Conformity: A Result of Judgment and Expectations

1475 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effect of norms in society

When pondering about what an individual thinks of you, people have varying views. Some people are not concerned; to others it is the most critical matter on their mind. The feeling of being judged is a very potent emotion. Likewise, conformity is one of the largest controversies in today’s society; the behavior of someone in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. So if someone personally made his or her expectations on what you should be like evident, would you change? In Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook, he illustrates that judgment and expectations conform a person into someone they are not due to their personal identity. This can be seen through a character’s loyalty to another, dominance and the vulnerability it includes, and a character’s love and devotion. Conformity and the reasons for its appearance will be analyzed through samples from Matthew Quick’s bestselling novel.
Being loyal has negatives and positives when someone is faced with judgment and expectations. In The Silver Linings Playbook, Pat, Ronnie, and Danny exhibit this characteristic and show how it can be either good or bad. For the most part, Pat has spent 30 years of his life on Earth believing that his only purpose is to care for Nikki and provide her with anything she could ever want. However, his personality clashes with this desire, this longing, so Nikki intervenes. She purposely manipulates Pat into thinking that it is his fault that she wants to take a break in their marriage, consequently making him believe that if he changed to what she deemed fit, Nikki would reestablish their former married state. Pat explains to his therapist Dr. Patel, “‘…Nikki will come back, because I have improved myself so very much through physical fitness and medication and therapy’” (Quick 15-16). It is quite easy to see Pat is convinced that Nikki will return to him

Show More
Related

  • Miss Strangeworth In Shirley Jackson's The Possibility Of Evil

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sometimes the way people act around you isn’t the way they act around other people. A good example of this is Shirley Jackson’s, “The Possibility of Evil”. The main character, Miss Strangeworth, isn’t as nice as she may seem. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.

    Read More

  • Silver Linings Playbook Sparknotes

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Silver Linings Playbook” centers around two people with mental disorders finding one another. It shows a story about a man named Patrizio “Pat” Solitano, Jr. He was placed in a mental health facility. After months of treatment, Pat is reunited back with his family. He meets Tiffany Maxwell at a friend’s dinner. Tiffany says she can help Pat deliver a letter to Nikki, Pat’s ex-wife, but with one condition: Pat would need to be her partner at the dance competition she is entering. He reluctantly agrees because he plans to win Nikki back. One evening, Pat’s father, Pat, Sr. lost his fortune to a man named Randy, a family friend. Pat’s father believes that Pat, Jr. messed up the “Eagle’s juju” because Pat, Jr. was spending so much time

    Read More

  • The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

    1713 Words  | 4 Pages

    morals are acquired, and conformity to a standard of right is attained. In the novel The

    Read More

  • Silver Linings Playbooks by David O. Russell

    2568 Words  | 6 Pages

    Silver Linings Playbooks tells the story of Pat Solitano Jr. (played by Bradley Cooper), a high school teacher diagnosed with bipolar disorder who is trying to get his life back together. The movie opens as Pat is released from a psychiatric hospital after eight months of treatment and moves back in with his parents. He is determined to get back together with his wife, Nikki, despite all the signs that say she does not want to be with him - such as the restraining order she filed against him. Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell (played by Jennifer Lawrence), who is suffering from depression and overcoming a sex addiction that ensued from the death of her husband. Tiffany offers to help deliver Pat’s letters to Nikki if he enters a dance competition with her. As the movie goes on, Pat and Tiffany’s relationship progresses and they learn to cope with their issues.

    Read More

  • Selections from Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    Furthermore, sometimes the desire to be accepted is stronger than prevailing conventions. This makes an individual to do things to make him feel accepted in the society. Krakauer compares the people in Alaska and McCandless. He writes, “And I’m sure there are plenty of other Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless when they first got here, too, including many of his critics. Which maybe why they’re so hard on him. Maybe McCandless reminds them a little too much of their former selves” (Krakauer 221). In today’s society, an individual confirms itself to what a society wants and expect him or her to be.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Gaston By William Saroyan

