The Battle of Conformity

In literature, there are four main types of conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society and, the toughest one of them all, man vs. himself. In the novels The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both of the main characters have large conflicts with themselves. They battle with their conscience to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. “So [they] beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 189). I see this battle every day in the high school world. There is always someone who breaks under peer pressure even though that person knows it is wrong. It’s the battle of conformity. The narrator of The Kite Runner, Amir, …show more content…

It branches out into every-day life. In elementary school, I remember guest speakers coming to my class and talking about how we should never give in to negative peer pressure. I don’t think they realize how hard that really is. I’m constantly hearing these crazy stories from my friend about how she partied and got drunk over the weekend. Of course she is under the age of 21, yet she drinks alcohol all the time. She conforms to society’s unwritten rules by drinking and partying all night long, but then she questions the morality of it all. If everyone is doing it, does that make it right? She doesn’t want to abandon her friends or seem “uncool” by refusing to party, but she also sees that it’s defiantly not the right thing to do. She came to the realization of just how dangerous conforming can be when she told me a tragic story about one of her best friends. This young lady was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at a party. It’s very hard for most teens to stay strong under peer pressure but if they knew what the consequences were, they just might change their mind. The conflict between a man and himself is very common in the real world but is also the hardest to resolve. There is an ongoing battle in many people’s minds between whether to conform or not. People can’t simply slay their feelings like a dragon or lock them up for good like a criminal. There is no simple solution. The feelings stay with