Something that has remained constant throughout history is the fact that in society, the majority rules. Society is made up of many different groups of people. These groups may be based on religion, race, socio-economic status or location. Almost everyone wants to fit in somewhere. For example, if a man lives in a primarily Christian neighborhood, chances are, he is Christian. The concept of monkey see, monkey do is prominent in society. The essay “Corn Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain demonstrate’s the theme that if a man belongs to a group in society, he will conform to their lifestyle. Mark Twain, growing up during slavery, is interested in a particular African American man’s sermon. Being white, his Mother forbids him to go listen or speak …show more content…
Twain states a quote from this man he never forgets, “You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is” (1). What he means is, if a man is surrounded by those who have specific opinions about something, then he too, will share this opinion. Where a man works or lives, conveys a message about the kind of person he is. A man living in Harlem is going to have different opinions than a man living in Beverly Hills, and chances are their communities have molded a portion of their public opinions. Most people won’t try to fight against the current of the community they live in. An example of conforming would be the way someone dresses. Some people dedicate their lives to fashion and keeping up with that part of society. When an article of clothing starts to get popular, everyone needs to have it to fit …show more content…
Have you ever noticed you start to sound like one of your closest friends after seeing them all the time? This is imitation. We conform to get the approval of those around us. We long to be accepted by others. This is why people transform the style of clothing they wear, change religions and so on. People who are considered non-conformists are sometimes looked at in a bad light. If a man comes from a community of very religious people and his neighbor is an Atheist, it might not matter if his neighbor is an exceptional person; because he is not conforming to his strong religious beliefs, he can’t be friends with him because then he too, will not be accepted by his community. This means he won’t be able to shop in certain stores either out of embarrassment or because you know the owner has the same opinions as the rest of the community. People conform really out of fear that the place they get their “corn pone” from will reject them. If it is going to change the way their community looks at them or alienate them, of course, most people would conform to that communities beliefs and
Conformity can be very crucial, infact a lot of people eventually start hurting themselves or doing drugs just because they don't feel themselves anymore.Why can't society change? why can't that one kid that always follows everyone in the back can turn into the kid that just hangs with the people they really wanna hang with?We need to embrace ourselves so we can stop all this conformity from consuming us.Tupac was a nonconformist, he always did what made him happy and always told the truth.
People really do not have individual thoughts and just go along with the general opinions of others. Twain’s use of humor, rhetorical questions, everyday life examples, manners, literature, and outside influences present an effective argument for conformity. He believes that people like to imitate each other, so they can be accepted by the rest of society and agree with the public opinion. Without self-approval a person does not feel good about themselves and must always resign to be different. A person needs to conform to be a part of
One device Twain uses to develop his view on conformity is repetition. While discussing man’s inability of having a self-created opinion, but rather conforming to another opinion, he uses the phrase, “he must” (Twain, 718) five separate times. By repeating those two words, Twain shows how conformity is a requirement, not an option. Instead of reasoning out personal thoughts on a subject, people conform to the majority’s belief on that subject. People base opinions off on other people, which is Twain’s main point in his essay. Later on, he uses repetition once again to discuss the common changes in manners and man’s inability to think for themselves. Twain uses the pronoun “we” (719) to include everybody in his perspective on conformity. By ranging the settings, “…table manners, and company manners, and street manners…” (719), he shows how conformity impacts every aspect of life. Also, any...
Mark Twain’s purpose in “Corn-Pone Opinions” is to inform the reader that it is human nature to conform to the rest of society. According to Twain,”self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is conformity.” (Twain 720). While humans provide opinions, many of them are based from the association with others. Twain claims that it is a basic human instinct to receive approval, mostly that of others. In his essay, Furthermore, Twain is attempting to persuade the reader to stop conforming to what society wants. It is through this process that many individuals abandon their own beliefs and principles.
Another point I agree with is that it's a lot easier to just fit in and not lead the train and being yourself. I personally know from experience. Growing up I always tried to conform just to fit in with the people that surrounded me. It's not just me that i've seen conform to fit in, i've seen many of my friends conform to fit in with the crowd. All around me, everyday people are conforming and changing to fit in with the society.
