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Conformity Vs Individualism Analysis

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For an utopian society to exist, there needs to be a merging of conformity and individualism in the society. Pure individualism or pure conformity in a society leads to a lopsided and corrupted society; they need to exist in synchrony. In Merry Mount, the people follow an ideology of complete freedom of thought and of individualism. The Puritan’s society shows what happens when everyone conforms and no one expresses their individual beliefs. When the ideologies of conformity and individualism merge it combines into a greater society as a whole, better than either of the individual half’s. To create an utopian society, a society has to accept the individuality of a person, but it also has to have certain guidelines that are followed.
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To create a utopian society, the people of Merry Mount needed to see the need for conformity and to create a baseline for the society to function. To start, they did not see the issues complete freedom caused in their society, but then they were able to see its affects; “Just then, as if a spell were loosened, down came a little shower of rose leaves from the maypole” (Hawthorne 10). The people of Merry Mount realize that complete freedom does not work in a community; individualism needs to be balanced with a certain amount of conformity and a sense of nationalism. In addition, the balance between the conformity and individualism arose due to the conformity of some in society that led others to conform; “Edith and Edgar consistently display an anti-festive, moralistic attitude” (Miller 117). Some of the residents of Merry Mount conformed to the Puritans way of life and this enabled the balance between conformity and individual to arise. Also, when the Puritans asserted control over Merry Mount, the society changed for good and became a hybrid of the anarchy that it had originally and the complete conformity of the puritans: “Should the grizzly saints establish their jurisdiction over the gay sinners” (Hawthorne 15). When the Puritans subjugate the people of Merry Mount to their culture, a unity of conformity and individualism arises that composes the ideal society. At the beginning, “Merry mount, as described in the tale, is anything but merry” (Miller 111). Before they conformed, Merry Mount did not succeed as a society and neither did the Puritan’s, but through a unity of the 2 it created a better society; neither pure conformity nor pure individualism can succeed in a society. Finally, the people of Merry Mount lose some of their freedom and individuality, but the merging of individualism and conformity leads to a better

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