The Problems Of Conformity By Virginia Woolf - 1186 Words

The Problems of Conformity â€Å"Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent.† Renowned author Virginia Woolf could not have put the idea of conformity into better words. Conformity is a plague that has impoverished many members of our species of independent thought and has snatched some of the complexity from the personalities humans might have once retained. Although uniformity offers a form of security from chaos, we sacrifice many aspects of humanity which would drive evolution forward; should we conform to the same ideas and principals we may hold. In our human community, there must be variation in order to grow into better species. We must also make room for innovation and creative thought, which often, does not come from the presence of utter homogenization. Conformity is the sole perpetrator of the dull and uninteresting aspects of society. Adherence to the social behaviours a majority may display will create for a rather callous life for both an individual and society. To drive evolution forward, there must be a variation in the population. Though Darwin may have been speaking of mainly physical attributes, I believe behavioural characteristics must also meet these basic requirements of evolution. One may argue that Darwin’s theory of evolution speaks mainly of directly inheritable traitsShow MoreRelatedOrland by Janet Woolf1646 Words   |  7 PagesThe effect marriage in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando has upon the modern individual will be the focus of this essay, whilst also considering the role the wedding ring plays in defining the terms of marriage. Woolf portrays Orlando as a modern individual largely because she is free from a number of social conventions and familial pressures other women of the time are subjected to. Despite this, it is the pressure of marriage that she cannot escape: even after she has married Shelmerdine, Orlando is thinkingRead More European Fascism Essay3458 Words   |  14 Pagesconsider how five authors po rtray the denigration of the individual by fascism. Thomas Mann, Virginia Woolf, and Albert Camus view from different angles the clash between fascism and the individual. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer explain fascism as the culmination of liberal economic policies in their essay â€Å"The Culture Industry: The Enlightenment as Mass Deception.† While each of these works approaches the problem of fascism from a different direction, their concerns converge: fascism, they concludeRead More Conflict between Individuality and Conformity in The Bell Jar2060 Words   |  9 PagesConflict between Individuality and Conformity in The Bell Jar    In Sylvia Plaths novel The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood seems incapable of healthy relationships with other women. She is trapped in a patriarchal society with rigid expectations of womanhood. The cost of transgressing social norms is isolation, institutionalization and a lost identity as woman. The struggle for an individual identity under this regime is enough to drive a person to the verge of suicide. Given the oppressive systemRead MoreAnalysis the Use of Stream of Consciousness in Mrs Dalloway8784 Words   |  36 Pages May 8th , 2009 Abstract As one of the representative writers of novels of stream of consciousness, Virginia Woolf has made important contributions to the development of the technique of stream of consciousness by confirming her own original literary views through the design of a unique structure of stream of consciousness in one of her masterpieces—Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolf constantly breaks through the tradition and works hard for the innovation throughout her life. Mrs. Dalloway expressesRead MoreA Study Of Feminine Psyche Essay1838 Words   |  8 Pagescannot follow it, whose heart cries out ‘the great no’, which fight the current and struggle against it, they know what demands are and what it costs to meet them. (Interview to Atma Ram 31-53). These protagonists fight against the common place conformity and stick to their own vision. It is an ‘empirical reality’ that the center of each realm of experience is always the self. The state takes on various subjective attitudes in the form of aspiration, attitudes, qualities and also weakness and limitationRead MoreHow to Read Lit Like a Prof Notes3608 Words   |  15 Pageshave, but also on emotional reactions. Pay attention to how you feel about a text. 13. It’s All Political a. Literature tends to be written by people interested in the problems of the world, so most works have a political element in them b. Issues: i. Individualism and self-determination against the needs of society for conformity and stability. ii. Power structures iii. Relations among classes iv. issues of justice and rights v. interactions between the sexes and among various racial and ethnicRead MoreEducating Rita4003 Words   |  17 Pagesaddition, he pointedly assumes the names of famous female literary figures for Rita as a sarcastic response to her new-found pretense: â€Å"What is it now then? Virginia? †¦ Or Charlotte? Or Jane? Or Emily?5† It is doubtful if the profundity of this statement would be reached without the audience’s schematic background of the names Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, and Emily Bronte. The practice of allusion is, therefore, integrated more deeply into real, and realistic, situations thanRead MoreResearch Methodology16940 Words   |  68 Pagesresearchers to take up challenging problems. Ten assignment works are given. For the beneï ¬ t of young researchers a short interview with three eminent scientists is included at the end of the manuscript. I. WHAT IS RESEARCH? arXiv:physics/0601009 v2 25 Jan 2006 (3) to analyse an event or process or phenomenon to identify the cause and eï ¬â‚¬ect relationship (4) to develop new scientiï ¬ c tools, concepts and theories to solve and understand scientiï ¬ c and nonscientiï ¬ c problems (5) to ï ¬ nd solutions to scientiï ¬ cRead MoreFrom Salvation to Self-Realization18515 Words   |  75 Pages1880-1930. In The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History, 18801980, ed. by Richard Wightman Fox and T.J. Jackson Lears, New York: Pantheon Books, 1-38. Reprinted with the permission of the author. 1On or about December 1910, Virginia Woolf once said, human character changed. This hyperbole contains a kernel of truth. Around the turn of the century a fundamental cultural transformation occurred within the educated strata of Western capitalist nations. In the United States as elsewhere