Teen Conformity in Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt and in Society Today

The American Dream has always been the unattainable idea of a perfect life, often causing disorder when it is not realized. In response to society’s unrealistically high standards, and the human desire to be accepted, people shape their existences to fit within the quixotic ideals of society. The ubiquity of this conformity is demonstrated by its omnipresence as a theme in American literature. The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, along with Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, demonstrate how these perspectives of social mores are centered on the prevalence of the unrealistic views of normality. The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and

Conformity is a concept that has been heavily researched in the field of social psychology. Conformity is defined as a change in behavior, beliefs, and attitudes due to group pressure perceived as real (encompassing the presence of others) or imagined (encompassing the pressure of social standards) (Myers, 2010, p. 192). The concept of conformity is a powerful influence on the tendency for people to arrange their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas with others, especially when in a group. This takes away from a person’s individuality because they want to feel accepted by others and therefore, a person will accomplish this basic need of approval through conforming.

Conformity, it’s something everyone deals with, even if they do not realize it. Although, what happens when conformity takes control over everything? What if the world was stripped of individuality, no citizen has any rights to hold on to, while not being able to think for one’s self. That is an image what it would be like if everyone in the world were to conform to a restricting society. Just think of all of the advances in technology the human race has come up with in the last ten years alone. None of that would have been possible in a society where no one can go above another person's IQ level. This is the world the characters in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem live in. The reasons that total conformity is dangerous is because individuality is not possible, no family history, and advancement would not be possible.

In fact, this also applies to the situation of understanding what social conformity is. This subject has been around for centuries, forcing many to behave in a certain way that the society expects. The influence of peer pressure is still a topic has an impact to the world, especially the adolescents. The “[s]ocial psychologists have suggested that one core function of compliance and conformity is to maintain group harmony”(“Social Influence and the Brain:Persuasion, Susceptibility to Influence and Retransmission” Cascio,Scholz,Falk) and this applies to many individuals who value public opinions more than their own. They seek to be “good” people and make an effort to follow the trend of the crowd. More often than not, this also relates to the confidence level of an individual, “If those others agree with one’s beliefs, one gains confidence in them; if they disagree, one loses confidence” (“Conformity,” Levine). This is indeed what many people face today from all different phases of life. Daisy, one of the characters in the book The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of a person soaked into social conformity. From the beginning of her marriage life with Tom to the end of the book, she progresses into immoral stages of life. Day after day she conforms herself into a world filled with corruptions, such as adultery and murder. Although, she is an adult, she is a character that is stuck in a stage that her age group have already

Being stereotyped and having a label put on you by your family's history or your behavior, can bring either obedience or even worse, disobedience, not caring if it was the authority or the less fortunate. In John Hughes film The Breakfast club (1985) consists of five students, going from obedient with brains, to a disobedient rebellious kid. While Benders actions and past was given a label of a criminal, Brian was labeled as the brains in the group, due to his action in academics and being obedient. Could we say Benders and Brian's action were to impress his friends/family or to just follow the crowd ? or was it really their actions they wanted to take?

John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”. This has been a puzzling idea for many; most of us are grown into some form of conformity at one time or another. At what point does following the rules become wrong? When is it too much? Over the years many people begin to question what the acts of following the crowd can mean; whether or not we need these orders, and structures to function; or whether it’s really worth losing yourself just to make everybody else happy. When does it become too much? And once is does, how do we break the cycle? This topic has been used throughout many different mediums; films, and literature, all alluding to the signs, and actions of when conformity is doing nothing

Conformity is a form of social influence, when we conform we act and think like members of our group. Often people even alter or change their personal beliefs to match those around them. When we conform we feel pressured to fit in with others, to be a part of the majority. While we may still have contradicting beliefs towards things, we change our behaviors and actions to match what everybody else is

After World War II during the 1950’s, the economy boomed leading to the idealization of a middle-class lifestyle of stability, certainty and wealth. Everyone in the middle class led analogous lifestyles. As disconcerting as this appears, compared to the poverty that Americans went through in the Great Depression, living in the culture of conformity was like child's play. There were nuclear families and parents pushed their kids to become well educated, get married, have a copious number of kids and buy an expensive car. Looking at adolescents, there was the emergence of teen movies, adult apprehension and rock and roll.

