Pressures to Conform in Brother Dear and Initiation

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Recommended: Conformity as a type of social influence

There are pressures faced to give into the conformity of others. Some give in, some do not. The novels "Brother Dear" by Bernice Friesen and "Initiation" by Sylvia Plath similarly relate the characters Millicent and Greg through their pressures faced by others. Both of these characters develop from conformity to individuality and face pressures to conform to other people's ideas. The novels "Brother Dear" by Bernice Friesen and "Initiation" by Sylvia Plath differ with respects to the characters pressuring Greg and Millicent to conform.

Greg and Millicent conform to the ideas of others at the beginning of the novels "Brother Dear" by Bernice Friesen and "Imitation" by Sylvia Plath. Millecent conforms to the idea of being part of the elect. A select group of girls at her school.

"What girl at Lansing High would not want to be in her place right now? Millicent thought, amused. What girl would not want to be one of the elect, no matter if it did mean five days of initiation before and after school, ending in the climax of Rat Court on Friday night when they made the new girls members." (Plath 199)

Millicent conforms to the ideas of the other girls at school. She believes that by becoming part of the elect is the goal of every girl at her school and that is what she should aspire to do. To be part of the elect, Millicent has to single herself out and perform acts she would not usually do. "Tomorrow she would come to school, proudly, laughingly without any lipstick, with her brown hair straight and shoulder length, and then everybody would know, that she was part of the elect." (Plath 200) To be part of the elect Millicent has to divide herself to show that she is following the directions of someone else. Through this simple action Millicent is showing that she is not her own person and follows the lead of

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others to be accepted. Greg is pressured by his father to go to school and get a good education so he can get a career. "That's what you get when you're the daughter of a guy who inherited a John Deere dealership form his father and was always sorry he hadn't tried to be a doctor." (Friesen 27) Greg is sympathetic to his father and goes to university. His father regrets not going to university and pressures his children to do what he did not get the chance to do.

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