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The phenomenon of conformity
Research on conformity suggests that
Conformity and rebellion can affect people's lives
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“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”- Shannon L. Alder, American author. Even with all the temptation and pressure we feel just to fit in today's society, or to be normal, it's crucial that you hold on to your passions, goals, dreams, values, and to hold on to yourself. Being yourself is very hard to do especially in today’s society. Such as the short story “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath. In the short story, a young lady is ready to go along with any humiliation just to be apart of a prestigious high school sorority. The reward for passing this initiation is that she gets to be in one of the groups that prides itself on its members being the same; which this is what she doesn't even want. …show more content…
This textual example is related to the modern world by us people seeing how difficult it is not to be influenced or persuaded by trends that can be good or bad to us. For example, your group of friends all like a certain song, but you just can’t stand the vuglar use of cursing and the beat is horrible to you . Since you don’t want to be treated differently and set aside by your friends you join along with them. In addition, the short video “The Social Beeping Experiment” is yet again another example of consequences caused by conformity. In the video, the woman is unable to resist conforming, like everybody else is doing, sitting up and back down when a beeping sounds. Since it didn’t take her long to conform, precisely 3 beeps, it proves that that the brain,s urge to conform and to fit in is very strong. Thus is connected to the real world in many ways. For example, when you are in church and everybody is singing, but you feel uncomfortable or strange singing out in public. However, you do it anyways because you don’t want to look weird or frowned
In the short story “Initiation” author Sylvia Plath suggests that conformity, although the societal norm, is not always as grand as it is made out to be, while also suggesting that even though conformity typically hinders one’s self growth, there are times when the fear of conforming can make one’s sense of self stronger. These two ideas together show that Plath uses this short story to convey the message that even though conformity is not inherently a positive thing, it can drive a person to look in on themselves and develop a unique identity. Plath uses symbolism, and character introspection to assert this idea.
Day in and day out we hear about high school and college students wanting to pursue a sorority and/or a fraternity based on the stereotypes these organizations uphold, well I chose to differ. I told myself if I ever decided to become a member of a sorority it would be based solely on their ethical standards, history, and values they are founded upon. Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated consists of ladies of distinction and exemplary character who excel in scholarship, leadership, and service, which are qualities I have chosen to uphold. From my perspective, I encourage myself to maintain a respectable appearance and reputation which doing so inspires me to embrace my self-concept; which helps me confidently excel academically and professionally as a “lady of distinction” and “exemplary character.” Most importantly, I continuously remain involved in community service, being involved allows me the opportunity to learn and understand the lives and circumstances of others by opening my mind, heart, and soul. Overall these qualities strengthen my passion to be a member of the prestigious Alp...
The short story “Initiation”, by Sylvia Plath, is a short story about a girl who is struggling to feel like she fits in with everybody else. At first, she is invited to join her high school’s sorority. Then, after completing multiple initiation tasks, she realizes that the sorority girls aren't who she thought they were. After that, during one of the initiation tasks, she meets a unique person riding a bus, who tells her about heather birds, mythological birds that are free. Finally, she decides that she should leave the sorority. In the end, she realizes that being part of the sorority will constrain her, and that she would rather be a heather bird than a tame
There is no shortage of media encouraging adolescents to ‘be themselves’, promoting self-worth regardless as to what others think. While many may be fed this message throughout music and film, rarely ever is it conveyed to actually have a lasting effect on one’s personal views quite like Sylvia Plath’s “Initiation”. Although formulaic, Plath’s uniquely optimistic short story warns against an obsession with belonging, and explores the importance of individuality through the protagonist Millicent Arnold’s gradual character development, from a self-conscious teenage girl to a stronger and more confident individual.
Sylvia Plath’s “Words for a Nursery” depicts the embodiment of life through the symbolism of a human hand. Referring to the hand many times throughout various works(“Mirrors”, “Tulips”, “Lady Lazarus”, etc), Plath continually portrays this feature as a bodily tool around which life functions. After becoming pregnant with her first child, Plath’s analysis of the progression of life from birth to death can be seen within such a poem. Like most of her poetry, “Words for a Nursery” escalates in a positive manner until the end where death is expressed, and a sense of pessimism is briefly felt. As she suggests, life begins with the opening of the hand, the first action which will lead to eventual awareness of the world. Through her analysis of the detailed elements of the hand, and her emphasis on its ability to learn its role, Plath examines the phases of life by expressing a new stage within each stanza. From birth, through life, and finally to old age and death, Plath draws upon a series of images to metaphorically describe human existence in life’s endless cycle.
The Ariel-period poems of Sylvia Plath demonstrate her desire for rebirth, to escape the body that was "drummed into use" by men and society. I will illustrate the different types of rebirth with examples from the Ariel poems, including "Lady Lazarus," "Fever 103," "Getting There," and "Cut."
