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 book, 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.