Conformity And Rebellion In Literature

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Propaganda: Conformity and Rebellion on a dual level Human beings, in their nature, refuse to be restricted and oppressed. Any attempt to deprive them from freedom stimulates a reaction, depending on the moral background of the individuals. The reaction may be rebellious, disobedient and against the group norms. As it may be docile and compliant. The debate about conformity and rebellion is outstretched and appears in most of our pieces of literature. After deep research, I got to find three determinants of conformity and rebellion- the distance, size of the group and exposures. Exposures refer to the number of occasions the individual is exposed to the group norm or ritual (Goldberg 325-329). In Maus, Vladek and the rest of the Jews …show more content…
The artist, therefore, is conforming to the ideology of the people. The artist and the characters in Maus experience different types of tensions and injustice that they react to eventually both in a rebellious and compliant way. There is another aspect in the two pieces contributing to the reaction of the characters and ultimately to the major theme-conformity and rebellion. The events in Maus did not emerge out of nowhere and the anti-semitism did not develop from nothing. The propaganda of the Nazis against the Jews spread through German-occupied territories, which lead to the Germans conforming to the ideology and the Jews rebelling for their rights against it. In A Hunger artist, the propaganda might not be authoritarian as in Maus. It is present implicitly through the crowd’s judgments of the artist 's performance and the artist’s manipulation of its emotions. There is a firm connection between what individuals are exposed to and their indoctrination along with other groups. This combination develops conformity and rebellion between two groups-the manipulated and the manipulator. Accordingly, exposure to different kinds of pressure, galvanized by manipulation of the …show more content…
One holds more realistic and tangible aspects such as generational transmission, postmemory and Jewish identity. The other is more abstract and leaves place for imagination and discussion. There are no chronological details and the story strikes a chord with different contemporary matters depending on the reader 's personal perspective. On the Jewish identity, Hye Su Park states that there is an implicit historical concept of Jewishness in Maus (162). Moreover, that Jewish identity was targeted to be vanished by the Nazis. There is much more authority and domination in Maus than there is in A Hunger Artist as it is more thoughtful and deep. Rubinstein and William compared A Hunger Artist’s themes to realistic events of artists and their relation to the public (19). Judging the artist and being suspicious about his work alienates him from society and causes him frustration. It also limits his freedom and restricts it while it’s asking for

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