Intro

Conformity is a major aspect in society and is one that is needed in order to have a healthy and growing civilization.  If everyone was an individualist and there was nobody to follow someone else, that would be called anarchy.  Yet in society, there are different measures to conform and these different measures of conformity arise from time period as well as the unnoticeable pressure of trying to assimilate into a different culture.   Time period is an integral part of how and to what extent people conform into society. In the 17, 18, and 19th century their was more of a pressure to conform because of societies distaste for individualism.  While in the 20th and 21st centuries, the degree of conformity has changed and more individuals have been arising in society.  Also, the degree of conformity arises from attempting to try to assimilate in an novel setting.  Trying to live up to societies expectations and trying too hard to "fit in" to the american way of life that was portrayed in the 1970's lead to a more miserable life.  Attempting too hard to try to live up to societal expectations leads to a more miserable life because a loss of morals occurs that deters the family structure and bond.  The morals of the people around you take precedent as conformity becomes the primary goal.

Interview

I had my interview with my grandma this weekend and it went really well.  We talked about society back in the 70's and 80's and what it felt like to be a new immigrant from a country that was hated around the country.  I asked her what types of pressures she was feeling since she was a new immigrant in a new setting.  She told me it was hard for her kids, my mom as when they would go to school in new york, they would be made fun of and teased because of the hostages in Iran at the us embassy.  So when they went to Los Angeles, my grandma felt even more pressure to fit and tried too hard to fit in to make sure their would be any issues regarding her kids.  This lead my grandma to make my mom go to piano classes 3 times a week for 3 and a half hours each time she would go.  My mom didn't really like it, but my grandma forced her to go because my grandma thought thats what everyone does and so she was going to make her daughter to it too.  She thought that it was proper to go give jello to the neighbors as well as would be extra kind to the neighbors, because thats what she thought was the only way to fit in.  Also, she would force my mom and her brother and sister to do chores around the house as well as go to school and get gifts for all of their friends, because thats what she thought the american way was.  That is also besides the fact that she would eat all american food and would also change my mom and her brother and sister, appearance clothing and hair to look more american.  Overall, she was trying way to hard to conform.

Conformity

When my mom and my whole family came down from Iran to here, trying too hard was one of their most critical issues, and i believe that that is one of the main reasons why my mom has let me turn into the man i am today and it is because of my grandparents.  My grandparents inadvertently pushed my mom into doing something that she never wanted to do to try to fit in with the rest of society.  However, my mom's pain has become the reason that i am parented the way i am.  My mom is never trying for me to fit in with society.  She is letting me be the person that i am and the person that i want to be and not what my parents want or what society wants.  Every generation goes through things differently and its interesting to see how each generation parents differently, maybe its physiological but who knows? how am i going to parent.

Families story

My great grandma's story is extremly interesting.  She was living in Poland during the time of the holucust and she was jewish and was trying to ecape with her family.  She was wealthy and very priviledged, and she had enough money to leave the Poland, yet the Nazi were after her family especially because wealthy.  Finally she was caught and they were about to kill all of my great grandma's family.  Once they caught my great grandma's family, her dad said dont take my wife and kids, take me.  So they took my great grandma's dad and he took his life for his family.  My great grandma, never saw him ever again, so then my greatgrandma and her family moved to russia on a train.  They had enough money to go and leave and sneak out of Poland.  While in Russia, their was a deal that said whoever would join the army, their family would go to whereever their son would be deployed to.  So my great grandma's brother took the offer for the family and they were all deployed to Iran, where my great grandma meet my great grandpa and they had my grandma.  My grandma's story is that when she came to the United States of America, she was overly obbessed with conforming, and this is my central theory that when inmigrants come they try to conform way to much and this efffects the kids, and ultamietly the way they parent.

conformity part 3

I have been thinking about conformity and about what i want to ask my grandparents about what they have had to have gone through and their experiences and what pressures they had to conform.  Some of the questions that i am going to ask is if they could go back in the past and do something different, then what would they do? I am asking this question because sometimes there are things that we are not aware that put pressure on us and we realize it later on in life.  I have witnessed this with my own mother who was pressured into learning the piano and when i ask her why did she do it, she says that her mother, when they came to America, thought that everyone does it .  Another question i want to ask is about the effect of media and how much newspaper, t and movies effected pressures to conform such as cosmetics and cloths.  Another question that i want to ask is what were the different fads that were going on when they lived and why  didn't everyone just join in, was it pressures in school and were people chastised for not following the norm?  Also what was their parents influence on marriage as well as other parts of society? How much were their parents involved and how much did they have to live up to their parents expectations.  These are just a few of the questions that i want to ask my family to get a sense of conformity a few generations back.

