Brian Clemm

Professor J. Intwiwat
UWRT 1102
11/15/15
Why Conform to Non-Conformity?
In the novel/movie Into the Wild, The main character Christopher
McCandless breaks away from society and embarks on a journey to find out
who he truly is. He leaves his family, friends, and any aspect of his old life
behind him and tries to uncover what life really means. Along the way, he
runs into people and trials that change his way of thinking. Ultimately after
many years, he seemed to lose sight on why he was doing what he did and
focused mainly on survival. Which he also failed to do. However,
Christophers story reached out to many people and inspired others to try
and break free from the norm and pursue a different kind of life. In a way,
everyone should do what they want to do in life. Everyone should be
whatever they want and shouldnt have to worry about what anyone else
thinks. In todays society, being different is
becoming the new norm for everyone when a
couple decades ago it was the complete
opposite. Everyone strived to live the
American Dream. Investopedia.com defines
the American dream as The belief that anyone, regardless of where they
were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of

success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The

American dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking and hard work, not
by chance. Everyone wanted the typical house, family, car package because
it was what everyone else wanted. This idea enticed people to Conform to
that dream. Frankly, why wouldnt you want to have those things? Why else
do you go to work every day when you could be wasting your life not trying
to provide for yourself or your family? While some people feel the need to
break away from that notion, why is the notion of conformity so frowned
upon now? In this Inquiry, I will be analyzing the positives of both conforming
to the American Dream and non-conformity using examples of well-known
people that have chosen either side while trying to argue why people who
conform will go farther in life.
In early 2009, a Pakistani student named Malala Yousafzai became the
youngest person in history to win the Noble Peace Prize for multiple acts of
courage against the Taliban. She started an anti-Taliban blog and spoke at
the headquarters of the United Nations stressing the right to education for all
and for human rights and peace. She spoke against violence of any kind
even against the Taliban. The Taliban continue to harass millions all over the
world. They have millions in their command not by choice. Almost no one
had the courage to break away and do something about it. Malala broke
away and changes many peoples lives. If she continued to keep doing what
everyone else was, our world would not have come closer to try and promote
world peace. Conformity and non-conformity can apply to anything in life

including Malalas story. She chose non conformity and it paid off. She
sacrificed her health and safety to change the world and it created a positive
outcome. Non-conformity can have positives if chosen correctly. Another
example of positive non-conformity relating to my thesis is Steve Jobs. The
electronic entrepreneur from California had an idea
that revolutionized the way we listen to music forever.
Everyone was so used to using records and CDs to
listen to music and that was considered the norm. Jobs
went against that to create one of the most successful
products in history. Non-conformity can benefit people
sometimes more than conforming to something. While it is extremely rare, it
can happen.
When it comes to successful people conforming to the American
dream, there are many people that come to mind. One that has in my
opinion conformed the most and become the most successful is Tom Cruise.
One of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood has been nominated for multiple
Academy awards and has won three Golden Globe awards. A big reason for
that is because he is the stereotypical hunk actor. That is what people
want to see a fit and attractive man up on the big screen not someone the
opposite. He had to conform to the standards of Hollywood to stay relevant.
While this may sound unreasonable, he is extremely successful. He is a
multi-millionaire and is recognized by billions of people. He has the American
dream completely fulfilled also. He has the wife, house, kids, etc. Because he

changed things about his life for the better, he became more successful in
life. Another example of a successful conformist is Warren Buffet. The CEO of
Berkshire Hathaway has grown a net worth of over 60 billion dollars and is
considered one of if not the most successful businessman in history. He had
to conform to what people wanted to keep his business growing. As you can
see, it paid off for him. These people show that conforming isnt giving up a
part of you to be a part of something. It is
more of just adapting to a situation to better
yourself.
As you are reading this, do you start
to notice that both sides of the argument are somewhat the same? If you
think about it, if you are for non-conformity, you are technically conforming
to an idea and you are just trying to fight that logic and be different. Just
because it is not the norm, doesnt mean you cant conform to something.
You are letting a group or people or an idea control what you do in life. Isnt
the point of non-conformity to do what you want? You are also denying who
you are. If you are breaking away from something, there is a reason you were
that situation in most cases. Yes, sometimes you need to get out of certain
things like addiction or something dangerous to yourself or to others.
However, McCandless conformed to something without him even realizing it.
He wasted his life trying to run away from something when he could have
been working on bettering himself. His non-conformity was selfish. Chris and
many others do not realize that life is not just about you. No matter what you

do, you impact others also. You form bonds and relationships with people.
You can help create things that can help others. Steve Jobs was considered a
non-conformist when creating apple. While his ideas were different, he still
stayed in the bounds of society otherwise his company would have gone
nowhere. He used his ideas to benefit himself while benefitting others at the
same time. That is the end game of conformity and the American dream.
Making a difference in some kind of aspect. Trying to break out just digs
yourself a hole where you dont do anything positive. In this Inquiry, I
analyzed the positives and negatives of both conforming to the American
Dream and non-conformity to argue why people who conform will go farther
in life. With the facts and examples presented, I hope you can all see why
Christophers journey was not logical.
Works Cited:
"Warren Buffett." CNBC. N.P., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"What Is Conformity? | Simply Psychology." What Is Conformity? | Simply Psychology.
N.P., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"American Dream Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.P., 22 July 2013. Web.
29 Nov. 2015.
"Conformity and Individuality." Conformity and Individuality. N.P., n.d. Web. 03 Dec.
2015.

Reflection:
At first, my idea did not include the American dream. However, as I did
my research, the American dream started to interest me more and more.

Especially how it can relate to Christopher and his story. About half way
through, I decided to narrow down my topic. I think that I can go into much
more detail now when it is only about one concept of conformity. While
researching, I found books, articles, web sites etc. of information about my
topic. However, there was not many books about my topic which made it
kind of difficult to find that type of source. While researching, I was surprised
to see how many scientific experiments there were when it comes to
comparing conformity and non-conformity. Also, there was quite a lot of
things about the American dream making it more interesting to research.
When writing the essay, it was a lot easier to write with I or we. It
allowed me to express my opinions which I think really made my essay a lot
stronger. When we went over our papers in groups, I was given very good
ideas to make my inquiry better. I was told to expand on my supporting
evidence and correct grammatical issues which can have a big effect on an
essay. This research was extremely different compared to anything I have
done. This project really let us use our creativity since there were not many
guidelines to it. We were allowed to do all kinds of things to get a certain
point across when usual classes make you follow specific guidelines. This
may sound clich, however the most important thing I learned with this
project was to start think outside of the box. It taught me to bend the
guidelines because it really make for a better outcome. That is a quality I can
follow outside of this project also and that is something really great to know.