Conformity and Rebellion
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- Date Submitted: 02/09/2014 07:10 PM
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Conformity and Rebellion: Justifying When to Break or Follow Societal Norms
As demonstrated in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, there are different circumstances that determine when one is justified in rebelling against or conforming with society. One is justified to rebel against societal laws if a law is unmerited, and it is only serving for the greater good. This way, that person is fighting for what he/she believes in. That also goes along with rebelling to protect natural rights or freedoms. On the other hand, one might argue that if one doesn't have the authority to make the big decision of trying to rebel, and if it is easier to conform, then it is not okay to break the societal norms.
Defending the greater good is a well-grounded reason to break an unrighteous societal law. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag, a fireman, rebels against the very unjust law in his society of banning all books, and burning them. In part one of the book, Montag "thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper." (page 49). Here, Montag is beginning to realize the significance of books. He starts to understand what they used to mean in society. Now that he knows the bottom line, the nature of books, he creates the question of whether or not burning books is fair for his society. So, for the greater good of the world he lives in, he quietly begins to revolt against the societal norms. Guy Montag had subconsciously set in motion his plan to bring books back into his society. He secretly set out to hide books and read them; "Then he reached up and pulled back the grill of air conditioning system and reached far back inside to the right and moved still another sliding sheet of metal and took out a book...He...
As demonstrated in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, there are different circumstances that determine when one is justified in rebelling against or conforming with society. One is justified to rebel against societal laws if a law is unmerited, and it is only serving for the greater good. This way, that person is fighting for what he/she believes in. That also goes along with rebelling to protect natural rights or freedoms. On the other hand, one might argue that if one doesn't have the authority to make the big decision of trying to rebel, and if it is easier to conform, then it is not okay to break the societal norms.
Defending the greater good is a well-grounded reason to break an unrighteous societal law. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag, a fireman, rebels against the very unjust law in his society of banning all books, and burning them. In part one of the book, Montag "thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper." (page 49). Here, Montag is beginning to realize the significance of books. He starts to understand what they used to mean in society. Now that he knows the bottom line, the nature of books, he creates the question of whether or not burning books is fair for his society. So, for the greater good of the world he lives in, he quietly begins to revolt against the societal norms. Guy Montag had subconsciously set in motion his plan to bring books back into his society. He secretly set out to hide books and read them; "Then he reached up and pulled back the grill of air conditioning system and reached far back inside to the right and moved still another sliding sheet of metal and took out a book...He...