The Development of Lisa's Political Rebellion -- Part 9

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

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Lisa Houseman's experience with Robbie Gould is very thought-provoking for her. She feels that he is leading her out of her adolescence and into her adulthood. She suddenly recognizes that life is complicated, messy and callous.

Lisa has romantic dreams for her life. She will meet a man, so steady with him, become engaged with him, marry him and raise his family. She will follow her mother's example.

Now, however, just a few days after Lisa has met the right man, Robbie, she is upset. He is not following the "going steady" rules that she understands from her conversations with her girlfriends. Robbie has been too sexually aggressive. She has looked forward to playful sexual petting with him, but she quickly lost her composure as he man-handled her. She burst into tears and ran away.

Also, Robbie has put her into a situation where she feels compelled to deceive. She is deceiving her parents and asking her little sister to help her deceive her parents. After she ran from the golf course to her hotel room, she thought about her own misbehavior. Her fantasies about her future romantic life had not included herself and her boyfriend deceiving each other and everyone around them.

Lisa suddenly feels that she has to think about life more profoundly and critically.

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On the day after Lisa ran away from Robbie, he comes to her and apologizes. Robbie tells Lisa that Baby is angry about his rude treatment of Lisa. Baby has threatened Robbie that if he will not stay away from Lisa, then Baby will report him to Neil Kellerman.

Robbie apologizes to Lisa. He explains that her beauty caused him to lose control of himself. He wants to continue to date her, and so he will behave himself better. Lisa accepts his apology and says that she likewise wants to continue to date him.

Their conversation moves to other subjects, and eventually he tells her about the novel he read recently -- Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. When Lisa remarks that the novel sounds very interesting, he offers to lend her his copy, which he has annotated with underlines, exclamation marks and margin comments.

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When Lisa receives Robbie's book, she is delighted. She flips through the pages, observing Robbie's many annotations.

Lisa perceives Robbie's book to be a token of his romantic affection toward her. In the going-steady rules, the first rule is to give one's partner a visible token -- a ring or other jewel, a photograph, a clothing item, lock of hair, love letter, etc. Now Lisa will be able to carry this token -- Robbie's annotated book -- around as evidence of his affection. People will see her reading the book and ask about it, and she will tell them that she got it from Robbie, her boyfriend. Lisa's status of going steady with Robbie will be on public display.

Having Robbie's book -- in her mind, a token of his romantic affection -- reassures Lisa. She feels again that her adolescent fantasies about her future romantic life are coming true. She is going steady publicly with her future husband! If this relationship continues to develop well, then she will display the relationship openly, honestly and proudly to her family, to her friends and to everyone else.

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Lisa is dismayed by the novel's length -- almost 700 pages of small print. Robbie told Lisa that the novel is philosophical. Lisa never has read a long, difficult, philosophical work.

And the author was a Russian-immigrant woman. How strange!

Lisa gazes at the novel's table of contents:

Contents

Part I    Peter Keating, page 15

Part II   Ellsworth M. Toohey, page 202

Part III  Gail Wynard, page 391

Part IV  Howard Roark, page 505

Robbie had told her that the novel was about an architect named Howard Roark. Did the part about Howard Roark begin on page 505? How strange!

Lisa turns to the next page:

I offer my profound gratitude to the great profession of architecture and its heroes who have given us some of the highest expressions of man's genius, yet have remained unknown, undiscovered by the majority of men. And to the architects who gave me their generous assistance in the technical matters of this book.

Lisa looks at the next page -- at the novel's first two sentences:

Howard Roark laughed.

He stood naked at the edge of a cliff.

Lisa thinks to herself that Robbie is opening her mind to new, adult thinking with this book -- with this amazing token of his affection.

Lisa is going to read a philosophical novel about a fun-loving, sexy architect.

Robbie has told her that the novel has changed his own life. She thinks that the novel might change her own life too.

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Continued in Part 10

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