journal articles were probed. First, due to new scholarship and constant developments in American politics, the succeeding sections represent an extensive and up-to-date compilation of Rand’s broad scope of influence. Second, this dissertation gives an exhaustive look at the roots of the modern American political dichotomy and Rand’s place therein. Third, the single most unique aspect of Rand’s ascension will be analyzed in detail in the final portion of this dissertation. Rand’s fiction has proved to be a more effective vehicle for conveying her worldview than her voluminous publications on current affairs and philosophy, and the last section of this dissertation offers original insights as to why this is true. This meticulous literary analysis will prove that Rand consciously designed her fiction to resonate with the American people, both positively and negatively depending on one’s political leanings, will explain the connection between her Romantic theory of art and traditional American optimism, and will demonstrate how many of her literary techniques were employed in a deliberate attempt to attract and sway American audiences. Each chapter of this dissertation will lay out the philosophical, cultural, sociopolitical, and literary bases necessary to fully comprehend why Rand constructed her fiction as she did, as well as how and why the American people, specifically, have reacted so strongly to The Fountainhead. Chapter One (“Ayn Rand’s Reputation in Academia”) will delve into the motivating factors that drive the mutually antagonistic relationship between Rand and the academy. Due to the author’s perpetually strained rapport with those who publish in the scholarly literature, the portion of this dissertation which is traditionally dedicated to a review of previous scholarship on the subject must also address why Rand was scarcely examined until recently. In the words of Dr. Andrew Hoberek, “It wasn’t too long ago that Ayn Rand, despite her enormous and ongoing popularity, was all but invisible in the criticism and history of twentieth-century American fiction, although that has begun to change” (33). During the extensive research for this dissertation, it became glaringly apparent that, compared to her contemporaries with similar sales figures and cultural relevance, Rand had been relatively under-researched for decades. Thus several possible explanations for this are presented and analyzed in detail in this section. First, the exclusion of Rand’s Objectivism from the contemporary philosophical discussion is traced back to the eighteenth century “purification of philosophy” by German historians who contended that most female philosophers could be disregarded as religious or mystical in nature (O’Neill 186). This stereotype was effectively branded onto Rand as critics likened her writings more to cults than to philosophy. Following this brief look at potential sexism in the field of philosophy, this chapter then inspects at length the abundance of left-leaning scholars and their opposition to Rand and the ideas which she espouses. Recent studies are referenced that show a marked political slant amongst American professors who are registered to vote, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans at a ratio of ten to one (Walters 1). Though most of these intellectuals surely do not consciously blackball Rand from their research, it is natural for many to focus their investigations on subjects which interest them most instead of spending too much time reading up on an author who constantly irks them. On top of a verifiable progressive bias in the academy, some of Rand’s more controversial statements and stances are dissected. Her declarations sometimes serve to legitimize the disdain for many intellectuals who were inherently predisposed to dislike her from the outset. This section notes that several of her works of fiction, including The Fountainhead, feature scenes in which the protagonist violently rapes the heroine. Though she may be given creative license in her fiction, she has stated her belief in multiple speeches and non-fiction essays that the psychological role of a woman is that of priestess who is happiest when worshipping a male hero. Add that to her belief in the intrinsic virtue of technologically advanced societies which she used at times to rationalize the United States’ murderous policies toward Native Americans or justify an American presence in the Middle East and it becomes clear why progressive professors disregarded her for decades. Her character Gail Wynand puts this notion on full display in The Fountainhead: Never [have I felt small when looking at the ocean]. Nor looking at the planets. Nor at mountain peaks. Nor at the Grand Canyon. Why should I? When I look at the ocean, I feel the greatness of man, I think of man's magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks, I think of tunnels and dynamite. When I look at the planets, I think of airplanes…that particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature--I've never received it from nature, only from...Buildings...Skyscrapers…Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. (446) This chapter will then explain how Rand was thus widely rejected by the academy until 1999 when an academic journal with the sole purpose of publishing Rand related research was established. The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has led to an exponential broadening of the knowledge base regarding Rand’s life, her work, and her expanding scope of influence. This journal continues to publish new investigations which must be continually updated due in large part to the effect of the twenty-first century Rand boom which has caused a precipitous increase in her artistic, cultural, and political impact. Chapter Two (“Scope of Influence”) will give a comprehensive look at Ayn Rand’s influence on an incredibly diverse range of professions and artistic disciplines. This portion will cover how her mark in the fields of economics and architecture has been well documented for decades, dating back to her mentorship of the Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, and her modeling of the