The character from the movie Blood Diamond, Danny, has a lot of similar
actions as the character from the book The Fountainhead, Peter. Both men want
only for themselves rather than helping those who helped them. Danny wants
the diamond all for himself. He says, “That diamond is my only ticket out of this
God forsaken continent.” Meaning, he’ll do anything to get it. Not being honest,
he tells Solomon that he’ll share the diamond with him if he takes him to where
it is hidden. Danny, unlike many, has the chance to better his life by finding the
diamond. After Danny has promised Solomon all of these things, he still doesn’t
find anything wrong with his dishonesty. All throughout the movie, he tricks and
manipulates people into helping him to get what he wants. While trying to find
Solomon’s family, he runs into Maddy Bowen, a journalist that covers topics on
how people are being treated in Sierra Leone. He uses her for Solomon’s sake
(so he says). Because she’s a journalist, she knows the locations of pretty much
any and everybody. The only reason he helps Solomon look for his family is
because he knows that Solomon won’t move unless he knows that his family’s
safe. Danny is so good at this that the person’s he’s with doesn’t even recognize
what he’s doing to them. Peter, on the other hand, stands for plagiarism and
sycophantism. As the character becomes known in the book, we learn that he
(just like Danny), is a user. He’s an architect at the same school Howard Roark
attends. He turns the positive things people say about his work into more than
what it’s worth. Peter gets a job offer from Guy Francon in New York. He takes
the job, not intending to move up in the firm until he lets’ his arrogance get to
his head. As two years pass, Peter scrambles further up the ladder at Francon &
Heyer. He gets his best friend at the firm fired by absorbing so much of his work
that he becomes useless. After he gets the chief designer to leave, he uses
Howard to help him on his first design. Not knowing how much of a success it
would be, Howard lets him take all the credit for his work. Peter, unlike Danny,
felt a little guilty for what he was doing to Howard, but that didn’t stop him from
doing what he did.
Even though both men were doing wrong, someone still managed to
influence them. Not both influences were positive but they still made a
difference. Solomon made a big difference in Danny’s life throughout the movie.
Solomon makes Danny see the “bigger picture.” Danny soon realizes that there
are more important things in his life than the diamond that he’s after. He learns
honesty, loyalty, and most important friendship from Solomon as they spend
more and more time together. Danny finally sees life for what it is. Because of
Solomon, Danny now realizes that life is not an easy thing to just slide by. He
teaches him that there are things that you have to go through in life to know
your outcome. Solomon was big inspiration to Danny as time progressed. Peter,
unlike Danny, had a “not so good” influence from Howard. Peter, instead of
trying to change is ways, continued to walk all over people and Howard didn’t tell
him about the wrong he was actually doing. Howard continued to let Keating
walk all over him, as well as the other people at the firm but never said anything
about it because he was his boss. Throughout the movie, Danny had a lot of
thoughts going through his head. The main one that ran through his mind all the
time was the thought of leaving Solomon to fend for himself after he found the
diamond for him. Knowing how much of a con-man Danny is, he probably
would’ve carried out with his plan had Solomon not changed the way he thought.
The private thoughts of Danny influenced him to do bad during this entire film.
Considering what Danny was known for doing, I would expect him to have an
attitude as such because that’s a part of the history he carries. Not saying what
he thought was the right thing to do, but I kind of don’t see anything wrong with
it. Who’s to say Solomon didn’t have that thought in the back of his head after
Danny helped him find his family? That’s something to think about, huh?
Keating, meanwhile, has only one thought in his head that he’s concerned about.
His thought is moving ahead in life no matter who he crosses, how many feelings
he hurts, who doesn’t approve of it, and how many “friends” he gets fired from
his firm. Now, this is private thought worked out for him. Peter did everything in
his power to get where he needed to be as a known architect. This, on the other
hand I don’t agree with. How can you do harm to the people that helped you get
where you are today? Peter was a very self-centered man that only strived to get
what he wanted. The mental thoughts of this man was horrible, especially to the
people it was happening to. I’m pretty sure the characters that interacted with
Danny and Peter had some feelings towards them. Solomon, for starters, felt as
if Danny was a friend to him. He figured he actually cared about him since he
promised him he would split the diamond with him. Solomon saw Danny as a
loyal and trustworthy friend who he counted on to help him. Unfortunately, he
was wrong. As the movie went along, Solomon got to see Danny for who he
really was. That’s until he saved him from the government and from his son.
After that, Solomon knew that he could Danny again. Another character that had
feelings towards Danny was Maddy. Not only did she see him as a friend, she
also saw his as male companion for her. When they first met, their relationship
was only for his use as well as hers, but once they started working together, she
caught and interest in him. She even knew what he was all about and he still
grabbed her attention. Characters who felt good things about Peter don’t even
realize he was the wrong person to put their time and energy into. Howard was
proud that Peter made something of himself he inspired absolute devotion to
him. Guy (the man who hired him) even believed in him when he was only in
college. To them, Peter was a hard working, trustworthy, and dedicated student,
but to their surprise, he was a lot more “dedicated” than what appeared to be as
a student. Everyone knew Peter at first (so they thought) until he let the
arrogance grow inside of his head. He became dependant on others to do his
work for him as he slowly moved up in the cooperate world which people started
to see after they started losing their jobs and money from lending a helping
hand. The actions of these characters made the big difference between the book
and the movie. Peter did some pretty hurtful things to people who helped him,
people who were there for him, and most important the people who stayed with
him through everything he had done. His actions made him look worse and
worse as I read the book. He got very careless and the “scams” that he did to
others. He wasn’t the kind of person who owned up to their mistakes and fixed
them. Unlike Peter, Danny’s whole appearance changed as the movie ran. In the
beginning, he was all for himself but as he experienced a lot during his time he
changed. One thing he did that was good was he helped his friend Maddy with
her story. He even let her tell where she got her information from because he
didn’t care about what happened to him anymore. That self-less act doesn’t get
any better than what he did not only for her, but for the families in Sierra Leone.
Danny became a great man in the end of this movie. He was the best one of the
best characters to me. Hope there’s more like him, rather than Peter.