01/11/2002

An Opinion on Conformity

Teen writer, Emily Victor, speaks out against the stultifying effects of pressure to conform.

A green and purple penguin
By Emily Victor

Conformity is the living death of creativity. Conformity stifles the soul and ultimately kills the sense of individuality. Granted, obeying the law and conforming to some traditions and the rules of society are necessary. But always conforming blindly to others’ expectations and to peer pressure is not. In contrast, expressing yourself by being creative and demonstrating your uniqueness lets you write the script for your own life. The dangers of conformity can be found wherever you look: in daily life, literature, and history.

In public grade school classes you find prime examples of conformity, especially in art class. "OK, class let’s all color our penguins black and white together." There is little tolerance for children who wish to color their penguins bright purple and Army green. We must all color our penguins black and white, we must all conform to the of teachers’ and schools’ expectations. Had I been in school when I was younger than I am now, I would never have lasted as an individual. Hating the pressure, I would have conformed anyway because I did not have enough strength of character. I would have colored my penguin the way that the teacher told me to. My creativity would have died. My penguin would have cried.

An extreme version of conformity is pictured in the intriguing words of Madeleine L’Engle’s Newberry award-winning book, A Wrinkle in Time. The people on Camazotz have conformed totally and let the Dark Thing ("IT") overpower them. Every child bounces his ball or skips her rope to the exact same beat at the exact same time of day in exactly the same way. All the mothers dress in the same outfit and call their children into identical gray houses for dinners that, by design, are exactly the same, at the same time as all other families. Any child who bounces his ball to the wrong rhythm is sent in for "reprogramming." The inhabitants of Camazotz are controlled by one evil being, IT, that makes them conform using physical and mental pain. IT is a brain, a pulsing thing that bonds them to it by hypnosis and mind control, and it never lets go. This is an extreme example, the epitome of conformity. Knowing this is possible, could you conform?

I never had to deal with the pressure to conform when I was young. I have been homeschooled for my entire life. My sister and I created constantly. We created stories and ballets using costumes and props that we found or made, and sometimes our friends joined us. Our stuffed animals performed Twelfth Night. We never watched TV. We grew up with our parents reading us the classics until we could read them ourselves, and we always enjoyed being in or watching performances in the theatre. We were never bored. That was because we were different; we wanted to be. That was because we were creative; we wanted to be.

Our differences started when my parents decided to be nonconformists and homeschool us, at a time when homeschooling was rare and a lot more risky. Homeschooling worked for us. I am now capable of taking college courses at age 13, partly due to their homeschooling efforts. At my present age, if I ever went to an art class in school, my penguin would be purple and my sky green. My penguin would smile. I am different and proud to be so. I am creative and proud of that, and my penguin would be proud also.

In history also, others have refused to conform. King Christian X of Denmark was one. In World War II Hitler wanted no Jews, gypsies, or any deformed, retarded or damaged people to live in his empire. He wanted to have all people under his own control. He wanted everyone to conform to his ideas and expectations. He killed people because he believed that his white Protestant race was the only true race. He gassed anyone who was retarded or deformed. He killed many pregnant mothers and children. He created the concentration camps and people only turned a blind eye. Only a few people disobeyed Hitler and the Nazis and got away with their lives and the lives of their people. King Christian X of Denmark was one of them.

He resisted the Nazis in such a way that they did not kill him. When the Nazis arrived in Denmark they hung their flag above the city. King Christian ordered that it be put down. He risked his life because he would not conform. Later the Nazis made a law that all Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David somewhere on their clothing. King Christian was a Protestant but he wore the star, as did all of his people, Jews and non-Jews alike. He would not conform to Hitler’s edict; instead, he showed the courage to defy it. Too, he inspired other Danes to resist the Nazis, by not backing down even when they imprisoned him.

In sum, it seems that conformity is a living death. I feel that conformity has killed many people’s characters and hurt many others. In the future I hope that more people will refuse to conform. Please, don’t make your penguins black and white all the time. Sometimes, give them color. Give the penguins life.

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