Peter Keating and Howard Roark

Peter Keating is a character in the novel, “The Fountainhead “by Ayn Rand. Emotionally manipulated by his very own mother, Peter Keating is the classic example of a man raised to find his sense of self esteem from the approval of other people. Instead of competence, he achieves his goals through emotional manipulation, echoing the same kind of manipulation his very own mother has done to him. His main objective in life is to get the approval of other people even if it meant suppressing the last remnants of his own heart and mind. Sad to say, for the past few months I have been encountering a lot of people with the character of Peter Keating. For the past few months I have witnessed so much hypocrisy that makes one wants to hide from the world. Sigh.
Among Ayn Rand’s characters in the Fountainhead, the person I admire most is Howard Roark, because he is everything Peter Keating is not. Howard Roark gets his achievement through his own sheer talent, and he sees people as end itself not as a means for other purposes. When Howard Roark listened to the desperate echoes of sculptor Steve Mallory, it was a genuine human being listening to another person.
I have always hoped in my lifetime to meet people with the character of Howard Roark, but sad to say it seems there are more people with the character of Peter Keating. Sigh.