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oftentimes, in the public, people have to be “normal” to be successful and accepted. Author William Saroyan believes that society steers people to be conform and fit in, but he disagrees. In the short story “Gaston,” Saroyan shows that carving a unique path can turn out to be erroneous. Through symbolism and contrast, Saroyan conveys the theme that society does not always accept people’s differences.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Pride In Jane Eyre

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, and the novella “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, both display the treatment of pride for upper and lower class similarly. Furthermore, the treatment of pride will be compared and contrasted in this essay to examine and understand how pride is treated. In novel and novella both the lower class characters believe their pride makes them superior beings. Although the pride of lower and upper-class characters led them to their corruption. Moreover, the upper-class characters in each narrative maintain their respectability by their pride. However, in “Jane Eyre” all casts must have their emotions controlled by their pride, or this will lead to inappropriate behavior. Nevertheless, in “The Turn of

    Read More

  • Non-Conformity In Our Society

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    ¨ Show people who you are on the inside, not the copy of someone else that’s on the outside ¨ No one has heard this quote before, but it is telling everyone to be themselves and not be ashamed who they really are not the copy you have made over the years. People in our generation tend to believe that kids and teens are not being true to themselves and just wanting to be one within the crowd.

    Read More

  • Social Conformity: A Study Through Literature

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine living in a world where almost everyone lived the same lifestyle. Same cars, styles, and personalities, almost everything was the same. There was a set social norm and if you were different, you might have been judged for the way you lived. You feel the need to change your lifestyle in order to fit in with the world’s “social norm”. There is a pressure from the people around you or the town/city that you live in. Now it is highly encouraged to be different amongst the rest of the people to stand out. However, before being “different”, many people felt the need to conform to society’s norm. In the books The Sun Also Rises and Babbitt, social conformity plays a huge role in their storylines. The term social conformity is a society or

    Read More

  • Obedience and Conformity

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Obedience and Conformity Both obedience and conformity involve social pressure in obedience the pressure comes from behaving as you are instructed to do; whereas in conformity the pressure comes from group norms Behaviour in obedience is determined by social power, whereas in conformity it is influenced mostly by the need for acceptance. In nearly all societies, certain people are given power and authority over others. Our society, for example, parents, teachers, and managers are invested with various degrees of authority. Most of the time, this does not cause any problems.

    Read More

  • The Ups and Downs of Conformity

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    The question of individualism vs. conformity comes to mind when dealing with the human psyche. Some people value being independent and self-sufficient, while some like to keep themselves in the confines of conformity. The American society tends to lean towards the conformist point of view and it is mostly due to the effects of media. Americans crave the idea of association and strive to become the individuals that the media deems worthy. Conformity is a quality that is present in the hierarchy of American society. It brings a psychological feeling of correlating with a group and creates the notion of liberation from solitude.

    Read More

  • Conformity and Obedience in Society

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Conformity and Obedience in Society The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us.

    Read More

  • Factors Influencing Conformity and Obedience

    1839 Words  | 4 Pages

    in the way we talk and act, and what we believe is right and wrong.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Silver Lining Playbook

    1712 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pat Solitano is the main character of the movie the Silver Linings Playbook. Pat had been sent to a psychiatric residential facility as a plea bargain not to have to serve time for committing a violent crime. Pat walked in on his wife having sex with another teacher he worked with while their wedding song was playing on the radio. Pat reacted violently and beat the teacher with tenure as Pat refers to him. Pat’s world has been turned upside down and when his mother picks him up from the facility eight months later Pat is going home to live with his parents.

    Read More

  • Every Rose Has Its Thorn

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...rough experience and suffering that social standing is not indicative of a person’s character and goodness. The common-born Pip’s love is far deeper and more meaningful than the highborn Drummle’s desire, no more than skin-deep, for a possession to boast about. Life is full of people that express genuine feelings and ignoble actors that utilize sweet, but fake, talk. Choosing the one that seeks to live as much for their partner’s bliss as well as their own can mean the difference between a shattered or complete existence. Judgment should be based on quality of character and purity of intentions. The ugly duckling just might turn out to be a swan. Estella’s dealings with the higher classes have left her with all but scars and painful remembrances. The higher rungs of the social ladder do not work well with lower ones, and Estella was born in the lowest caste of all.

    Read More

More about Conformity: A Result of Judgment and Expectations

Open Document