intro

Society proclaims strict regulations that inform people what to wear, how to act, who to be acquainted with, what to eat, etc.; thus, individualism is lost and is replaced with ‘the standard’. Conforming to these rules has as many punishments as being independent, which is where pressure accompanies one’s decision. Society relinquishes prescriptions for style, which one cannot escape. Dating back to Brooklyn, New York in the 1930’s, my Grandma recalls societal pressure hadn’t begun affecting her until she moved to California (in her 20’s). When she was a child, respect was not an option and neither was one’s style. The only pressure, she found, was to be successful. As she moved across the country, however, billboards, commercials, advertisements, etc. influenced her to realize the country’s uniformity. Images manipulate the mind to strive for perfection or are as influential as the imagination itself. Similarly, graphic novels transform the internal image into the image from artist’s mind.

Working thesis: Conformity replaces individualism because the sacrificial pressure is more influential than the internal depiction of life.

Working thesis: Society pressures individuals to yield to graphical influences instead of creating their own stylistic world; therefore, the basis of society’s pressure stems from advertisements to live a prescribed way of life. 

Interview notes

I interviewed my grandma who grew up in Brooklyn. She graduated in 1942.
topics: societal pressure inside and outside school
(grandma's views back then)
- total respect for teachers and peers
- punishment- sent home
- nobody ever tried anything unordinary
- hierarchical cliques
- religious pressures
- school was the biggest influence on style
- no long hair (shoulder length)
- success stemmed from being the most pretty and not the smartest
(grandma's views of the now)
- being an individual is the most important thing
- don't look bizarre
- use your own judgement
- advertising today influences
- iconoclast
(grandma's answer to: "what does conformity mean to you?")
-certain opinions, morals and values that you are able to stand up for yourself for
- don't conform to conform
- conform if it was the right thing to do (why not?)
- no mob rule
- ex. lynch
(quotes)
- "when the whole world is turning into something you sometimes feel you have to also"
- "felt so privileged"
- "the elite"
- "getting on the band wagon"

grandma questions

Topic for interview: How conformity changed in regards to gender roles, bullying, and punishments before moving across the country (New York to California).

1. Was there an even number of boys/girls in your class throughout your highschool  years?
2. Were boys favorited over girls?
3. Did the different gender roles reflect the atmosphere in the class room?
4. Were punishments the same for both girls and boys?
5. Was there bullying?
6. What types of societal pressures did you face as a young girl?

..I will revise/add more

more conformity ideas

I'm still not sure about my conformity essay topic, but I was thinking about interviewing my grandma on her gender role in New York and how it changed when she moved to California in her twenties. I want to ask her about how she experienced the gender divisions at her school (bullying, peer pressure, etc.).
I would compare her gender separation to today's gender coalition (maybe).

conformity essay progress/questions

topic: musical influence (clothing, beauty, dancing, socializing, etc.)

questions:
1. Since music has evolved since your childhood, how has that effected your life?
2. Was your style of clothing effected by the music around you?
3. Has the music culture slowed down as you have grown older?

I might meet with my grandma on monday and discuss these questions and see if I can come up with more after the first meeting (since she lives down the street from me).

conformity progress

In literature, like in Pride and Prejudice, conformity is based off of the family's economics and societal happiness. Also, like in Hamlet, conformity influences emotional attachment that may be frowned upon (Oedipal complex). In both settings of literature, non-conformists are punished through disappointed parents and not feeling secure (alienation). Conformity, I think, has always stemmed from structure; either within society or family or cultural circumstances- regardless of time period or geographical position in the world.
Mass media portrays the popular culture within society, especially music. Music publicitiy (music videos, song lyrics, artists, clothing in music videos, etc.) influence the culture to listen to a new age of music or see a new version of style. 

3rd

Karl proclaims: “Supremacy over all is all he [Kurtz] seeks: supremacy over things, people, and, finally, values. Having gratified forbidden desires, he is free of civilized taboos. In the Congo, he can do anything” (Karl 129). Kurtz’s loss of societal values created the mental change that Marlow, soon, undergoes as he spends more time in the same environment. Also, When Marlow begins to realize the ‘pleasure principle’ associated with the ‘id’ his societal values begin to vanish, while the Congo’s environment floods his mind. When Marlow begins to break down mentally, the reader has to reflect and reread Marlow’s changed thoughts. Marlow’s change of internal thinking, thus, creates a disorientated thought process to conceive Marlow’s new adjustment. The complications arise as Marlow’s journey steadily progresses as well; therefore, the reader’s perspective on the truth complicates internally too.

2nd paragraph

Conrad’s complicated prose distorts the reader’s mind to form a transitional mind like Marlow’s. As Marlow encounters a conversion from his ‘superego’ state of mind to an ‘id’ the reader experiences a change as well. Marlow is from European society, thus, his morality is the false representation of life that he faces prior to his journey. In the beginning of the novel the doctor warns Marlow: “The changes take place inside you know” (9). The doctor foreshadows Marlow’s mentally internal change which he uncovers down the Congo; moreover, the reader undergoes a similar change. As Marlow travels down the river, he makes clear of the societal attributes that he experiences in everyday life in European customs, which creates question in the readers mind. Karl notably accurately connotes Marlow’s sense of atmospheric change “..elements that become a wedge between man’s seeming rationality and a world suddenly irrational and out of focus” (127). The Congo’s environment twists the reader’s mind to suddenly apprehend the irrationality of everyday society. Marlow’s transition conflicts the reader to decipher the appearance versus reality within the novel, influenced by Kurtz. Since Kurtz is a sporadic thinker that drifts to different scenarios in his mind, the reader is, thus, thrown into a confusing sequence of events. During Marlow’s transition to the ‘id’, he begins to assimilate his thoughts as if Kurtz influenced him to morph internal ideas; moreover, Kurtz has ‘lost’ his superego.