"The Fountainhead" Chapter 1

Scholars: Please add a comment with your answer to this question.

In chapter 1, the dean says to Howard Roark, "There's the practical side of an architect's career to think about. An architect is not an end in himself. He is only a small part of a great social whole. Co-operation is the key word to our modern world and to the profession of architecture in particular."

Roark argues that all architecture is a copy of the past, and he wishes to make new things with the new materials (or media) we have. The dean, however, encourages Roark to conform to the traditional science of architecture, to do things the way things are "supposed" to be done. With whom do you agree? Explain your answer.

Do you agree with the dean, who says that we must act as a "cooperative" part of society so that we fit in it and it can work better, perhaps like a well-oiled machine?

Or do you agree with Roark, who says that we are capable of making new (perhaps not better or worse, but new nonetheless) things because we have new materials, new capabilities, and that an individual may still be a part of society without "fitting the mold."