A Point for Freedom

I got my hands on The Fountainhead rather late- two months ago to be precise. I had tried reading it while in college, but could not make it past the first few pages. I disliked Roark and his flaming red (orange?) hair almost instantaneously and the small print and the book's thickness even more. So before Roark could start his career, my tryst with the book ended.
Revisiting it two months ago, I fell in love with the book from the word go. I didn't read any review on The Fountainhead before I started and all I knew was what a friend told me - it was a philosophical book and dealt with Individuvalism and Objectivism, whatever they were. I braced myself for a lot of big words and philosophy on the lines of the Derrida CAT passages, but the book has hardly any didacticism in it in direct form.
What I did find was that it has complex characters, even more complex relationships, conversations with meanings, underlying meanings and underlying underlying meanings and a very convincing narrative.
I think what really makes The Fountainhead an absolute favourite of mine is that it didn't take time to seep into my mind. Normally, after I watch a movie or read a book, I need to dissect it in my head, discuss it with a friend, sleep over it and then arrive at a conclusion on whether I like it or not. With The Fountainhead, I could identify with the story even while reading it.
I am not talking about capitalism, objectivism and the like - but the simple theory of rational individuval freedom - the freedom to choose, to decide, to opine, to do anything in fact that doesn't hinder society at large. The freedom of individual choice, I think, is the biggest right any human has. It empowers you. It is also what most people like to suppress in others - for various Toohey-like reasons I suppose. You see it everyday - kids who are forced into careers they dislike, women beaten up but forced to stay in abusive marriages because of society, men who are forced into marriages because of caste, creed and religion - the list is endless. Society can be a wonderful collective good, it can also be one heck of an obstacle at times.
And then there is Roark and Dominique's relationship. While some things may be hard to swallow (like her two marriages), the point to be noted in the relationship is the trust and freedom the two give each other. And those, I think, should be the foundations of any relationship. The freedom to act as an individual within the framework of a relationship is essential for happiness. Sacrificing your identity ( I don't think compromise is a suitable word here) cripples the relationship and you are left with a farce that parades in the guise of love. Now quite obviously any relationship will require adjustment, but to what level you take that adjustment is important. If you take it beyond the point where you are left unhappy as a person, I don't think there is much point in a 'we' tag. Ayn Rand allows the personalities of Roark and Dominique to retain their individuality and discover themselves even while their relationship strengthens - which again enticed me.
Now I could go on and on along these lines, but I shall stop here. I shall just say that near impossible though the book may be to emulate, it shall remain a favourite in my list.