Danger of Conformity in Brokeback Mountain and All Souls
A young Trump-supporter is helplessly skedaddling away from a crowd of Trump-protesters, whose back of head is spilling blood, and the crowd is hounding him in hot pursuit. When a reporter asks Trump-protesters why they ignite Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps, she receives responses of cursing Donald Trump without reasonable explanations. The election has ended, but the protests persist; some of the rallies are evolving into organized violence. What could possibly cause those protesters to coalesce and act foolishly?
In social psychology, people are inclined to conform to the norms or standards of a group or an authority in order to fit in and find their sense of belonging. However, individuals could suffer from the pressure of the norms, and their conformity could lead to terrible results. In Annie Proulx’s short story Brokeback Mountain, Jack’s and Ennis’s pursuits of happiness are thwarted by complying with the heterocentric social norms. Similarly, the afflictions of conformity are reflected in Michael Patrick MacDonald’s memoir All Souls. In the 1970s South Boston, also known as Southie, people’s unquestioning conformity to the community norms leads them to discriminate against other races for no valid reason, degenerate into drug addicts, join gangs, steal …show more content…
By contrast, Southie people’s conformity gives rise to crimes, people’s deaths, and the community’s depravity, and theirs is more serious because it leads to worse consequences to society. John F. Kennedy addresses, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” blind compliance can restrict independent thought and growth, thereby contributing to negative behaviors. People should not be caught by the “loop” of conformity but should be like a “rock” crashing at the authority, norms, and standards. Only in this way, human beings can develop and
A young Trump-supporter is helplessly skedaddling away from a crowd of Trump-protesters, whose back of head is spilling blood, and the crowd is hounding him in hot pursuit. When a reporter asks Trump-protesters why they ignite Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps, she receives responses of cursing Donald Trump without reasonable explanations. The election has ended, but the protests persist; some of the rallies are evolving into organized violence. What could possibly cause those protesters to coalesce and act foolishly?
In social psychology, people are inclined to conform to the norms or standards of a group or an authority in order to fit in and find their sense of belonging. However, individuals could suffer from the pressure of the norms, and their conformity could lead to terrible results. In Annie Proulx’s short story Brokeback Mountain, Jack’s and Ennis’s pursuits of happiness are thwarted by complying with the heterocentric social norms. Similarly, the afflictions of conformity are reflected in Michael Patrick MacDonald’s memoir All Souls. In the 1970s South Boston, also known as Southie, people’s unquestioning conformity to the community norms leads them to discriminate against other races for no valid reason, degenerate into drug addicts, join gangs, steal …show more content…
By contrast, Southie people’s conformity gives rise to crimes, people’s deaths, and the community’s depravity, and theirs is more serious because it leads to worse consequences to society. John F. Kennedy addresses, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” blind compliance can restrict independent thought and growth, thereby contributing to negative behaviors. People should not be caught by the “loop” of conformity but should be like a “rock” crashing at the authority, norms, and standards. Only in this way, human beings can develop and