Sylvia Plath’s life was full of disappointment, gloominess and resentment. Her relationship status with her parents was hostile and spiteful, especially with her father. Growing up during World War II did not help the mood of the nation either, which was dark and dreary. At age 8 Plath’s father of German ancestry died of diabetes and even though their relationship was never established nor secure, his death took a toll on her. “For Sylvia, who had been his favorite, it was an emotional holocaust and an experience from which she never fully recovered” (Kehoe 90). Since she was so young she never got to work out her unsettled feelings with him. Even at age eight, she hid when he was around because she was fearful of him. When she was in his presence his strict and authoritarian figure had left an overpowering barrier between their relationship. Sadly enough by age eight Plath instead of making memories with her dad playing in the yard she resented him and wanted nothing to do with him (Kehoe). These deep-seated feelings played a major role in Plath’s poetry writings. Along with his “hilterian figure,” her father’s attitude towards women was egotistical and dismissive, uncondemning. This behavior infuriated Plath; she was enraged about the double standard behavior towards women. Plath felt controlled in male-dominated world (Lant). “Because Plath associates power so exclusively with men, her conviction that femininity is suffocating and inhibiting comes as no surprise” (Lant 631). This idea of a male-dominated world also influenced Plath’s writing. Unfortunately, Plath married a man just like her father Ted Hughes. “Hughes abandonment apparently stirred in her the memories and feelings she had struggled with when her ...
Controversy surrounding Sylvia Plath and her collection Ariel is still present in today’s society. The collection is written using personal stories in a confessional tone that makes it impossible for the reader to remove Sylvia Plath’s life from the poems. The interpretation of the poems filters directly into Plath’s life with memories of her father, husband, children and her struggles with mental health. The collection is controversial because Plath committed suicide and the depression and grotesqueness of her inner self is present in many of her poems; especially her later collection. It is hard not to read Ariel in a biographical way. Socially and politically this poem is very questionable with the major theme of the holocaust, death and
Sylvia Plath's works are known for their extremes. Much of the influence of her poems came from the males in her life that had the most effect on her; her father, Otto Plath and Ted Hughes, who she married and later it fell apart when Ted began having an affair. The effects of these men on her were mostly negative, making her poems to have loathing and suffering.
Born on October 27, 1932 in a suburb of Boston Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath was a famous poet, novelist, and writer. Publishing her first poem in the Boston Herald’s children section, at the age of eight, showed her early interest in poetry. Subsequent to her fathers death, Sylvia Plath’s family moved to Wellesley Massachusetts, where she continued the duration of her scholastic experience until college. Sylvia Plath could be described as an exemplary daughter and star student who earned straight A’s throughout her high school career. By 1950, Sylvia Plath had won “The Scholastic Art & Writing Award”, published her first story “And Summer Will Not Come Again”, written over 50 short stories, and had been published in a few magazines. Plath’s
Analysis of Daddy by Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath uses her poem, Daddy, to express deep emotions about her father’s life and death. With passionate articulation, she verbally turns over her feelings of rage, abandonment, confusion and grief. Though this work is fraught with ambiguity, a reader can infer Plath’s basic story.
In one of the stories, the main character Millicent participates in challenges and embarrassing task just so she can be accepted into Lansing High School elite social sorority. Millicent is just trying to fit in to the normal hierarchy of the high school by accepting the invitation for the social group. “Millicent had waited a long time for acceptance, longer than most” (Plath 3). It seem evident that Millicent has always envied the cool more popular girls because she was never accepted by them, and receiving the invitation means that she was finally good enough to even be considered. Through the story, you see Millicent struggling to balance being true to herself and being popular. In the end, she realizes that it is more important to be true who she really was than for her conform to other standards. “ The other victory would be much harder, but she knew it was what she wanted. It was not that she was being noble or anything. It was just that she had leanred there were wa...
Sylvia Plath, born to a middle-class family, was a delicate person who has a tendency to be a perfectionist that most people would consider her as an archetype academically. She is well-known for her exceptional ability to express into words her dreadful memories and experiences as well as her delightful ones; she was an extraordinarily gifted writer with a natural feel of the language, simply intelligent and calculated. Behind the struggles expressed in Plath 's work is the fact that she suffered from depression, suicidal tendency which made her underwent mental therapy, and that included electro-conclusive therapy (ECT) (Cooper, 2003). Most of her published works act almost as her autobiography, portraying her tragic life and death. This
“I find myself absolutely fulfilled when I have written a poem. I think the actual experience of writing a poem is a magnificent one.” These are the words of Sylvia Plath, the American poet, and author. Through her use of metaphors, imagery and end rhymes, Plath paints an autobiographical picture of her life by depicting the absence of her father, the birth of her child, and her declining mental state just before her death, she does this through her use of language by not explaining what is going on, but by showing.
save his life, but he died in November of 1940, when Sylvia was just eight