character of Howard Roark in The Fountainhead after the famed Frank Lloyd Wright. This chapter will then go on to illustrate how the recent destigmatization of Rand has allowed many important figures in business, like Steve Jobs and Mark Cuban, to reveal how she has inspired them. Furthermore, it will show how this more publicly recognized prominence has led her critics to use her as their conservative foil, as one can see in repeated references of her in some of the longest running television series in history such as South Park and The Simpsons. New studies will be presented that have uncovered a much more significant artistic reach of Rand than previously thought, including influence on such renowned authors as Ira Levin and John Steinbeck, as well as her role in inspiring several of the creators of the modern comic book super hero such as Spider-Man co-creator, Steve Ditko, and the writer of Sin City and 300, Frank Miller. Finally, this chapter will detail her immense impact on modern American politics, how she has gradually become the philosophical guide of the Republican Party, and how her fiction has profoundly touched the highest ranking Republicans of all three branches of the United States’ federal government. Chapter Three (“American Individualism vs. Progressivism: The History of the Modern American Sociopolitical Dichotomy”) will contextualize Rand’s significant place in contemporary American politics by providing a thorough history of the two dominant and rival schools of thought, American Individualism and Progressivism. Rand is often seen as a philosopher on an island of her own and she reinforced this viewpoint by habitually making assertions of her originality. However, this section will demonstrate that she actually forms a key link in a long chain of American Individualist philosophy that dates back to Aristotle and that was further refined by John Locke during the Enlightenment. Though in the latter half of her career she frequently claimed the uniqueness of her ideas, her journal entries at the time that she wrote The Fountainhead prove that she was really attempting to reaffirm the values of the American Founders, “Capitalistic democracy has no ideology. That is what the book has to give it” (Journals 86). Thus to fully understand Rand’s ability to connect with the American people through her fiction, one must know the history of the philosophy which she sought to defend. Chapter three will present a detailed history of American Individualism with a specific focus on the principles of natural individual rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the crucial role of this document during many of the pivotal turning points in American history. Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, and Martin Luther King, Jr. all harkened back to the goals put forth in the Declaration, and they relied upon the words of Thomas Jefferson in their fights for the equal protection of individuals’ rights in the United States. This portion of the dissertation will show why Rand, as a historical matter, fits into the lineage of American Individualism. It will then elaborate upon the origins of the rival American Individualism, Progressivism, which rejected the philosophical and political bases of the American Founding in favor of a collectivized notion of civil rights and a centralization of governmental power. The history of Progressivism will be detailed from its birth out of Marxism in the late nineteenth century to its domination of twentieth century American politics, including the establishment of the federal income tax by Woodrow Wilson and the implementation of the modern welfare state by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Specific attention will be paid to the genesis of the modern Progressive movement, codified in the 1971 manifesto, Rules for Radicals, by the Chicago community organizer, Saul Alinsky, whose tactics have been successfully employed by some of the most powerful Democrat politicians of the twenty-first century, namely former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This section will also touch on the source of Rand’s visceral aversion to collectivist philosophies like that of Progressivism which stems from her experiences in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. In late 1917, when she was only twelve years old, the new regime deemed Rand and her family to be members of the bourgeoisie and seized for public use their family-owned pharmacy and their home in the flat above their business (Britting 12). She blamed this traumatic episode not only on the Bolsheviks, but more generally on any and all collectivist philosophies which she felt drove mobs to use violent force against individuals. The rest of her career would revolve around this issue. Finally, chapter three will explain the intricacies of the modern American political dichotomy and the juxtaposition of Rand and Alinsky as the philosophical figureheads of the two movements, noting that Rand’s practical political influence is uniquely derived from her works of fiction and not from manifestos as in the cases of Marx and Alinsky. It will show how the enormous popularity of Progressive figures such as Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama amongst the American youth along with the ubiquity of Rand enthusiasts throughout the Republican leadership is proof that this dichotomy is in its nascent period and will come to define twenty-first century American politics. In order to comprehend the ideas which Rand wished to communicate through her fiction, Chapter Four (“Rand’s Objectivism”) will provide a thorough understanding of the philosophy that she developed during the second half of her career which covers a wide variety of philosophical sub-categories including epistemology, metaphysics, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics. This section will explain how Rand formulated Objectivism to become the moral defense for the ideals of the American Founding, like laissez faire capitalism and individual rights, while throwing aside the religiosity of the Founders’ concept of God-given rights in favor of a rational, epistemological