Character Analyses

Mike Donnigan

Though a relatively minor figure in the novel, Mike’s character dramatizes a significant point in
Rand’s philosophy. Mike is a construction worker, an electrician, who both admires
competence and recognizes Roark’s. Their mutual love of construction is the bond that unites
them. Mike is not a genius; he is a man of more modest intelligence than Roark. But he knows
buildings—and he sees with his own eyes and understands with his own mind. Mike recognizes
that the buildings of Guy Francon, Ralston Holcolmbe, and Peter Keating are seriously flawed;
the adulation these men receive from society does not alter Mike’s judgment. He also
recognizes that the buildings of Henry Cameron and Howard Roark are masterpieces, and
society’s repudiation of them cannot change his mind.

Mike’s character shows independence is not a matter of a person’s intelligence, but rather, of
how he chooses to use it. Ellsworth Toohey possesses greater mindpower than does Mike, but
Toohey’s mind is employed in an utterly-dependent manner—devoted to flattering, deceiving,
and manipulating others in order to control their souls. Mike’s mind is not given to other
people, but rather, to building. He may not be a genius, but within the scale of his own
concerns, Mike is an independent thinker. In his combination of ordinary intelligence and first-
handed method, Mike can be thought of as Everyman at his best. His autonomous functioning
is not merely the basis of his bond with Roark, but further demonstrates that moral character
is not a question of intelligence but of its use.