Conformity & Rebellion

The works in this section, «Co . .
between two well-articulat·· d nfo~~Ity and Rebellion;’ feature a clash
f t d I e positions in . h· h b
con ron s an strugg es with established auth ; w .. 1
: .. a r~ el, on principle~
Powerful external forces-the stat th h ority. Central in. these works are
e, e c urch t d · · . . – can be obeyed only at the expense f . . . ‘ ra 1tion-wh1ch .sometimes
l l
O conscience a d h •
general eve , these works confront th . 1 n uman1ty. At the mo. st
e ages-o d dil h h zations men and women establish t emma t at t every organidemand-on pain of economic .. . o pro~ect and ~urture the individual ofteri
cal death-that individuals viola~~~e:;~~s~:;:ctm, ev~n spirit~al·or physiworks, some individuals refuse su h P Y cherished beliefs. In these
f h .
1 . 1 . c a demand and translate their awareness
o a ostl e soc1a order into action . agai t •t· 1 ” (R . . .
T. k km » . ns 1 · n epent, Harlequm!’ Said
the 1c toe an, Everett C. Marm disrupts a t h d · , b 1· · ·
d
·cc . . sys em e oesn t ·. e 1eve m.
On a 111erent note, 1n Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the s · · ,, · th · · · f h · . , · · cnvener e cns1s
ans_es out O t e protagonist’s passive refusal to conform to the expectations of
society. · .
Many of the works in this section, particularly the poems, do not treat the
t~eme of conformity and rebellion quite· so explicitly and dramatically.· Some,
l~ke Emily D!ckinson’s «She Rose to His Requirement;’ reveal the painful injustice of certain traditional values; others, like W H. Auden’s “The Unknown
Citizen;’ tell us that the price exacted for. total conformity. to the industriai
superstate is spiritual death. In «Harlem;’ Langston Hughes. warns that an
inflexible and constricting social order will generate explosion.·
While in many of the· works the individual is caught up in a crisis that forces
him or her into rebellion, in other works the focus may be on the individual’s failure to move from awareness into action. For example, the portrait of
Auden’s unknown citizen affirms the necessity for rebellion by rendering so
effectively the hollow life of mindless conformity. . . .
Although diverse in treatment and technique, all the works 1n this section
are about individuals struggling with complex sets ~f e~t~rnal forces that re~ulate and define their lives. As social beings, these 1ndiv1duals may recognize
that they must be controlled for some large~ go_od;_ yet t~ey are aware that
establi h d · I · ften abusive The institution at its best can act as a
s e soc1a power 1s o . · . . , . . . con • c 1_ • • heck the individuals disruptive impulse to abanservmg 1orce, K.eepmg m c . h f do d d . h old ways and ideas. At its worst, t e power o
n an estroy, wit out cause,
305
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306 CONFORMITY AND REBELLION
social instituti6ns is self-serving. it is up to the individual to judge whether
power is being abused. ‘Because the power of the. individual is often negligible
beside that of abusive social forces, it is not surprising that many artists find
a fundamental huma!1 dignity in the resistance of the individual to organized
society.
QUESTIONS FOR THINKING AND WRITING
Before you begin reading th.e selections in “Conformity and Rebellion:’ consider the
following questions. Then write out your thoughts ·informally in a reading journal, if
you are keeping one, as a way of preparing to respond to the selections. Or you may
wish to make your response to one of these questions the basis for a formal essay.
t . _How do you define conformity? What forms of rebellion are possible for a person
in your situation? Do you perceive yourself as a conformist? A rebel? Some combination of the two? Explain.
2. How do you define sanity? Based on your definition, do you know an insane
person? What forin does that insanity take? Do you agree or disagree with Emily
Dickinson’s assertion that “Much Madness is divinest Sense”? Explain.
3. Discuss this proposition: governments routindy engage in behavior for which an
individual would be imprisoned or institutionalized, – .
4. Freewrite an extended response to each of the following questions: Is war sane?
Sh_ou~d one obey an “unjust” law? Should one be guided absolutely by religious pnnc1ples? · ·