justification. This chapter will be broken down into two parts, the first of which will be Collectivism vs. Individualism. In this subsection, the roots of modern collectivism will be analyzed by examining the philosophies of Karl Marx and his predecessor, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Furthermore, the philosophical bases for Rand’s individualism will be probed, and the practical consequences of her individualism will be delved into. This includes her staunch opposition to racism in the midst of segregation, her early support for the legalization of abortion, and her advocacy for the legalization of gay marriage more than forty years before its fruition. In the second part of this chapter, the dichotomy of Objectivism vs. Subjectivism will be investigated, including an analysis of Rand’s scorn for Emmanuel Kant, and how her early affinity for the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche soured as she constructed her own belief system. This subsection will detail the impact of Kant and Nietzsche’s philosophies on the events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and will give Rand’s opinions on the psychological consequences of the concept of a priori knowledge and Nihilism. This chapter will also describe how Rand disseminated her philosophy throughout the 1960’s and 70’s by writing exhaustive books on philosophy such as The Virtue of Selfishness (1964), penning her theory of art called The Romantic Manifesto (1969), publishing several periodicals including The Objectivist Newsletter (1962-65), giving speeches across the country, and sitting for many television interviews with reporters like Mike Wallace and talk show hosts such as Phil Donahue. Though these methods were effective at the time, her fictional portrayal of an ideal man is what endures decades later. The fifth and final chapter (“The Fountainhead as Ayn Rand’s Art of American Fiction”) will present original ideas that endeavor to explain the most curious aspect of Rand’s sociopolitical influence – that it is almost wholly driven by her fiction and not her extensive works of non-fiction. This section will bring together the content of the previous sections to explain how Rand utilized her knowledge of American Individualism and Progressivism to effectively design her fiction to resonate with the American people and communicate her ideas on a more subconscious, metaphysical level. This last portion will discuss why The Fountainhead was chosen as the subject of this investigation instead of Rand’s bestseller, Atlas Shrugged. Since it will be an analysis of how she has generated practical influence through her art, it is argued that The Fountainhead is a purer example of her own Romantic theory of art, whereas Atlas Shrugged breaks many of her own literary rules and, given the blatant sermonizing in the form of an impromptu speech by the hero, it is widely considered to be less artistic than it is overtly didactic. Having explained why it is the focus of the study, this segment will demonstrate how Rand consciously constructed The Fountainhead, in its themes and imagery and characterization, to specifically strike a chord with the American people as she personifies American Individualist values in the projection of her ideal man, Howard Roark. This section will explore the similarities between the American tradition of turning real historical figures into heroes by mythologizing through tall tales and Rand’s portrayal of Roark as a realistic demigod. While Americans have cultivated a collective mythology by aggrandizing historical figures like George Washington and Davy Crockett, Rand’s fictional world approaches mimesis but turns improbably Romantic with Roark’s superhuman drive to realize his dreams. This section will explain the how this technique of depicting a hero who could possibly exist in reality invites readers to transpose themselves onto the hero, subconsciously causing them to absorb his values, the values of American Individualism which Rand wishes to communicate. This chapter will then focus on how Rand’s selective use of dialogue to create a contrast between her stoic hero and her long-winded villain plays into the American dichotomy of logocracy versus meritocracy. It will be shown that, by building her hero’s character through his actions while presenting her villain primarily through his words, Rand taps into the American value of merit through hard work while also harnessing Americans’ traditional distrust of verbosity. Finally, this section will examine how Rand’s Romantic sense of life melds perfectly with culturally established American optimism. Professor C. Grant Loomis describes this national trait that led to such events as the gold rush and the moon landing, “The growth of the American cult of wonder had a good deal of prayerful hardihood and teeth-gritting cheerfulness. In time, however, the success of improbables and imponderables left a lingering unacknowledged premonition of successful impossibilities” (109). Rand’s Romantic style, which portrays the world not as is it, but as she feels it should be, plays perfectly into the American belief a better tomorrow regardless of circumstances. This aspect of her writing shows yet again how she successfully constructed her fiction to draw in and communicate with an American audience specifically. In a program entitled Doctorate in Languages, Literatures, Cultures and their Applications, this dissertation will demonstrate how Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is one of the purest examples of how a work of literary fiction can have an immense practical application. Scholars in the humanities and fine arts are often asked to justify the utility of their given fields, and the sociopolitical and cultural influence of this novel is proof of the direct real world relevance of fiction not only on a personal level, which is often cited, but on a macro scale, as well. The following will present how Rand combined her understanding of the history, culture, and philosophy of American Individualism with the storytelling skills she learned in Hollywood to effectively communicate her ideals through the medium of a novel.