OConnell 1

Jessi OConnell
English 114B
Professor J. Rodrick
25 March 2016
Tabooed C Word
For some people, being unique and individual is a key component for living life.
Unfortunately, society has a way of breaking walls and forcing its victims to become its prey.
Conforming within society is an idea that is frowned upon by most of the human race; yet that is
just what society causes its willing victims to go through everyday life conform. It is a
malicious idea, and a thought that is taboo, but almost every human being can say that they have
conformed to their environment at least once in their lifetime. No matter the age, gender, or race,
conforming strikes into the minds of all.
The space in which a human inhabits is highly toxic. The environment takes its
inhabitants and drags them into a life to make it where they are all the same. In home
establishments there are the same types of houses, as well as certain rules that must be followed:
no trash cans should be seen, gardens cannot be placed in front yards, weeds must never be
present, trees and bushes must be trimmed, order must be maintained. Wherever one goes, order
can be seen and it gets into the mind so much that it just becomes instinctual habit to
automatically conform to the surroundings and never stand out among a crowd.
In Brent Staples short essay, Black Men & Public Spaces, he talks about how being a
six foot two black man is seen as highly dangerous at night in cities. The stereotypes of black
men are usually depicted along the lines of criminal. When Staples went for a walk in the middle
of the night in Hyde Park, Chicago, he frightened a woman and she ran away thinking Staples
was a threat; he called her his first victim and that night forever changed his views on himself.
That was the night when he realized that he had to change his ways if he did not want to frighten

OConnell 2
people; he had to conform and blend into society. He learned to conform to his surroundings
better when he moved to Manhattan; every time he rides the subway he tends to hum to the tunes
of Beethoven and Vivaldi, particularly Four Seasons, so as not to scare away the people in the
same space as him. Staples is a perfect example of how society changes a humans behavior to
make life easier on him/her. Virtually everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldnt be
warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldis Four Seasons. It is my equivalent of the cowbell
that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country (Staples, 316). Through this, Staples
stated how in order to keep from creating more victims, classical music helps warn others that
he is of no real threat. He conforms to his environment so that others feel at ease around him.
Yet, why must the world conform? Kids grow up with the idea that individuality is
what they should stick to, stay away from the status quo, but kids, and even adults, are faced with
the task of peer pressure. One might say that conformism goes hand-in-hand with peer pressure.
It's only human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group (Lyness, par.
4). Children are exposed to
peer pressure at such a young
age that it tends to get into
their moldable young minds
that conforming is how one
can succeed in life. Yet
individuality is good
It is hard to stay on such a straight and narrow path and call everything black and white
when, in reality, the world is a million shades of grey.

OConnell 3
Children tend to big huge victims of conformity throughout their schooling years though,
and even all the way up until college. High school might be the hardest years, since being a
teenager tend to be the most emotional and difficult times for any human being; so many changes
are happening all at once causing multiple emotions tend to arise and many confusing thoughts
string about. In school, private or public, there is always the threat of being the outsider, the
loner, the one that gets bullied, the one that is avoided, the one who is known around the school
through nasty rumors. For a budding teen, conforming seems like the best option to avoid being
the freak that everyone points and laughs at.
In an adolescents mind, the idea of an imaginary audience is brought out. They tend to
think that they are always the center of attention and that someone will catch the imaginary piece
of food stuck in their teeth and instantly strike. In reality this is pretty much unlikely. Yet, as
Robert S. Feldman points out in his book Discovering the Life Span: Third Edition, he proves
that adolescents tend to imagine scenarios in a more negative aspect. By the end of adolescence,
however, teenagers find it easier to accept that behaviors and feelings change with the situation
(Feldman, 279). Through this, Feldman states that teenagers automatically conform to their
surroundings so as to make their life seem easier than standing out and being true to who they
are.
Individuality gets somewhat abandoned during schooling years due to mainly peer
pressure and the idea of wanting to be liked by everyone. Children, and even adults are guilty of
this, have it in their minds that if one does not fit in then (s)he will not ever be liked by anyone
and be a loner forever, when in all honesty that is probably the biggest lie anyone could ever
state.

