The Fountainhead: Part 2: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Dominique is back in New York since she can’t stand being in the country after her last visit to the quarry. She tells herself that she is not looking for the man with the orange hair, and yet she wanders the streets without purpose. Previously, she’d been impervious to the people on the street, with “faces made alike by fear—fear as a common denominator, fear of themselves, fear of all and of one another,” but she is free no longer and is hurt by the thought of the man in this city, who must now be dependent on these crowds. When her vacation ends, she goes to the Banner to resign because her work doesn’t amuse her anymore. She decides not to at the last minute, because continuing to work would be harder.

Toohey comes to talk to Dominique at her office. She shows him a picture of the design for the Enright House, and Toohey says it is “as independent as an insult.” Dominique says she thinks the person who designed a building as beautiful as this should never allow it to be built so it can be treated poorly by the masses and be discussed by people like Toohey.

Elsewhere, Steven Mallory refuses to disclose his motive for shooting Toohey. Toohey surprises everyone by appearing and defending Mallory, pleading with the judge for leniency. Everyone is impressed by this, except Mallory, who looks tortured. In the papers, Toohey proclaims that he refuses “to be an accomplice in the manufacturing of martyrs.” 

At the first meeting of the organization of young architects, Keating immediately feels a sense of comfort and brotherhood with the other 18 whom Toohey has picked. Beyond this sense of kinship, Keating is disappointed that the others, except for Gordon L. Prescott, are not famous. Keating is unsure what the purpose of the group is, though there is a lot of incoherent complaining about injustices of various sorts. The group is named the “Council of American Builders.” Toohey speaks of architects as “crusaders in the cause of the underprivileged and unsheltered,” not “lackeys of the rich.” Keating is happy to think of himself as noble, while before this speech, he had only thought of himself as “a breadwinner earning his fees.”

Dominique appears at the gathering, and Toohey is so surprised at her entrance that he stops speaking for a moment. Keating catches her attention and smiles as though he is “greeting a private possession.” He tries to focus on Toohey’s speech again but now feels uneasy because Dominique doesn’t belong in the room.

When Toohey greets Dominique after his speech, she says she wouldn’t have missed “the chance to witness the birth of a felony.” Keating approaches, and when Toohey asks her if she knows him, she says Keating “was in love with [her] once,” to which Keating responds that she is using the wrong tense. Toohey invites her to join their group, but she says she doesn’t hate Toohey enough to do that. Keating demands to know why she disapproves of them, but she says she doesn’t at all—the group is just what the world needs and deserves. She asks them why they didn’t invite Roark to be a part of the group, and Toohey answers that he has never met him.

Keating accompanies Dominique out and asks why she was actually there. She says it is her way to get back into things—similar to how she prefers to plunge into cold water while swimming and it’s initially a shock, “but after that the rest is not so hard to take.” Keating wants to know what was so terrible about the meeting since they don’t have definite plans or programs. Dominique says that is the problem, since they didn’t even know what they were there for.

When Keating tries to kiss Dominique, he senses her revulsion and asks her who the other man was. She answers that it was a worker in the quarry, prompting laughter. Dominique tells Keating never to try to see her again because he is “everything [she despises] in the world,” and she doesn’t “want to remember how much [she despises] it.” She asks him to never let her come back to him, but Keating says he will not give up on her. She shrugs and says that this is the only time she’s ever been kind to him or anyone else.