Juxtaposing Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountain Head’ and Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’

Abstract

Walt Whitman and Ayn Rand, both have ushered in novelty in their own ways and have carved a niche for themselves in the corpus of American literature. Alice O’Connor, known by her pen name, Ayn Rand (1905-1982), was a writer and philosopher who was born and educated in Russia but later moved to the United States. Walt Whitman (1819-1882) was a poet, essayist and a journalist who was associated both with transcendentalism and realism. The paper aims to draw parallels between ‘Song of Myself’ written by the poet prophet of democracy, Walt Whitman, which represents the core of his poetic vision and Ayn Rand’s magnum opus ‘The Fountainhead’- her novel of ideas. Both the writers have a chiseled sense of individualism from which stem other similitudes between their works like advocating innovation and originality over traditions, their non conformist attitude, non adherence to established institutions and celebration of positivity and happiness.