OConnell 4
Human beings tend to learn from one another, they depend on each other to help keep
generation after generation alive. In a sense, this helps conformity through the fact that lessons
are taught and learned and taught again; there is no true room for growth. The clich saying of
old habits die hard could ring some truth for this. Yet, conformity is everywhere within the
world. The most predominant form of
conformism that could be seen throughout the
world is the military.
The military is all about order, structure,
and unity, one person out of line could screw
things up for the entire sector. Uniforms must
be pressed, shoes must be polished, feet must be in synchronization. During 1947 until roughly
1991, the Cold War was initiated between America and the Soviet Union/USSR (or what is
currently known as Russia today). The Cold War was about fighting communism. Communism is
a form of government where every citizen shares everything on an equal amount; in other words
there was unity, there was conformity. The USA fought hard to keep communism out of the
world. They were dark times in the world where little blood was shed, but the threat of nuclear
war was always a constant and dangerous threat that frightened every being in America and the
Soviet Union, and other countries that were dragged into this stand-off as well.
The irony with this war, and the conflict within the military, is that while everyone was
fighting the threat outside of their own country, they failed to recognize that it had already
infected their country years ago before the British even came over to conquer America. Meals are
the same, work is equally distributed, races and nationalities are abandoned, and even individual
thought has dispersed. All of the men and women that are enrolled in the military have lost their

OConnell 5
sense of individuality and had to conform in order to survive a life full of orders that are always
given from a higher chain of command, unless (s)he is the Commander in Chief, which is highly
unlikely since (s)hed have to be the President of the United States of America. Yet it is a long
process to even be considered as a good candidate, one would have to woo numerous delegates
and then serenade the country.
Conformity is the word that is accursed no matter where one goes. To the world it is the
devil, yet maybe to the USSR it would be accepted, if they were still the same country. Times
change constantly though, but peer pressure and conformity tend to always be there swinging
their interlocked hands and skipping in a meadow with smiles plastered onto their faces. This
will always be a constant fear in the world, a fear of not being liked by others, of being different
from the rest, of standing out and making everyone notice the one colored speck in a sea of grey;
however, there is always hope that, eventually, parents will teach their kids to stand up for their
individuality and love who they are, inside and out. It does not matter what religion, race, gender,
or even nationality one is, just as long as they are unafraid to state who they are. Hopefully the
lesson sticks with the kids, and eventually it will lead into future generations for years and years
to come, passing on a legacy of goodness rather than malevolence; one just needs a speck of light
in a sea of darkness to set the ball rolling. Adding a little more faith and happiness into the world
is never a bad thing, but, until then, the world is a dark and haunting place that strikes at every
willing victim that drags along on the earth, living a life but not a full life, being constantly
dragged into a sea of grey where nothing is ever bright and good.
Yet, a little light could go a long way.

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Works Cited
Air Force. "Commentary - The Four Pillar Policy: Garrett Outlines 30-day Assessment
Findings." Commentary - The Four Pillar Policy: Garrett Outlines 30-day Assessment
Findings. 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://www.jber.af.mil/news/story_print.asp?
id=123341970>.
(multimodal source)
"Facts and Figures." Peer Pressure. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
<http://msbcombatspeerpressure.weebly.com/facts-and-figures.html>.
(multimodal source)
Feldman, Robert S. Discovering the Life Span: Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson,
2015. Print.
Lyness, D'Arcy, PhD. "Dealing With Peer Pressure." KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site
about Children's Health. The Nemours Foundation, July 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
<http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html#>.
Molleman, Lucas. "Effects of Conformism on the Cultural Evolution of Social Behaviour." PLoS
One 8.7 (2013). Web.
Staples, Brent. The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction - Black Men and Public. New
York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.