How does Toohey change Peter Keeting and his g/f?
Posted by CircuitGuy 12 years ago to Books
In The Fountainhead, it seems the dark side of Peter's personality, the one his mother supports, lives only to get a reaction out of other people. He'd like people to think he's a great architect, but he'll take any reaction at all from any other human being.
Toohey, on the other hand, seems to be motivated by destroying greatness simply because he hates to see other's win.
We see Toohey discouraging people from following their passions. He supports Peter just to support mediocrity and oppose excellence.
My question is **what changes?** Why do Peter and Catherine both end up as broken people? Maybe with Peter we can think he got to the "top" of the architecture industry and realized being recognized as "being on top" is hollow next to loving architecture. But what happened to his old g/f Catherine? She seemed like an easy-going person leading a simple life. When they meet again, at first I thought Catherine was just hiding her emotions b/c of the way Peter had treated her. But then you get the idea she's just become empty because of years spent with Toohey.
I'm interested in people's thoughts on how/why Toohey pulls this (personality destruction) off.
Toohey, on the other hand, seems to be motivated by destroying greatness simply because he hates to see other's win.
We see Toohey discouraging people from following their passions. He supports Peter just to support mediocrity and oppose excellence.
My question is **what changes?** Why do Peter and Catherine both end up as broken people? Maybe with Peter we can think he got to the "top" of the architecture industry and realized being recognized as "being on top" is hollow next to loving architecture. But what happened to his old g/f Catherine? She seemed like an easy-going person leading a simple life. When they meet again, at first I thought Catherine was just hiding her emotions b/c of the way Peter had treated her. But then you get the idea she's just become empty because of years spent with Toohey.
I'm interested in people's thoughts on how/why Toohey pulls this (personality destruction) off.
Peter had the intellectual ability to be alot more. He actually wasn't a hollow shell. He was bowing down to the god of wealth and materialism. He would never find happiness with those as his foundations. Catherine reminds me of so many do-gooders who never stop to access their own worth or the worth of their "sacrifice."
Toohey, in my opinion, was not an empty shell-he was bent on destruction. To destroy was his single focus. It amazes me, but there are many intelligent people who do this. He hated Life. now go read the news and find Tooheys! they are everywhere. but, so are Roarks!
Toohey was good at feeding into second handers' view of themselves and manipulating them with his approval. Who needs their own self worth if you've got Toohey smiling at you?
It boils down to lack of personal philosophy. Roarke was the only one who had it all along. Dominque had it too, but it needed a little tweaking, which finally happened at the end when she went to Roarke.