Drving Miss Daisy Conformity Essay

Conformity is defined as behavior following socially accepted conventions or standards. In the play by Alfred Uhry Driving Miss Daisy, the main characters Hoke and Daisy create an untimely friendship after Hoke is hired to be Daisy’s driver in the period of Jewish and African American civil rights. Uhry in his play criticizes the social expectations of conformity to hide from the hatred of the world and the rigidity of society during the civil rights movement through characters and stereotyping. In order to fully understand the way that Uhry criticizes the idea of conformity in his play Drving Miss Daisy, readers must first understand the life and hardships of Jews in the South, specifically Atlanta, Georgia during this time period. Throughout

His first show of conformity can be seen in two instances in the very beginning of the play during the interview with Daisy’s potential new driver, Hoke, and the mention of Boolie’s wife Florine. Hoke, in the past, had mainly been employed to drive Jewish people but, more specifically in the interview, he mentioned a lady he used to drive who was involved with the Southern Baptist churches. Hoke mentions this when he says, “Anyway, she president of the Ladies Auxiliary over yonder to the Ponce De Leon Baptist Church and seem like she always bringing up God and Jesus and do unto others.” (Uhry 6). Hoke’s past employer was a Jewish American lady working her way into the Southern Baptist churches and assimilating with the white culture in order to blend in. Florine, Boolie’s wife, was also starting to assimilate with white, Christian culture by her way of attending church and celebrating Christmas as Miss Daisy comments on many times throughout the play. Many Jews would tend to do this because, as research shows, the Southern Baptist had an affiliation with the KKK who tended to target Jews. So, blending in with this Christian, Southern society can hopeful shield some Jews from the possible backlash of the racial hate crimes that arose from the KKK. Uhry is critisizing this idea of assimilation into religion by way of Miss Daisy comments throughout the play. When talking about Florine’s celebration of Christmas, Daisy comments, “Absurd. If I had a nose like Florine I wouldn't go around saying Merry Christmas to anybody.” (Uhry 23). Through Daisy, Uhry can express the fault of conformity to show that, although these people are keeping themselves hidden, they’re giving up parts of their own culture or traditions, because she is a proud Jewish women who criticizes Florine for