conformity part 2

I also think that it is important to know when to conform and when to be independent.  Its not that we need to have a balance or anything, if everyone were independent, then we wouldnt call it independence, we would call it conformity, so the only way you have conformity and independence and individualism is through people following a social stature and others not following, there you have conformers and individuals.  If everyone did not follow the social stature, then that would be conformity in itself.  So the only way we would be here talking about conformity is if there were people who followed and are influenced by social pressure.  Also if everyone was an individual then we would have anarchy and chaos because everyone would fend for themselves, look in your everyday life, you are being a conformer, coming to school today, people are conforming to the pressure of having to go to school.  Conformity is necessary for order and as well as for effective leadership, the best leaders are not the ones that are forceful and independent, the best leaders are the ones who recognize when its time to be a follower and when its time to be forceful and assertive.

conformity part 1

Conformity comes from all aspects of life weather it is from parents, school, war or anything in daily life that has an effect on us physically and mentally.  I believe that this conformity comes into light from the new 21 century media that has had  a huge effect on conformity, but yet i believe that there was conformity before, there was a different type of conformity and the conformity pressures my grandparents had was different than the pressures that we have.  Yet we all have this pressure of conformity, if back then the pressure was to conform and get married, that is gone and a new pressure of looking well, and creating a false persona weather that is physically or mentally because of the effect of media and social media.  Also social media has an effect of conformity because people do not know how to talk to people without help of a device.  The most important thing for my grandparents generation did not have the pressure of social media to effect them and make them conform in that way even though they had the pressure but i dont know where it comes from, that is my topic to figure out where it comes from?

conclusion

Marlow's journey into the uncharted heart of darkness becomes more and more dreamlike as he travels from the outer station towards the inner station.  The shift in Marlow's character is Conrad's penetrateion from the super ego into the id.  The superego, ego and the id are Freud's influence on Conrad as the reader witnesses different aspects of Marlow's character from moral, rational and unconscious and amoral.  Yet, these different characteristics of Marlow occur in different locations throughout his journey.  This raises the question of weather the location determines what state we are in, the super ego, ego and the id.  Do our repressed desires from societal restrictions manifest in an environment where their are less restrictions and our unconscious takes over?  Which state the superego, ego or id is our true self and not a manifestation of what society expects?  Marlow's conscious actions and unconscious experiences solidify that Marlow's location effects his thoughts and intentions.

3 body

Marlow's dream like visions as well as altered perspective demonstrates Marlow's arrival into the inner station which parallels  with Conrad's penetration into Marlow's id.  Murfin's insight into Frued's explanation of the id illustrates the drastic shift that occurs between the ego and the id. "the predominately passional, irrational, unknown and unconscious part of the psyche the id" (Murfin 114).  Unconscious and unknown, the main characterists of the ID contrast with the ego's ratoional which ultamelty creates conflict and a shift in Marlow's behavior.  The ID is where Marlow's dreams and desires can finally be made reality, only when he is close to the inner station.  Once Marlow supersedes limbo, the threshold between the ego and the id, Marlow becomes fully immersed into his unconscious and is able to purees his represed desirers. "Behind the blind whiteness of the fog"(Conrand 401).  The paradoxical blindness with the whiteness of the fog effectively conveys the dream like limbo Marlow is in before he is fully immensed into the darkness of the ID.  The white fog's location right before Marlow reaches the inner station signifies the in-between state Marlow of the ego and the Id thus Conrad is almsost fully penetrated into Conrad's darnkest and "blind" desires that can only be achieve in the inner station.  As Marlow reaches the inner station, his morals and his perspective is comelpley altered from the beginning of the journey.  This amoral perspective only occurs where there are no laws and rules and where Marlows true repressed thoughts are able to be revealed.  "For near the house half a dozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamted with round carved balls"(Conrad 409).  The heads on the posts at kurtz's inner station, the man who he idolizes, is the cruelest experience Marlow has on his journey and his understated reaction exemplifies his altered mental state.  Marlow's idolization of such a creul man conveys his unconscious desirers, as when Marlow is in the ego or super ego state, he is extremely rational and would not associate himself with such a malcontent man like kurtz. 

HOD

White Fog

“Behind the blind whiteness of the fog”  (Conrad 401)

Heads on the poles

“For near the house half a dozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamted with round carved balls”(Conrad 409)

id

body 2 revised (using blog to be able to access essay anywhere)

