The Destructive Effects Of The Imposition Of Conformity On Individuality

We’ve all know what it feels like: walking down the halls in middle school or high school while you feel like you’re being watched…analyzed…critiqued. It would almost seem like every person you passed would be silently judging you for what you’re wearing, how you applied your makeup, how you did in the last soccer game, or what they heard you did with Jonny. The passerby’s in the hallway would place you on the high-school-hierarchy-of-coolness scale based on superficial characteristics even before getting to know you. Adolescence is a time of learning and forming an identity but it’s also a time where you are constantly being watched and evaluated by your peers, sometimes even put down by physical or verbal means. Bullying has always been

Conformity killed my mind. Conformity kills one’s individuality, creativity, and the ability to think and act on one 's own. Society writes out these rules and standards that they hold everyone to, as if their building a character for a book or movie, it kills our imperfection and who we are as a person. And it can stop use from seeing the truth when it’s right in front of us and changes our whole perspective on reality.

I strongly believe that individuality should be valued over conformity. Today I will tell you how precious and rare individuality is, and why we should value it over conformity.

Many individuals is faced with the decision of conforming or choosing personal desire, and it is not an easy decision. It is hard because being shunned by others for being different is not a good feeling. Choosing to conform over personal desire, often leads to loss. On the other hand, personal desire is what sets others apart and gives them joy. In the poem, “The Jackhammer Syndrome”, Al Purdy discusses the good and bad memories he has experienced. He goes through his memories of when he had fun and made mistakes, but he reflects on what he could have done better. The author of “The Jackhammer Syndrome informs against choosing the welcoming joy of conformity over the long-term gains of personal desire. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire may seem easy at first, but if the choice is to conform, the joy it gives will not last. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire Conformity may seem to give joy at first, but it does not last. When Al is playing pool with his brother, he wants to win badly, but losses. However when he did not care to win, Al wins! Conforming can lead to loss but personal desire has much to gain. If the choice is to conform, personal identity may be lost. In my life, I recognize several instances in which I found several similarities between Al and myself. I have made decisions that were not always good ones such as swimming across long distances with friends.

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.

In the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Milos Forman, the portrayal of the only Native American called Chief Bromden starts off as stereotypical, but slowly unravels towards the end. However, despite including harmful stereotypes, the film succeeds overall in overshadowing any negative aspects. Despite not being the main character, Chief Bromden is able to leave a lasting impression that breaks down and discontinues many harmful stereotypes about Native Americans. Even though Chief Bromden is not given a chance to tell his own story from his point of view, as he is in the book version, he is still allowed to present himself as a complex human being instead of a just a stoic, noble Indian.

As readers, we see how the analysis of conflictive themes has been taking over literature scenarios. When reading between the lines of certain books we can perceive themes such as conformity and rebellion. Mostly these themes can be seen in writings from times of social upheaval. According to The Oxford Dictionary, the word conformity means “behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards”, while rebellion means “the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.” These terms create a constant battle among societies. A certain amount of conformity needs to exist in life in order to avoid disorder. This is the reason society has laws, rules and expectations. Literature represents life, and these themes can be found at the root of many literary works. Conformity can also be considered as silence. This silence is based on the restrictions of real feelings and thoughts in some literary pieces. During the sixteenth century, the emphasis on conformity was at its height. Works of literature from this time period have often reflected a fascination and frustration with this particular characteristic. People do not want to be restricted in terms of expressing opinions and developing certain activities. When facing oppression, denial of their freedom, they rebel, and that contributes to the part of the process of change in society. Not all kinds of rebellions are rationally fundamental, but when they are, it can transform society for the

Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," displays the conflict between conformity and individuality through the main character, Paul. On a number of occasions, Paul is forced to lie and steal to escape the conformists who wish to control him and stifle his unique imagination. However, his lying, stealing, and attempts to escape the conformists, only force Paul into isolation, depression, and feeling a sense of shame for his individuality. Throughout the story one might see Cather's constant contrast of individuality versus conformity, as well as Paul's lying and stealing. Cather seems to draw the conclusion that extreme individuals, much like Paul are simply misunderstood, and not offered the acceptance they desire

Character Analysis: Chief Bromden - The narrator/patient of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden is the son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman. Also, He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, and received several electroshock treatments for ten years. In the novel, Chief Bromden’s physical characteristics are described as a huge man in society.

In the article title “Individuality vs. Conformity: The Healthy Middle?” by an anonymous high school student it says that there are only two thing that a typical high school student wants to typically achieve in their short high school life (par. 1). One of these things is to fit in (par. 2). The second one is to be different (par. 3). How could you do this?. You could choose to be individual or just conform. However I really maintain the idea that what we should really do it's to stay in the middle so we won't forget who we really are and still be liked by different groups of people.

The 1950’s were a time when the world was dealing with the after-math of World War II. People of this era were coming to terms about how their lives had been changed forever. When the men went away to fight in the war, the women at home had no choice but to modify their lifestyles. These women, who mostly consisted of housewives, had to go to work outside the home. This caused this these once dependant women, who relied on their husbands for their sole source of income, gained a sense of independence. Many women felt they had a bigger purpose when they worked to achieve a goal instead of just working at home for their husbands. When the men came back from war their home life had transformed. They saw how the women in their lives had become self-sufficient. The men felt apprehensive and threatened by these newly empowered women. The still male-dominated society felt threatened, and new social concepts came into place to keep women in their place, so the men could still thrive. These social concepts were very gender specific; women had much less freedom than men. What was seen as socially acceptable for men was not for women. In Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, she employs imagistic motifs to argue that society governs how men and women must conform to strict gender roles inflicted on them by society in order for a person to be viewed as successful and attractive.

It is a man’s world, and the woman 's place is in the house. This popular misconception has plagued American society since the time of the founding fathers. It was believed that the man was expected to be the master, the leader, or the commander in chief, while the woman is supposed to be passive and subservient. Women did not have the right to dictate how they used their money, how they dressed in public, and how they behaved in the presence of men. For a long time, American society suppressed women with these conformations. It was not until the late-1970s that women were allowed to freely express themselves. However, the normal convention of omniscient male dominance is absent in author Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel that takes place between the 1950s and 1960s. During this time period women were still confined to the home and were required to be servile. Ironically, Kesey gives his female characters’ power over the male characters throughout the novel. The roles of men and women in Kesey 's characters are unconventional for their time period as a result of the powerful matriarchal environment, the emasculation of the men in the ward, and inferiority of a minority status.

Since the modern era, a major limitation of society remains: the obsession of one’s appearances, and the subsequent alienation of those perceived to not fit the ideal. The general media unceasingly promotes the thin ideal, spawns a multi-billion dollar diet industry, and permeates major aspects of society, such as the medical community. The hatred for one’s appearance is entirely a social construct perpetuated by the media. More importantly, the ideal has alienated those perceived to be outside of it, which is the majority of the U.S. population. The conformity stifles individualism on various levels. America was made great because of its diversity, which is now threatened by pressures to conform. It encompasses all aspects of life, even

In literature, there are four main types of conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society and, the toughest one of them all, man vs. himself. In the novels The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both of the main characters have large conflicts with themselves. They battle with their conscience to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. “So [they] beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 189). I see this battle every day in the high school world. There is always someone who breaks under peer pressure even though that person knows it is wrong. It’s the battle of conformity.

Many people have been affected in some shape or form by others around them. Social influence has many different parts to it and affects our everyday lives.