Individuality Vs. Conformity In 'The Shining Houses'

Everyone has had to make decisions, it is just a part of life. How people deal with these decisions makes a difference. In the short story “The Shining Houses” by Alice Munro, many characters are met with decisions that they have to respond to. Similarly in Joni Mitchell's song “Big Yellow Taxi” she has the choice to go along with or oppose the actions of others. Both of these texts revolve around the question of how individuals deal with the future and societal pressure to conform. Within both, some people conform, others do nothing, and a few people oppose society. Among both texts, there is a strong theme of individuality vs. conformity.

In the text “The Shining Houses” it appears that people deal with the future differently. The character

How I deal with the future is by not doing anything about it, I take it on as it comes. I suppose there are some things that I do to help my future such as not eating candy all the time so that I can be relatively healthy, or taking certain classes to help me achieve the job I want. But how I deal with the future in the slight context of “Big Yellow Taxi” or regarding the state of the Earth is by acknowledging it but not doing much about it. I use reusable containers and water bottles to reduce the amount of plastic that I throw out, in the summer I biked to work instead of driving, and I try to conserve paper. I truly am worried about the future of the world because global warming is a pretty serious issue and could have a detrimental effect on practically everything, but I find it hard to go green. So basically, how I deal with the future is by hoping someone else fixes it for me. When it comes to how I deal with societal pressure I conform in different ways. With my clothing on regular days, I try to fit in, I don’t do too many crazy things with my outfits. I do not however conform to the idea of girls having to wear dresses and look good for others, I have refused for years to wear a dress or makeup because I don’t feel comfortable in any of them. So I challenge societal pressures by not conforming to some of them, and it is hard sometimes. A way that I deal with societal pressure to conform in the context of the text “Big Yellow Taxi” is that I do not fully conform to going green. Right now it seems that the societal norm is starting to become more of a focus on going green, and while I do not purposefully oppose that, I don’t put in much effort to be green. I want to keep nature as free to thrive as possible because I love being out in nature. So perhaps it’s just that I don’t know how to fully conform to the pressures of