Marlow's physical journey moves into the central station while Marlow is psychologically starting to move from his super ego to just his ego, as the darkness becomes more pertinent and his actions become more rational and selfish as Marlow does what he can to survive.  The ego's importance and capabilities are illurateated by Murfin, and we can see his influence as Conrad wrote the novella the same time period as Murfins and Freuds discovery.  “Ego was his term for the predominately rational, logical, orderly, conscious part." (Murfin 114).  The Ego's main features of consciousness and rational are temporary instilled in Marlow's actions while he is in the central station which effectively exemplifies how Marlow not only has a physical journey but also a physiological journey as well as Condrad penetrates the reader into Marlow's subconscious.  As Marlow arrives at the central station, his actions become more geared for self survival and is more rational when events occur that possibly could alter his journey.  "I listened, I listened…He did not make bricks, Rivets, to get on with the work-stop the hole." (Conrad 389).  Marlow's ship has sunk and he needs to fix the hole before he proceeds into the darkness.  Marlow does not panic or over react, Marlow stays calm and relaxed and his rational kicks in to remind him that the best way to fix the boat is with Rivets.  Marlow's patience and logic even when an unanticipated event occurs, demonstrates Marlow's attentiveness and how Marlow's ego and desperation for survival leads to a successful solution to Marlow's unfortunate predicament.  Marlow's ego takes over which allows him to solve the problem lociagally and rationally which effectively can only be done while in the central station as Conrad penetrates Marlow's subconscious to new heights as he becomes closer to darkness and his dream like id. .  Marlow's desires are as well repressed into the ego, theory of repression, in the central station where he must deal with reality for one of the last times before his id takes over his actions.  "Eldorado Exploring Expedition…reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and creul without courage…to tear treasure out of the bowels" (Conrad 392).  The ego is supressing Marlow's desires of conquest and of raid and success, this reality principle effectively is contradicted as we see Marlow chastise the Eldorado exploration in the central station, but idolize Kurtz in the inner station, even though Kurtz is more amoral then the expedition.  Marlow is rational and realizes the horrid actions of the Eldorado expedition and that rational is what conveys Marlow's ego, although there are no rules in the congo, Marlow takes the rational side even though the unrational id could have easily been taken, which effectively illuminates that the reason he is in his ego is because of his location of the central station.

body paragraph 2

Marlow's physical journey moves into the central station while Marlow is psychologically starting to move from his super ego to just his ego, as the darkness becomes more pertinent and his actions become more rational and selfish as Marlow does what he can to survive.  The ego's importance and capabilities are illurateated by Murfin, and we can see his influence as Conrad wrote the novella the same time period as Murfins and Freuds discovery.  “Ego was his term for the predominately rational, logical, orderly, conscious part." (Murfin 114).  The Ego's main features of consciousness and rational are temporary instilled in Marlow's actions while he is in the central station which effectively exemplifies how Marlow not only has a physical journey but also a physiological journey as well as Condrad penetrates the reader into Marlow's subconscious.  As Marlow arrives at the central station, his actions become more geared for self survival and is more rational when events occur that possibly could alter his journey.  "I listened, I listened…He did not make bricks, Rivets, to get on with the work-stop the hole." (Conrad 389).  Marlow's ship has sunk and he needs to fix the hole before he proceeds into the darkness.  Marlow does not panic or over react, Marlow stays calm and relaxed and his rational kicks in to remind him that the best way to fix the boat is with Rivets.  Marlow's patience and logic even when an unanticipated event occurs, demonstrates Marlow's attentiveness and how Marlow's ego and desperation for survival leads to a successful solution to Marlow's unfortunate predicament.  Marlow's ego takes over which allows him to solve the problem lociagally and rationally which effectively can only be done while in the central station as Conrad penetrates Marlow's subconscious to new heights as he becomes closer to darkness and his dream like id. .  Marlow's actions as well demonstrate his saneness and his morality that are exemplified a majority of the time only on his way near the outer station.  "The black bones reclined full length with one shoulder against the tree, a kind of blind, white flicker, the man seemed young…offer him one of my swede biscuits" (Conrad 381).  The morality that Marlow has, to offer someone that he has never meet or someone that he needs nothing from, from the goodness of his heart, Marlow offers the man food and expects nothing in return.  Marlow has no business interacting with the man and yet he does the morally right thing to try to help the man to see what Marlow can do to help even though the man is about to die.  We see that this only occurs when he is journeying between the outer station and the central station.  The paradox of the blind and white flicker, illustrates that Marlow brings the white truth and conscious goodness in a place where blindness and darkness is very pertinent.

body Paragraph 1

Marlow's not only physical but phycological journey begins at the outer station, where through his observations and citing, Marlow is psychologically in his super ego.  Marlow's first time down the congo river, he encounters a plethora of shocking and novel experiences that his perception of these encounters demonstrates that he is psychologically in the super ego while starting through the outer station.  "Chain-gang…Ive seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire…red-eyed devils, how insidious he could be…blinding sunshine" (Conrad, 380).  Marlow's morals are shown with his recognition of the brutality of the enslaved Africans.  Marlow witnesses something that is extremely immoral, and he understands the significance of the brutality and the super ego brings that morality out of people.  The irony is that as the journey continues, and the experiences  become more violent, Marlow is unaware and is not able to recognize the immorality of what he is witnessing.  Marlow's actions as well demonstrate his saneness and his morality that are exemplified a majority of the time only on his way near the outer station.  "The black bones reclined full length with one shoulder against the tree, a kind of blind, white flicker, the man seemed young…offer him one of my swede biscuits" (Conrad 381).  The morality that Marlow has, to offer someone that he has never meet or someone that he needs nothing from, from the goodness of his heart, Marlow offers the man food.  Marlow has no business interacting with the man and yet he does the morally right thing to try to help the man to see what Marlow can do to help.  We see that this only occurs when he is journeying between the outer station and the central station.  The paradox of the blind and white flicker, illustratesthat Marlow brings the white truth and conscious goodness in a place where blindness and darkness is very pertinent.