Mark Twain writes this essay in order to shed light onto his belief that people’s thoughts and actions are influenced by those around them. His belief that people conform to the rest of society fuels his essay. This can be seen when Twain includes his idea that “It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resist” (718). Twain shows that people are beginning to conform without using their own minds to process their decision.
“Things like morals, religion, and politics, get their following from surrounding influences and atmospheres.” (pg. 4) Twain says this to show that anything you can possibly think of, even things commonly found in everyday life stemmed from some sort of opinion. Furthermore, he asserts that self-approval is achieved mainly through public approval, which is the definition of conformity. Paragraph seven states that political emergencies create the greatest example of conformity because being in the majority means that you’ll never be in the wrong.
The most popular age to do so are teenagers as one can depict. If all people conformed to one another, individuality would never be heard of. An opposite way to think of this is that without conformity, the common society would not be able to work together. People tend to believe this due to the fact that without agreement, there is chaos. No one would have courage to stand up for what they believe in, what they like, and most importantly, who they are. One will usually believe that after conforming to fit others for a while, one may begin to lose themselves. All in all, conforming may seem to be the only option to people in order not drag attention to themselves in certain situations. In these situation types, you must find courage within yourself to have the ability to not overlook what you believe
Conformity also restricts the ideas of society to be heard, because everyone must follow the same ideology. One of the quotes from Beatty is “You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred”, implying that people are better off conforming to the culture so that unhappiness does not happen (Bradbury 56). In Fahrenheit 451 conformity is the motto of the culture, society is distracted with certain simple things like TV and racing cars. Clarisse explains to Montag “People don’t talk about anything. they all say the same thing and nobody says anything different from anyone else”, the culture of this society couldn’t question certain things and most of their conversations lead to the same basic ideas.
The subject this book revolves around slavery, and how white folks’ mindset on black people was popular at that time. Their mindset involved treating black people as inferior to them, and how to them, they were not even considered human but property. Twain also shows how sometimes a fourteen year old boy (Huck) was more morally correct towards treatment of black people than many adults of his time. Twain presents this in a humorous way with its serious points. The issue is obvious throughout the story and makes the reader wonder how even “good” characters treate...
Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, educates high school students on how the Southern society operated at that time. When analyzing the novel, one can see that Twain’s writing clearly does not endorse slavery or the use of derogatory language toward African-Americans. In a petition to remove this book from a high school required reading list, a school board in New Jersey concluded, "the literary value of the book outweighed the negative aspect of the language employed.” (2) Huckleberry Finn is a satirical novel that was written to show the flaws of 19th century American society. It shows how people thought and acted back then, and points out what was wrong with the white supremacy mindset of many Southerners during these years. “The book itself is a great testament that...
“Social conformity has been practiced in societies around the world since ancient times,” and the reason it is so effective is that humans have an inherent need to be accepted as part of a group (Sadat). Furthermore, Hossna Sadat reports that:
In every society, there is conformity and nonconformity, although we may not notice it. Conformity is when someone is doing the same thing as others because they do not want to be the only one doing differently. Example, if there was a whole class raising their hands would you want to be the only one with your hand down, no so you would raise it with the rest of the class to not look like you don't know anything. This is called social pressures it when a large group is doing something and you're the only one not then you want to be doing whatever that large group is doing.
Conformity is defined as behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. This is not a good or bad thing, this just is. It exists as a compliment to earlier humans congregating into larger groups, using agriculture and domestication to create sustenance. Also, conformity is essential for life. We need people to share the same ideas, ideologies and a way of thinking in order to work efficiently and effectively. There many examples that exist like, at work or in your house and even within yourself. Sigmund Freud has explained the phenomena of group psychology in a piece titled, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Using Freud’s theory of conformity I will explain the self, what we call “me”,and its different constituents using The Principles of Psychology by
Within his criticism of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Gregory Fowler uses examples from both the book and Mark Twain’s own life to discuss the different ways in which racism has morphed. Instead of analyzing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn critically and solely, Gregory Fowler critically analyzes parts of the book and its effect to prove the different ways in which slaver morphs through the uses of allusions, exemplifications, and anecdotes.