Roark's life, and its successful outcome, dramatizes the benevolent universe principle. The world is open to a thinking man's achievement of values. Conformists, nonconformists, and power-seekers cannot achieve values and be happy, because all of them, in one form or another, give up their minds to the crowd — the Keatings to follow, the Lois Cooks to spit defiance, the Tooheys to rule. Men who surrender their judgment have no chance at success or happiness. But the thinkers learn to grow food, to make fire, to build homes, to cure disease. They can flourish, and by means of their creative work, make flourishing life possible for the rest of mankind. The world is open to those independent thinkers who refuse to renounce their minds.
The novel's theme is expressed fully in the final section. The triumph of Roark, and the utter defeat of Keating and Toohey, represents the victory of the independent thinkers over the followers and parasites. Roark's courtroom speech explains the issues that lie at the heart of the book's meaning. He examines the contrast and conflict between those whom Ayn Rand terms first-handers and second-handers.
The first-handers are those who use their own minds. They do not accept ideas second-hand, merely because other people believe them. First-handers learn from others — like Roark learns from Cameron — but they do not copy or obey. Learning requires a thoughtful understanding, an autonomous recognition of an idea's truth; it is made possible only by a thinking process and is the opposite of the unthinking acceptance of the Keating-style conformist. All innovators, inventors, and discoverers of new knowledge are first-handers. Individuals like Edison, Pasteur, Copernicus, and Darwin — first-handers — are original thinkers, not glorified draftsmen copying the work of previous minds.
The second-handers are those who abdicate the responsibility of independent judgment. In one form or another, they allow the thinking of others to dominate their lives. They are unwilling to accept the arduous effort of thinking, and instead, exist as cognitive puppets of society, ruled by the ideas popular in their cultural milieu. They accept ideas second-hand — as hand-me-downs from others. All conformists, nonconformists, and power-seekers — the Keatings, Lois Cooks, and Tooheys — function in this manner. They are not thinkers, they are not focused on reality, they cannot and do not build. Their existence is entirely social; they accomplish nothing creative or innovative; they merely accept and copy.