To understand why we have a sense of conformity, we must first understand value. “Values are used to learn people’s culture, ideas, and what they want out of life (Henslin 49). Every culture has similar and different values. “Norms are the expectations a group develops concerning the ‘right’ way to reflects its values” (Henslin49). An example of a norm would be personal space and speaking quietly in certain places such as a library. When norms are violated people often begin to question the person’s sanity and well-being based on how extreme the norm violation was.

Often times in life people will feel it necessary to conform in order to fit into certain groups of people. When a person conforms it usually leads to them changing the way they behave. This

To conform or to not conform is the real question. Google defines conformity as “Compliance with standards, rules, or laws.” I define conformity as someone going along with society although they may or may not believe it’s the right thing to do. The people who refuse to conform to society are called nonconformist. Although both conformity and nonconformity has its benefits, it can also be unfavorable for you. In other words, IT SUCKS!! And this demonstrated through both fictional stories and in real life. Two very good examples are Snowball the pig (conformist) from the book “Animal Farm” By George Orwell and Summer Pimp (nonconformist) who used to be one of my good friends.

Secondly, the characters experience conformist social roles. George Babbitt conforms to the social role of being a father and husband. In Babbitt’s society it is expected for men to be the bread-winner of the family and also to be faithful to his wife even if they are out of love. Babbitt is experiencing the social stress from conforming to appear the best possible husband and father he can be. George is out of love with his wife. He met Myra Babbitt when he was in college and he did not even love her to begin with. He believed he should marry her because she was a honest and a “good wife” (Lewis 81) material. Most men and women married either married for money or that they felt obligated to marry someone to because it is expected of them.

Babbitt currently lives in the city of Zenith, an industrialized mid-west city where you pretty much are separated from what you have and what you don’t have. It’s a very ignorant city where people see this but it’s actually speaking present time because it’s sort of the same in present world. Babbitt wants to be happy but he lives in a world where there’s a barrier, and on the other side are all the rich people. Babbitt wants to cross paths but it’s almost impossible for him. In that world it’s all about material possessions, and if you

For some, conformity is an unthinkable evil in American society. All individuals living within a community conform in some way to social norms, yet to label someone a conformist is akin to labeling them ignorant and unoriginal. However, conformity - and its associated impacts - are as integral to the functioning of society as the principles of nonconformity. Conformity is often positively utilised to induce positive social change nationally and internationally. It prompts dissemination of workload, provides protection (‘strength in numbers’), and encourages strict rule enforcement. Although less appreciated than non conformists, conformists and their resulting principles play a vital role in the smooth conduction of society.

By these terms George Babbitt, and many of this acquaintances are quite the bigots toward all of those who appear different than he is, especially immigrants and minorities in America. The blame should not be placed squarely on these men,s shoulders for processing such hate filled beliefs, but their own opinion of the matter is generated through the generations, that immigrants and minorities are far less superior than the “native” white men who have “always: lived in America. The irony of this subject in the book is that although men of Babbitt’s stature openly shared and joked with one another about their superiority to all other races, not one would ever admit that he was even by a small degree a bigot. Buying only the very best material items and throwing dinner parties are only a few of the ways Babbitt tried to accomplish a more noteworthy place in society and impress his peers. He is more concerned about these items than about his wife and children and to him, “God was Modern Appliances” (Lewis pg 114). However, at the end of the story, the irony is no more evident when Babbitt admits to his son that he has wasted life. He confides in his Ted that he has ruined his whole life shooting for goals which, in Babbitts lifetime, are realistically unattainable. He tells Ted that hopefully, the new generation (Ted’s generation), can recover from Babbitt’s ill fated dreams, and lead their own lives the way