The Fountainhead: Part 1: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Keating is terrified that he will lose the competition, after which he thinks Francon will be very disappointed in him and won’t make him partner. Keating is convinced he has to be named partner before the competition results are announced. He goes to Heyer’s house to blackmail him with some old information he finds about some minor embezzlement Heyer committed years ago. Heyer is somewhat senile and doesn’t seem to fully comprehend all that Keating tells him, but he is worried that the A.G.A. will revoke his license if Keating shows them his evidence. He begs Keating not to do it, and Keating taunts him. The stress gives Heyer a second stroke, and he dies. 

At the office, Keating tells everyone that Heyer had sent for him to come see him to discuss his retirement, and no one suspects anything. But Keating thinks of himself as “almost a murderer,” since he had wanted the shock and hurt of his display to bring on the second stroke and send Heyer to the hospital for the rest of his days. But he had suspected that it could be worse, and had gone through with it anyway.

Some days after Heyer’s death, Keating finds out that Heyer has left all his money to Keating. Keating feels he is going to be sick, and yet he catches himself wondering how much money Heyer had. That night, Keating skips dinner and gets drunk at a speakeasy. He thinks that he has nothing to regret because he is selfish like everyone else—and he also just happens to be lucky. He resolves to never think about these matters again, and doesn’t have time to, because he soon finds out that he has won the Cosmo-Slotnick competition.

Even Keating hadn’t imagined exactly how grand it would be to win the competition. His face is on every newspaper, and his story of poverty and hard work is everywhere—he is called the “Cinderella of Architecture.” His design for the skyscraper is in the papers, too, and it is praised for “the masterful blending of the modern with the traditional in Art.” He appears in newsreels and is invited to banquets, he makes speeches and goes to architectural clubs. Keating enjoys the admiration—he “need[s] the people and the clamor around him.” He believes he is as “great as the number of people who [tell] him so.”

When Keating sees Catherine, she excitedly makes plans for their future while he thinks about how many newspapers would publish a picture of them together. He meets Dominique and she congratulates him but looks “as if nothing [has] happened”—she has not even mentioned the competition in her column. She tells him she is going away for the summer and tells him he can’t visit because she wants to see no one.

One thing spoils Keating’s happiness—hearing people discuss the plan of the building. They discuss the building’s “brilliant skill and simplicity” and its “clean, ruthless efficiency” and Keating is reminded of Roark. He burns the drawings that Roark had made but still feels insecure. So Keating decides to meet Roark and dispose of him. Meanwhile, Roark has even forgotten that Keating is coming to see him—he is eagerly waiting to know if his firm has been chosen by the Manhattan Bank Company. He hasn’t paid rent at the office or his apartment, and he hasn’t paid the phone bill.

Keating comes in and tells Roark he looks terrible, but that he hears it couldn’t be from overworking. He wants to show Roark that he isn’t afraid of him. Keating tells Roark to drop “the ideals” and “start working like everybody else.” He tells Roark to look at him and see how far he has come. He needs to “drop the fool delusion” that he is better than everyone else, and he’ll be rich, famous and admired.

Roark wonders why Keating feels compelled to encourage Roark to pursue things he doesn’t really want him to have. Roark knows it can’t be love, because that wouldn’t make Keating so angry and frightened. Keating admits that he doesn’t know why he does it, either. Roark gently says they’ll never speak of it again, but when Keating acts cheerful and talks about good sense, Roark asks him to shut up.

Keating says that he hasn’t forgotten that Roark helped him a little for the competition, and while he is sure Roark wouldn’t mention it to anybody, he wants to give him a share of the prize money. He gives him a check for $500, which Roark promptly returns, saying he’s giving Keating the money back to make him keep his mouth shut because Roark doesn’t want anyone to know that he had any part in designing that building. He promises Keating to never say a word about it, and that everything about the building is only Keating’s, including all his pictures in the papers.

Keating is furious at Roark, saying he has no right to make Keating ashamed of that building when Roark himself is a failure. Keating tells him he always hated him, and that he’ll break him some day. Roark asks him why he is showing so much emotion, and Keating feels defeated. He says he didn’t mean any of the things he said, and Roark asks him to leave. As he leaves, Keating feels sure of himself because he has realized that he hates Roark, though he is not sure why. 

On Monday, Weidler from the Manhattan Bank Company asks Roark to come down to his office. When he gets there, Weidler tells him the commission is his, with one small compromise—they want him to change the façade a little. Roark’s design is too radical for many of the board members, so they added some touches that would appease them. They have a rough sketch of what they want, and Roark sees that they have added some Classical flourishes. He tries to explain to them that this structure could not be compromised and had to have integrity. But the chairman of the board interrupts him, saying that this is their final decision. Roark refuses to take the commission. Weidler is disappointed as Roark leaves, asking him not to be “Fanatical and selfless” because he knows Roark needs the work. Roark is amused, saying he is in fact being completely selfish.

Roark clears out his office and gives the key to the rental agent, saying he is closing it. Then, he goes to Mike Donnigan’s house and asks him to help him find a workman’s job. Mike is upset that all the architects will gloat when they see what Roark has been reduced to, but Roark says he doesn’t care about that. Mike offers Roark money, but Roark says that he will end their friendship if either he or Heller offer him money again. Roark says he will work and save money and return, or that perhaps someone will send for him before that. Since Mike can’t bear to have Roark work in construction in the same town, he says he’ll get him a job at Francon’s granite quarry in Connecticut.

As Roark makes his way to Connecticut, he looks at the New York skyline and admires the skyscrapers that look like they “[hold] up to the sky the statement of what man had conceived and made possible.” Man has come so far, and “could go farther.”

Meanwhile, Keating has been named partner at the firm that will now be called “Francon & Keating.” At the celebratory dinner, there is “a grave feeling of brotherhood,” and Ralston Holcombe toasts him with sincerity, talking of the old guard of architecture humbly making way for their heirs. He says that architects seek “the sublime granted to the race of men.”