I was going over Ayn Rand's "the Fountainhead" again for my research paper and recalled how incredible of a novel it is. It's a story riddled with philosophical views and opinions that make it impossible to read without questioning your own values. Essentially the point of the book is a rivalry between Egoism and Altruism. Where egoism is giving up society for oneself, altruism is giving oneself to society. Rand argues for the first. She paints selfishness and egoism as something to be achieved and desired, a pro, rather than a con. It is through the dedication of oneself to another's values how purpose in general is lost. If all people do the bidding of their neighbor, it forms an endless cycle of purposelessness.
I had never regarded selfish actions as a positive aspect until reading her novel, and have since been "converted" in some ways.
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