Every person on Earth has been conflicted with the issue of conformation to please another’s desires. Whether it is physical, academic, ethical, or even an idea, conformity has changed the population of our world into a society of shared identities, a “melting pot” of conduct and appearance. Not only has conformity put people to a test of strength and character, but has also shined a light on those people that are special or different. As a child born and raised in Los Angeles, I’ve never felt the conformation struggles that my parents did as foreign individuals. My father was raised in Rabat, Morocco in a poverty-stricken neighborhood; he moved to Montreal at the age of 13 and then to Los Angeles at the age of 30. Unlike my father, my mother was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and moved to Los Angeles at the young age of 2. Although she was born in America, she faced the struggle of two immigrant parents while forced to uphold strong Yugoslavian traditions and fit in to the American school system. Today, both of my parents are well adjusted to American life, but have successfully carried on their traditions from their cultures and passed them down to their 5 children. When asked about social conformation, both parents agreed to a pressure to conform, but also both agreed that their changes were for the best and necessary to survive, similar to most Americans in the modern world. America’s society has portrayed this idea of conformation through literature and media, and has given greater insight into why exactly people feel the necessity to change themselves for the betterment of others or for their personal desires. Therefore, although conformity poses a huge risk to society as it takes away from individuality, the conformation of some people for the social and physical betterment of their lives is sometimes necessary in order to survive.
