Conformity? THIS. IS. MADNESS!

Conformity? THIS. IS. MADNESS!

                Conformity is an issue that is confronted by every member in our society every day of their lives. It’s something that is unavoidable, and is very negative as it weakens us as individuals and breeds hatred and discrimination. In their poems, both Dickinson and Villanueva show disgust for conformity at the cost of individual freedom. This viewpoint mirrors my own, and affirms my distaste for conformity. While they both go down very different paths to get their points across, their opinions merge along with my own in the end.

                Dickinson is very direct in her poem. She uses the line “Assent—and you are sane—“(Dickinson 6) to mock society by saying that all it requires to be sane is submitting to the will of majority. She follows it up with “Demur—you’re straightway dangerous / And handled with a Chain” (7-8) which continues her mocking tone by questioning why if someone disagrees, acts differently or refuses to conform to the group, they’ll be kept locked away from normal members of the community, just for being different. She points out with “To a discerning Eye— / Much Sense—the starkest Madness— / ‘Tis the Majority” (2-4) that any observer who looks objectively can see the madness in this “submit or be pushed away” style of society that we have.
I make no claims of having the most discerning eye, but I see it the same way. It doesn’t matter who I am as a person. I can be the nicest guy in the world, but I’m still going to be judged instantly by who I’m friends with, what I’m wearing, how my hair is cut, if I have my glasses on, if I remembered to shave that morning and who knows what else. If I pass the initial test and am considered normal enough to talk to, I’ll be judged again by my diction. If at any point I fail any of these tests, I’m labeled abnormal. Why? Because society says that I should have contacts and not glasses? That my arms are supposed to be bigger than they are? It is this very process that Dickinson mocks in “Much madness is the divinest sense.” It happens every day, and by and large, we accept it. I know I do it. You have purple hair. Why are you talking to me? Though, thankfully I’ve learned to put the initial thought aside, and get to know what a lovely individualist miss purple hair is—and be glad that I did.

Villanueva uses an example much more extreme than purple hair. She takes a classmate who’s a cross dresser to show the beauty of individuality. She says “Was I moved in the face of / such courage (man/woman / woman/man). . .” (Villanueva 6-8) to show how moving it is to see someone who doesn’t care to conform, how empowering it is to see someone who doesn’t care what others think, if only we all had that courage. She uses the imagery of the rose to symbolize exactly how beautiful individuality is.
To me, Villanueva’s poem brings up memories of my first best friend and my first kiddy peck-of-the-lips kiss. I was in fourth grade, and grew up living next store to a lovely girl who was a year younger than I was. We hung out all the time, since when I was probably two years old, maybe even sooner than that, but long before I can remember regardless. She was black. Who cares? Apparently, there are tons of people that care. And they care a lot. I was called every name under the sun, my other friends’ parents wouldn’t let me over their houses, It was like I was the spawn of the devil.
The three of us agree. Conformity is evil. Conformity is pointless. Conformity is a mutual agreement to all act insane. Through Villanueva’s examples, through Dickinson’s blunt mockery of the system, through my own personal experiences, we all agree that the wanting to be accepted leads to a society that punishes those who don’t care to be accepted.