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Double-Entry/ Dialectical Journal ENGLISH 3H/AP SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT Ms. Lauri Markson Attached is an article from The College Digest magazine which I have copied with their permission. It stresses the importance of reading as preparation for college. Recently NTE and College Board suggested that students should read four to five books during the summer. I have also included a college- bound reading list and a list of books on past exams. Please keep this list and read as many books as you can before attending college/university. Remember you are ultimately responsible for your own learning. Camarillo High School has high standards for its honors/AP program. In light of the recent government report that found that students were not reading enough, I am asking you to read the novel by . Then complete the following journal and author investigation during the summer and have it completed before coming to class the first day of school. Severe reduction of credit will be given to late papers. The Fountainhead 1. Read the novel The Fountainhead written by Ayn Rand. This book appeared as one of the suggested works for the AP English Literature and Composition *free-response* prompt on a past exam. 2. While you are reading, keep a Dialectical Journal (see attached page for explanation) with emphasis on passages, which reflect the characters, motifs, symbols, and themes in the book. Be sure you take entries from all parts of the book beginning thru the end. I would like you to make at least one (1) entry for every ten (10) pages. Include the page number for each entry. Please number your entries - that should come to seventy entries. This will be used in class when we discuss the book in the fall. 3. Research information about the author using the Internet or a public library. Include a paragraph at the end of your Dialectical Journal headed "About The Author" giving information that relates to the writing of the novel and the life of the author. 4. The book can be checked out of any public library or purchased at any book store or checked out with me, Ms. Pristera, or the office. 5. Have an enjoyable summer. Try to read one or two of the other works on the suggested reading list. Remember you are responsible for your own education. Teachers only guide you to a specific course of learning.

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A. Characters: Howard Roark, Dominique Francon, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Peter Keating, Henry Cameron B. Understanding the Novel's Theme 1.) Since the novel is deeply philosophical, it is important for the student to learn definitions for the book's relevant philosophical terms. (a) independence: reliance on one's own thinking in the search for truth, and on one's own effort to support oneself. To Ayn Rand , independence is fundamentally a cognitive concept. It means the willingness to think, to go by one's own best judgment, to never accept a claim as true merely because others believe it. Independence does not preclude cooperation or friendly relations in human society, e.g., Roark's cooperative work, in different forms, with Cameron, Mallory, Mike Donnigan—and his close relationships with several, notably Dominique, Cameron and Wynand. It is important for the students to recognize that independence is not the rugged of the type that entails survival by oneself in the wilderness or mountains. The best examples of independence are the great men of the mind who have discovered new truths, often in the teeth of intense social opposition, and have consequently carried mankind forward, e.g., inventors like Robert Fulton, innovative architects like , scientists like Marie Curie, entrepreneurs like Henry Ford. (b) dependence: permitting other people to dominate one's thinking and one's life: a refusal to think, a willingness to derive one's beliefs uncritically from others, either by means of blind obedience or an equally blind rebellion. Both conformists and non-conformists, each in their own way, are examples of dependency. ( c) conformity: living in unthinking adherence to the judgment, the standards, the values of others. In the novel, Peter Keating is, of course, the outstanding example of this. (d) individualism: the of man that emphasizes the reality and cognitive efficacy of the individual. Individuals are real, not splintered fragments of the group; they can and should be autonomous thinkers, not molded playthings of "social conditioning." Politically, individuals must be free to act on their own thinking and live their own lives. The political/economic system that is the logical culmination of individualism is limited Constitutional government and laissez-faire - because it is this system alone that protects the rights of the individual. Howard Roark is, of course, an outstanding fictional representative of individualism. (e) collectivism: in contrast to individualism, the philosophy of man that emphasizes the reality and cognitive efficacy of society as a whole. Only the group is real, only the group's beliefs determine truth. The individual is merely a fragmented chunk of the whole, whose thinking is conditioned and controlled by the beliefs of society. Individuals have no rights. Politically, the state is all-powerful and the individual must unquestioningly obey the will of society. The political/economic system that is the logical culmination of collectivism is

3 in some form, whether National Socialism (Nazism), Communism or Fascism. In the book, Ellsworth Toohey is the leading advocate of collectivism. (f) first-handers: those independent thinkers who face nature directly and thereby survive first-hand, i.e., by their own effort. These are the individuals who discover how to make fire, how to grow crops and domesticate livestock, how to cure diseases, how to build homes, etc.- -and also those who use their own minds to learn from the innovators and are therefore able to live productively. (g) second-handers: those dependent persons who, in one form or another, are not productive, do not survive by means of their own mind or effort, but who, rather, survive second-hand by leeching off of others. There are many types of second-handers—criminals , family bums, welfare recipients, military conquerors, political dictators, social climbers (like Keating) and others. 2.) Ayn Rand states that the theme of The Fountainhead is: individualism vs. collectivism, not in politics but in men's souls. C. Motifs - recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes. 1. Technical Progress In The Fountainhead, technical progress indicates the forward movement of society. The novel measures the progress of mankind by the number of buildings and scientific innovations it produces, rather than its art and philosophy. All of the most crucial industrial developments come from the minds of individuals and entrepreneurs rather than from the masses. Therefore, the period of greatest industrial development also marks the period of greatest individualism. 2. Labor The novel exhibits mixed views on manual labor, regarding it as both one of the few authentic occupations and as a den of collectivist activity. Roark works at many construction sites, which allows him to preserve his integrity by earning wages when he cannot find clients. Roark has good friends who work as laborers, such as Mike the electrician. The novel presents physical labor as a pure productive activity and thus something admirable. On the other hand, labor breeds unions, groups that the novel violently condemns. The novel admires laborers and workmen as individuals, but it fears and mistrusts them as a group. D. Symbols - objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. 1. Granite a. Rand associates granite with Roark's character. Granite symbolizes his external and internal features. Like the rock, Roark's face, body, and mind are hard, rare, unchanging, and beautiful. B b. Roark, however, is even stronger than the rock that symbolizes him. The novel believes in the absolute supremacy of man, and consequently it rejoices when man triumphs over nature.

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2. Ice a. Ice symbolizes Dominique. Rand describes Dominique's body as fragile and angular. The clothes that Dominique wears either glitter like ice, shine like glass, or are the color of water. b. Wynand gives Dominique a diamond necklace made to look like loose pieces of ice scattered on her cool skin. Ice also reflects her personality at the beginning of the novel- blank and frigid. Once Roark warms Dominique's spirit, the associations between her and ice grow infrequent and eventually disappear. 3. The Banner a. In The Fountainhead, the Banner symbolizes the worst elements of society and mass culture. The Banner reflects and feeds the public's poor taste. b. In The Fountainhead only individuals are noble, so anything designed for a group is necessarily ugly, crude, and ignorant. Wynand realizes this fact at the very end of the novel when he tries to make The Banner into an honorable machine and finally sees that the newspaper cannot elevate public opinion to something noble. Example of a journal entry: Page # Quote or paraphrase Commentary 22 "I don't usually let things happen to This shows that Roark feels that he is me..... I shouldn't have waited for in control of his own destiny. you to throw me out."