Ivan Glasenberg, the CEO of Glencore, once said “I stopped focusing on people being different, and started treating everyone the same way.” An authority figure refuses to acknowledge the differences in people, and treats different individuals the same way. Authoritarian figures have shut down people, mostly kids, who are different for years. Striving to reach a conformity in society, they refuse to recognize the uniqueness of every individual. Similarly, in the short story “Antaeus”, the main character, T.J., is evidently different from the rest of urban society, much to authority’s disliking. In Borden Deal’s short story “Antaeus”, the author uses the main character ,T.J., to demonstrate that when man is different from the rest of society, …show more content…
When T.J. originally brought up the idea, the kids think he is joking. They believe it would be impossible to build a garden on their factory roof. However, T.J. convinces them that they can pull it off, and it would be a wonderful project. Even when the task seemed laborious, “T.J. kept the vision bright within [the gang], [T.J.’s] words shrewd and calculated toward the fulfillment of [T.J.’s] dream” (103). Somehow, he convinced the kids to put in a lot of hard work to keep the garden going. Even though T.J. is unique, the gang follows him and likes his ideas. They gang believes “T.J. kept the vision bright within us” because he was able to inspire the gang that having a roof garden is the best thing ever. Because of T.J., the gang is determined to keep the garden going. T.J. has become a leader to the gang, and they will follow him. The kids are so fascinated by T.J. they call his words “shrewd,” or intelligent. Even though they are all working together, the narrator specifically calls the garden “[T.J.’s] dream”. This means the gang knows that what they’re working for isn’t something they wanted from the beginning, but more of a want of T.J.’s. However, they don’t care because T.J. is their leader and has convinced them that the garden would be good for everyone. Moreover, he keeps the idea of a fantastic garden in the minds of all the boys, as well as build determination in each of them. The narrator realizes T.J. has a “hunger within him through the toilsome winter months, knowing the dream that lay behind his plan. He was a new Antaeus, preparing his own bed of strength” (104). The narrator realizes the real reason why T.J. wanted to build a garden so bad. The garden was to “build” his bed of “strength”. He wanted the garden to remind him of home, and that was his “strength”. The narrator describes T.J.’s work as “hunger within him,”
“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men, Gang aft agley often go wrong, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy!” Robert Burn’s quote makes us believe that even the best laid out plans for joy often go wrong and brings us grief and pain. George and Lennie’s plan was for a better future. The future where they didn’t take commands from someone; where they took care of themselves. As George and Lennie keep talking about the farm and more people joining in on the plan, it looks like it might happen. But with the foreshadowing through this quote: “Look, Lennie. I want you to look around here. You can remember this place, can’t you? The ranch is about a quarter mile up that way. Just follow the river. (15)” This quote foreshadows Lennie messing up and it creating a larger gap between the dream farm and them. When Lennie kills Curley's wife, the idea of the dream farm slowly starts to disappear. As George finds out about what had happen, he realizes that plan for a farm was just an idea, an illusion. “—I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would”
George and Lennie's ultimate goal is to "get the jack together," buy a few acres of land they can call their own, "an' live off the fatta the lan' (pg. 14)." George talks in great depth about how their dream house is going to have individual rooms, a kitchen with a fat iron stove, and an orchard. But, George only recites this yarn when he wants to get Lennie calmed down. Lennie has the mentality of an 8 year old, the memory of a senile 80 year old, and only desires to tend rabbits. George fully understands that Lennie can easily be manipulated. Even though the dream to have a piece of land is shared, George knows that by himself he cannot amass a large enough "stake," to buy it himself (pg. 33)." Just as the boss thought, George was "takin' his pay away from him (pg. 22)."
In Harrison Bergeron’s society, no one is different. Everyone has equal height, intelligence, and physical ability. The society in the story is ‘Black and White’ that there are two distinct
As each decade passes what implies and defines 'conformity ' changes as societies norms grow and transform yet the strength of its influence remains constant when stood against the wall of rebellion. Individuals such as the artist in Kafka 's Hunger Artist who craved to be adorned for hid differences of normality were seen inhuman by the audience 's eyes. While people like the cashier from A&P by Updike; tried to cross the boundary of social class are view by society as momentarily confused in need of guidance to remain where they rank in class status. And those who indeed bend to the advances of norms that are acceptable may end up like the unknown citizen in Auden 's poem whose identity was forever lost by mass grouping with the another unknowns who never did anything special.
