Conformity Essay

In the short story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses imagery and symbolism to show that evil can be present in the most innocent environment, resulting in society being tainted with dark illusion. Superstitious tradition symbolized an important role to the people in this village. Mr. Summers a man that was in charge of the majority of the events in the town, always spoke about making a new black box but never did. (134) The people of the village would rather keep the same box rather than…

The quote “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” (Rousseau) doesn’t hold the same meaning it did when Rousseau originally wrote it, but it can still be applied to many facet’s in today’s life. Rousseau’s quote can be applied to many areas in our everyday lives, such as government restrictions, work, and social acceptance and norms. Every day in many aspects we face restrictions that stop us from doing something we may desire to do, but cannot because of regulations against it. Every…

The perception of relationships has altered over the years, especially due to society's idea of what is acceptable to tolerate versus the individuals own moral conduct. Often what is practiced in front of people is mimicked and sought to be a way of "learning". Traditional aspects also influence on what is condoned in a relationship such as the limitation of boundaries. Teenagers, in particular, are part of an abusive relationship and they don’t even realize it. Therefore, teenagers who are in…

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…

I was shocked and surprised by how Sula was treated differently in “the bottom” the black section of Medallion, Ohio. Social convention, identity, love, and friendship, play a significant part role in this story. While other focused on conforming to the social norm, Sula was a confident woman who wanted to create herself and live a life full of adventure and curiosity. I was thrilled to see how Nellie and Sula were viewed on a single term of how they conform to society. Within the community,…

We live each day conforming to society’s standard of perfection or is it the other way around? Since birth we are taught to follow your dreams and whatever you need to achieve happiness and succeed personally in life. We are then startled by the unruly realization of reality in this black and white world. You cannot simply just be yourself, society will not allow it. You are encouraged to follow who you are,but in reason because society already has a set plan and idea on how the universe should…

Dilemmas of obedience is a widespread topic that has been studied by Solomon Asch and Stanly Milgram. Asch studied the probability of a person to conform to a group and Milgram investigated one’s ability to resist authority. Although there’s variations in the way each experiment was conducted, there’s many similarities that relate to the treatment of each subject. Results of these studies support the reasoning behind the different ways that people act. Events in the past can also correlate with…

“There's a moment when you have to chose whether to be silent or stand up” (Malala Yousafzai). Society brings upon rules that serve as guidelines for people to live by; fittingly, society expects all people to obey the rules, but not everyone decides to do so. Individuals yearn to break from these set ways and take their own path based on their own beliefs. The characters Sammy, in “A&P,” by John Updike, and Holden, in “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger, are some of those individuals…

Another definition of Abnormal comes from Deviation from social norms. Each culture and society has standards that they see as acceptable behaviour. They are ways of behaving that are expected in a society according to the majority. Members of a society or culture who do not behave or think like the majority and break these norms are often seen as abnormal. With this definition, an individual thinking or behaviour is classed as abnormal if it contradicts or violates the unwritten rules about…

Society and people as a whole have a tendency to segregate each other. “The Lesson” written by Toni Cade Bambara, gives a perfect example of how people in society tend to segregate themselves from others. Some individuals would rather stick to living in their current situation whether it be due to the fact that it is how they were raised, or they just like it. Some cases it may be due to the people around them. Sometimes others’ do not want people to do well in life, or it can be because they…