The Negative Aspects Of Conformity In Anthem And Leopard Man

Conformity

Conformity affects society in more ways than one. It can help people come together and work in harmony to contribute to society, however it can also hold individuals back from being themselves and making changes. The short story “Anthem” and the article “Leopard Man” go into great detail about the positive and negative aspects of conformity. “Anthem” encourages individualism and the freedom to express one’s self, while “Leopard Man” explains how conformity is beneficial to society.

“Anthem” is a short story about a Utopian society where all freedom and emotions were taken away from its citizens. However, Equality finds himself with a desire to go his own way and not conform to societal pressures. He decides to go against all government

laws to pursue his own happiness and dreams, even though he has to turn his back on everything he has ever known.

Earlier in the story, Equality began to spend more time with himself in a tunnel which he found while cleaning the streets. Here, he would constantly brainstorm which eventually led to his discovery of electricity. The author is trying to indirectly communicate that when individuals think for themselves, they have no limit to their abilities because they are free to be as unique as they wish. However, once Equality showed his discovery to the World Council of Scholars, he, along with his invention, was immediately rejected. After Equality displayed his new discovery, an important member of the government explained that his invention was useless because, “What is not done collectively cannot be good.” The scholars were certainly afraid of anything new, different, or anything that could change the society. With this mindset, no advancements could ever be implemented into civilization because no one had freedom and no one was willing to change their culture. Clearly, Ayn Rand,

the author, preferred individualism over conformity because with no one making changes, society would never progress. If everyone thought and acted in the same ways, humanity would never benefit. Individuality sets everyone apart and can lead to an even better society where people are able to express themselves and make their own choices. This way, everyone can develop their own ideas and implement them into society, therefore creating a more complex civilization filled with diverse individuals.
“Leopard Man” is an article about a man that pursued his own happiness by moving to a secluded area to live a unique lifestyle, even though he had to go against today’s conformity.

The author makes it very evident that he does not approve of Leopard Man’s lifestyle. First of all, the author thinks less of people when they get “hair mutilations” or tattoos because they are only seeking society’s uncommon attention, for the reason that they cannot obtain positive attention. He also refers to unique people as “freaks” just because they act or look different, which gives these people a negative connotation. The author considers Leopard Man as a “freak” because his body is covered in tattooed leopard spots and he chooses a quality of life that is different to society. The journalist prefers conformers rather than “freaks” because these people tend to have different characteristics. For example, Logan Feys, the writer, earlier expressed how he finds himself “unimpressed with individuals who radically change their appearance through extreme tattooing, piercings, hair mutilations, etc.” These looks normally shock the average person for the reasoning that “ordinary people fear what they do not understand.” However, the author has a lot of respect for Leopard Man because he lives alone in the wilderness, meaning that he’s not looking for attention. Leopard Man does not seek approval from others and he is happy with himself and his surroundings. The last two paragraphs of the article

explain how he thinks that it is ideal for people to find a balance between contributing to society and getting out of town every now and then to be alone with one’s thoughts and to think for one’s self.
In conclusion, both of these pieces of writing had a theme of conformity and whether or not it was beneficial to society. “Anthem” was a fiction story, while “Leopard Man” was nonfiction article. Because these two stories differed heavily, multiple perspectives were shown which ultimately covered the positive and negative connotations of individuality and conformity. “Anthem” encourages individualism and the freedom to express one’s self, while “Leopard Man” explains how conformity is beneficial to society.