In society, it's difficult to go against the norm. Individuals are compelled to act a specific way, or look a specific way in order to be accepted. For instance, teenagers may encounter pressure from their peers to partake in specific exercises that may not be moral, since they feel the need to fit in. This weight of conformity isn't just present in reality; it can be found in literature as well. The story "St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell depicts that in order to conform to society, individuals abandon their selflessness and compassion and become selfish and apathetic.
The novel “The Antagonist” is about a guy named Gordon Rankin who goes by Rank. His college friend, Adam, wrote a book chronicling his life. However he wrote this book without Rank’s permission which angers Rank immensely. The book explores what Rank does afterwards. Throughout this novel many archetypes are present. These archetypes are pivotal to the novel and its messages. It suggests that people are easily characterized. In fact, no matter how unique someone seems they can almost always be put into a category.
Most of the time, people rely on their own morals and beliefs to make the right decision. However, there are moments when certain conditions compromise a person’s individuality. Ha Jin’s and Ralph Ellison’s works do excellent portrayals of this exact scenario. In their stories, the protagonists find themselves dealing with circumstances where they choose to improve their social standings at the expense of losing their individuality.
Are our differences as human begins so divergent that such extremes needed to be taken? In the novel “Harrison Bergeron” we explore the idea of a dystopian world ruled by differences. And in order for peace to be achieved different aspects of people’s mental and physical capabilities needed to be altered to become similar to an ideal majority of human society. In order for change and progression to happen in the world, humans need individuality. This gives society advancements and growth. Allowing people to express and debate upon what makes them contrastive to one another, and later encourages human development.
“Everybody was finally equal.” This is what all people want, but true equality should never be reached. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the year is 2081 and government has finally made all its people equal. The government puts handicaps on those who are stronger and smarter than the average person. The character Harrison Bergeron strongly disagrees with this. With Harrison’s rebellious and forceful ways, he tries to overthrow the government because he feels this is unjust.
Kurt Vonnegut paints a picture of American society 120 years past 1961. Society has made a gradual change, but it is a drastic one nonetheless. After nearly two hundred amendments to the constitution, everyone is supposed to be equal in every way. “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (232 Vonnegut). In this landscape Vonnegut shows that people will never be completely equal, and trying to force equality through controlling individuals will only create a new class system.
Similarly, it is unnatural to seek out and punish those who reject social norms “Harrison Bergeron” was written as a form of satire, to mock those individuals views that everybody should be equal in all aspects. The central idea of this story, is that everyone should have equal rights, but attributes such as strength, intelligence, and beauty should be different as that is what makes people
The moment we have grown to become aware of our own individuality is the same time in which we learn to discard and replace them for the standards society favors. In Logan Feys’s “Sociology of Leopard Man” the author speaks about how society often looks down on certain aspects that breaks down social norms, and that people are forced to conform to them in attempts to attain acceptance. He utilizes a unique individual who is known as the world’s most tattooed man, and who people often refer to as the Leopard Man, as a reference. Feys is accurate in asserting that people currently live under constant pressure to surrender their individuality and conform to the will of others.
Societies standards are what everyone wants to fit into it is the norms that are used as a guide to living life. The grandmother and the misfit in O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” follow the way of social values, thoughts, and way society sees one another closely in 1953. Both the grandmother and the misfit are different in many ways, but have one common value of society’s views are important to them. The way society views and judges people causes both the misfit and the grandmother to act differently but subtly makes them more alike than either of them could tell. The shared value of society’s point of view on a human being can explain both characters views, behaviors, and actions because of how heavily it weighed on the grandma and
Although the comparisons are well hidden, both today’s society and the story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ share similar qualities. They both deal with equality, which leads to problems and consequences. A second similarity is the struggle of competition and trying to prevent it from occurring, which also leads to problems. Lastly, both struggle with normality, and the fact that it’s hard to accept that different is okay now.
There comes a point in everyone’s life when they are pressurized by society’s demands. One is given the option to either conform or challenge these social norms in order to suit one’s life.