Independent minds

A detailed Summary of Independent minds


According to Doris Lessing in "Group Minds," we often change our beliefs to fit into groups, for it is hard to hold our different opinions as members of a group. Lessing further suggests that we are constantly looking for like-minded groups to turn ourselves into because we simply just cannot be alone for long. However, Lessing concludes that we must resist pressures from group thinking in order to act and think independently. Based on incidents from both the past and now, I believe Lessing is right in thinking that we should act according to what we believe despite the powerful pressure that makes us conform.

Society was powerful in the 1950s in shaping how mothers should act, forcing many of them to conform. Charlotte Nekola's "Good Mothers, Bad Daughters" portrays what mothers were like in the 1950s: wearing an apron all the time, baking cookies as they waited for their children to come home from school, and having a college degree which she was not able to use. Her own mom was inspired to be a writer, but mothers in the 1950s conformed to be stay-at-home housewives and mothers. As a result, just like


her mom's other college friends who became mothers, her own mother was a "good" mother, adjusting her own needs to those of her husband and children. Unfortunately, these mothers do not understand how powerful society was in forcing them to conform. If Nekola's mother was aware of the influence of social norms, she could have become a writer as she wished. She longed for the life of her old friend, Hope West, who lived with books instead of children. Hope West did not conform to a society that dictated that women should get married and become "good" mothers. She wanted to be herself, to choose her own path, which was different from that of other women in the 1950s. Evidently, she understood the importance of independent minds and resisted the influence of society.

Although segregation had forced many African Americans to accept that whites are superior, some refused to conform to this belief. For instance, when most people were afraid to fight for desegregation in transportation and public facilities, Rosa Parks was the first to revolt against the laws of segregation. Most African Americans would give

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Approximate Word count = 753
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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