it was wonderful for me, too -- since soooooo many seek
others' approval to feel good about themselves. . it is sick. -- j
.

escape to the gulch, yes!!! . but escapism doesn't fit
with loyalty to reality. . a little wine, though....... -- j
.

I merely point out that the only people who have a right to ask me for money are my parents, wife and children. If he or she isn't one of them, then NO.

Roark did escape by being true to his values. If he had succumbed to the blandishments of Keating and Toohey, he would have been milked dry, and had nothing to show for his efforts. His only escape was by refusing to go along.

My very favorite part of all of A.R.'s work. It literally changed my life, because in that one exchange, I realized that the only opinion of me that truly mattered the most, was my own.

Or Venezuela if you live there, or maybe San Francisco or Seattle if you live there. When all those refugees flee from Syria, you know something is wrong. Germany was stupid to take them in for humanitarian reasons.

I think that the USA should look to refugees that are smart, industrious, rich perhaps, and who will improve our country. Forget that freeloaders, violent muslims, and others that just detract from what we have built here.

Its not my responsibility to "make" others accept reality. I have quite enough on my plate just running my own life.

I will engage the freeloading bums that ask for money sometimes. I ask them why they think that I should work so they dont have to. That ends the discussion right there.

You got this last statement RIGHT. When things dont work out, you leave (if you can). Trying to change other people over maybe 12 years old, especially in our "democratic"(mob rule) country, is a thankless task and doomed to failure. They need to learn for themselves (although in Venezuela even that doesnt seem to work).

Life is too short to spend time trying to make people change, just is.

Toohey: "Mr. Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us."
Roark: "But I don't think of you.”

Discern and deal with reality as you best determine it to be, and then act accordingly in your own self-interest - as best you determine it possible.......

yes, I would have also said this-that working at the quarry was a type of "escape." Also, I would add that "escape" and "evasion" are not the same. May be mott in this discussion, but L did not give us context for their question

She escaped Russia.

In The Fountainhead, there was nowhere to escape to. Roark's courtroom speech and Toohey's harangue to Peter Keating both refer to the dominance of collectivism in the rest of the world.

Also, in fact, Roark did "escape" in closing his office and working in the quarry. He could have gone to work for another architect - any second-rate shop would have taken him for his skills - but that was no longer possible for him internally.

When things don't work out, you leave. Simple as that. You don't try to change other people. You do not coerce them, argue, plead, convince, convert... You just go your own way.

Ayn Rand did not use or advocate escape as a central theme or device in anything. As a consequence of advocating reason and individualism she did support leaving hell-holes like the Soviet Union for something better.

Why do you think Rand used escape as a device for plot resolution in Anthem, We the Living, and Atlas Shrugged, but did not do so in The Fountainhead?