Conformity In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Society is built on the fact that everyone is different: different gender, different hair color, different body types, and, most importantly, different opinions. Although conflict stems from different opinions, humans can not help but have their own thoughts and feelings about every situation. Different opinions, such as democrats vs. republicans or pro-life vs. pro-birth, are just a few examples, on the neverending list, of society spitting their views on a topic. Despite the fact that everyone is so different, people can learn from each other and grow their opinions after hearing the other “side of the story”. We may not always agree with each other, but we should just listen, understand, and respect the fact that everyone has different opinions.

This can save us from many conflicts, but still allow us to be unique.
Conformity in religions and cultures around the world has been very familiar throughout most of history.

The book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is one great example of religious and cultural conformity. A young girl living in Afghanistan, Mariam, is sent to live with her father after her mother commits suicide. His wives are not accepting of Mariam because she has not been apart of their happy lives and they don’t want to have a stranger living with them. Also, religious and cultural expectations pressure them to convince Mariam’s father to marry her off to a much older man in Kabul. Her father and his wives conformed to what was socially acceptable in their society. Even though the wives wanted Mariam gone, her father did not, but still gave in. The pressure that made Mariam’s dad and his wives send her off was conformity, or to go with the flow of the rest of society. Their decision ultimately lead Mariam to have to conform to the new culture and role as a wife. The conformity in Afghanistan and more specifically in this book lead a young girl to be separated from her father and placed in a whole new place and had to figure it out basically in her own. Society is based upon different opinions and society should not want conformity because some people are pressured to do things that they don’t have the capability to do or might not agree

with.
Naturally humans try to fit in and some go along with the wants of the overall society, which means that some conformity is necessary and desirable. A huge “problem that we face these days is not a lack of but excess of information and choice” (Singh). For instance, there is an overwhelming amount of different clothing trends, stores, and brands. The all these differences are created by competition and ambition to be the most popular. Some people conform to the new clothing trends of society, while others reject the idea and go their own route. This balance is healthy and creates an ideal society, as long as people respect others actions. Imagine a world where everyone had to like and dislike the same clothing trends, stores, and brands. There would be no uniqueness and no motivation to create new looks in order to be the best. By making conformity the ultimate goal of society, we are basically taking away anything unusual and saying that one way is the best way. Realistically, complete conformity will always be an unreachable goal of society, because there are too many people with too many opinions. If society even tries to make conformity a goal, they will be taking away people's individuality and restricting them from reaching their full potential.