Essay Contests for High School Students to Win Valuable Prizes from Ayn Rand Institute

The Ayn Rand Institute offers Essay Contests for high school students for The Fountainhead novel.

Select one of the following three topics:

1. In his climactic courtroom speech, Howard Roark states: “The creator’s concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite’s concern is the conquest of men.” Explain how this quote relates to the theme as dramatized through the characters of Howard Roark, Peter Keating and Ellsworth Toohey.
2. When Toohey first meets his niece Catherine, he is described as seeing a particular look on her face. What is the significance of his reaction to her look? How does his treatment of Catherine through the rest of the novel encapsulate his overall strategy for dealing with the world? For your essay, consider also what Ayn Rand says in the essay “Through Your Most Grievous Fault.”
3. Choose the scene in The Fountainhead that is most meaningful to you. Analyze that scene in terms of the wider themes in the book. In your essay, consider also what Ayn Rand has to say about what art, including literature, can do for us, in this excerpt from “The Goal of My Writing.”

Requirements:

1. Contest is open to students worldwide, except where void or prohibited by law. Essays must be written in English only.
2. Entrant must be in the 11^th or 12^th grade at the time of the current contest deadline. ARI reserves the right to make exceptions to this rule, on a case-by-case basis, for international students or for students with nonstandard school years.
3. One entry per student per contest.
4. Essay must be submitted online or postmarked by April 25^th, 2019, no later than 11:59 p.m., Pacific Standard Time.
5. Essay must be no fewer than 800 and no more than 1,600 words in length, double-spaced. Spelling errors and/or written corrections (by anyone) found on the essay will count against the final grade and should be omitted before submission.
6. To avoid disqualification, mailed-in essays must include a stapled cover sheet with the following information:

• your name and address
• your email address (if available)
• the name and address of your school
• topic selected (#1, 2 or 3 from the “Topics” tab)
• your current grade level
• (optional) the name of the teacher who assigned the essay if you are completing it for classroom credit