OConnell 1

Jessi OConnell
English 114B
Professor J. Rodrick
9 May 2016
Sea of Grey
Its no secret that conformity is a word that is negatively looked upon, unless the country
praises communism as their dominant from of government, such as China, but for citizens in
countries like the United States of America, England, or even Canada, conformity has a colossal
negative connotation. Yet, this tabooed word can be seen throughout the world in many forms,
and almost every human being is guilty of this unspoken crime. The world tends to conform to
its surroundings. What helps push people to conform through daily life could be, and is, lead by
stereotyping, peer pressure, and unity.
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
simply because he was stereotyped by the people around him. He was not a malicious criminal,
he was just a man who was tainted by the world, and assumed to be a danger.

OConnell 3
Danger lurks around every corner; it
has no mercy, even for young ones. 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. In the article
Dealing with Peer Pressure by DArcy Lyness, it talks about how peer pressure is a major
factor in, predominantly, childrens lives, even though peer pressure may be seen throughout all
ages to this day; unfortunately. 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
Reality is harsh, and the reality is that it is hard to stay on such a straight and narrow path
and call everything black and white when the world is really a million shades of grey.
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 though, since being
a teenager tends to be the most emotional and difficult times for any human being; so many
changes are happening all at once causing too many emotions to arise and numerous confusing
thoughts to 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, or even 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 out and laughs at.

OConnell 4
In an adolescents mind, the idea of an imaginary audience is brought out. Teens tend to
think that they are always the center of attention and that someone will catch that imaginary
piece of food stuck in their teeth and instantly strike at them. Yet, this is pretty much unlikely,
unless there really is a piece of spinach tucked into the spacing of their teeth which is quite
unfortunate for the poor lad. However, 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; to teenagers, this is the most crucial times to
adapt to their surroundings and blend into society.
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, they 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. The mind is a tricky son of a gun, and loves negative thoughts
more than it loves positive ones. For most people they never step out of their comfort zones and
strike conversations with people they never even met. Since most tend to stay with the people
they are familiar with, they fear that reasons others do not talk to them is due to them not liking
them, when rather it is the other side being afraid as well. Fear is a strong emotion that tends to
hold the reigns for most people.
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, leaving no room for growth. The clich saying of old

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habits die hard rings some truth. Yet, conformity is everywhere within the world. The most
predominant form of conformism that could be seen throughout the world is within 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, and 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 even all the other countries that were dragged
into this stand-off as well. It might have been a war between the US and the USSR, but if one
went down, the world was being taken down with them 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 long before the inhabitants of this earth realized the earth was, indeed, not
a flat piece of land. 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 in the
military have lost their sense of individuality and had to conform in order to survive a life full of

OConnell 6
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, or even
China currently since, as stated earlier, they have communism as their prime form of
government. Times change constantly though, but stereotyping, peer pressure, and unity tend to
always remain constant to help keep conformity alive in the world. There will always be a fear in
the world over conformity, even if it may have infected the world centuries ago. Its that constant
fear, though, 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. This is what leads individuals to
no longer be individuals; 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.

OConnell 7

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.