Analysis Of The Article 'Group Minds' By Dorris Lessing

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Dorris Lessing is a well-known British woman who is a very talented novelist who wrote the article “Group Minds”. In the article Lessing argues how it is in human nature to conform to the group even while knowing we can make our own decisions we continue to follow. Lessing’s states, “My mind is my own, my options are chosen by me, I am free to do as I will” (652). This quote portrays that this is the minds set of your average individual, but in reality these dreams fall short. In Dorris Lessing’s article “Group Minds” she writes a well-written persuasive article that consists of strong points but has vague, insufficient evidence. This article is about how individual people have been affected by groups and group pressure. Lessing mentions …show more content…
I believe that Dorris does a fantastic job persuading the readers by the words she has chosen. For example the quote I used in paragraph 1 “My mind is my own, my options are chosen by me, I am free to do as I will” (652). This quote by Lessing is truly inspiring and makes people believe that this is realistic and how people can actually be an individual, even if not true. Dorris also provides very strong points. My favorite point that Dorris writes is “When we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does: we may even have joined the group to find ‘like-minded; people” (652). I find this extremely interesting because this is 100 percent true and when you relate it back to your own life it makes so much sense. I find Dorris is very good at getting the reader to relate to them selves, which is remarkable for a writer. Although Dorris is very informative and persuasive, she lacks sufficient evidence. When Lessing attempts to prove her valid points she vaguely mentions an experiment that was secondary information to her and does not use any details to describe what actually occurs in this experiment. In the article “Opinions and Social Pressure” by Solomon E. Asch uses a similar experiment but provides it in much more depth and goes into much more fine detail with his information to prove his points. For example Solomon writes, “ The test not only demonstrates the operations of group pressure upon individuals but also illustrate a new kind of attack on the problem and some of the more subtle questions that it raises” (655). This quote demonstrates how this test is not only asking one question and looking for one answer. It is looking for several answers from several questions and opening the eyes of readers and going into the most detail he possibly can to prove his points most thoroughly. Solomon doesn’t just prove

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