Conformity

By definition, conformity is action or behavior in correspondence with socially accepted standards, conventions, rules, or laws. What this means to me is when someone of higher ranking tells you to do something that has an effect on a whole. Conformity can either be good or bad. In V for Vendetta and "Repent, Harlequin" there was a character who thought that conformity was bad for society, and a person should be able to decided for themselves. Conformity is everywhere, even in the United States. We have to obey traffic laws, pay taxes every April 15th, etc. To an extent conformity is good, only when people still have options, but when you take away a person's options that is when conformity has gone too far.

When drafting the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson's main reason was to show that the newly constructed thirteen colonies were fed up with the tyrannical King George. Always having to pay such petty taxes on almost everything that the colonists owned. The Declaration was the first step in towards their own government and not having to conform to the British, but it wasn't going to be easy, they would need the full support of the thirteen colonies even if that meant that Thomas Jefferson would have to change some of the topics including anything with slavery and anything that spoke negatively against King George.

In Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, he wanted nothing to do with the American government, Thoreau referred to it as a "machine" and "That government is

best which governs least" people should not have to conform to government. They should able to do whatever they want; no government should be able to control a group of people. Throughout the essay he says how terrible a government is and all sorts of what I think are idiotic thought about a person's own government. I know that many people say that he is a revolutionist; I don't, with some of his statements he sounds like treasonist. But he does have a point in his opening line "That government is best which governs least" many people would have to agree especially now with Iraq. We are governing too much overseas, we just need to let them do themselves and if things start getting hairy them we step in and help. We have already done our job.

Sojourner Truth is one of the influential women in our American history. She help not just in the fight against slavery but she also had a big part in getting equal right for women. In her speech "Ain't I A Woman" she tells about how men are always saying that women should never have to walk over puddles, always get the best seat, and never have to work a day on their lives. But Sojourner says, "look at meÐ'...ain't I a woman." This is true she is, but she never had anyone help her into a carriage, over a puddle, and she worked non-stop. She has a valid point when she ways that no one ever helped her because she was a black woman, and back then the country was going through a transition.

Throughout Harlan Ellison's, "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, there are many connections between his work and Civil Disobedience and also V for Vendetta. The Harlequin is the person the Ticktockman cannot stand because he is always throwing off his schedule, and the Harlequin doesn't care because he will not stand for conforming to the Ticktockman's ways. In this world, people are on time, or run the risk of having

their lives shortened by the minutes of their tardiness. Harlequin does everything in his power to get people off their schedule. For example during a shift change at a construction site the Harlequin throws purple and yellow jelly beans because he knew that people would flock towards them and create total chaos, not just because everyone was trying to grab jelly beans but it was making everyone late by seven minutes.

Time is everything according to the Ticktockman, everyone in his town in Indiana, he wanted the townspeople to conform to his ways and if the didn't then they would be turned off. This is exactly what happened to the Harlequin. In my opinion, I think the Harlequin wanted everyone in town to not have to conform to one person's view, and just let loose and have fun.

The motion picture film V for Vendetta was one of the most eye opening movies that I had ever seen. Throughout the