Summary and Response Essay to Doris Lessing's
It is one of the most challenging things to maintain an individual opinion as a member of a group (Lessing 307). In Lessing's essay, she stresses that when people are in a group, they tend to give in to the group by changing their thinking and opinions to agree with the group (Lessing 307). Lessing's essay demonstrates the various ways of how people's individuality are affected by group pressure.Lessing begins her essay by saying that people in the west may be educated in different ways but all come out with the idea about themselves (Lessing 307). The idea that "I am a citizen of a free society, and that means I am an individual, making individual choices. My mind is my own, my opinions are chosen by me, I am free to do as I will, and at the worst the pressures on me are economic, that is, I may be too poor too do as I want" (Lessing 307). Lessing later states that humans may not recognize or analyze this about themselves which intern will cause them to be helpless against all kinds of pressures on them to conform in many kinds of ways (Lessing 307). I disagree with the author's statement of people in the west because I believe that she has made a quite hasty generalization of all the people in the west. Stating that t
In conclusion, Lessing's thesis and statements inform readers on the causes and effects group pressure has on individual decision making. Overall, Lessing has developed a very good perspective about this subject. Not only by stressing her point of views, but explaining in a way which motivates the reader to take a step back and begin using her findings in their everyday lives to help them understand as to why themselves or others behave certain ways or make certain comments while within a group atmosphere. I strongly agree with Lessing's thesis, because it clearly shows in the experiment she described. The individuals who stated that the sizes of the wood were the same were absolutely correct! This doesn't just pertain to a simple controlled science experiment but it can relate to far more serious situations where the outcome of a groups decision may have long-term consequences. War situations, governmental decisions, a court of law, researching for cures for life threatening diseases, or on the lighter side, during a timeout of the remaining seconds of a Basketball or Football game. I strongly agree with Lessing that there are very few lone people, and that almost everybody is connected somehow to a group. One of my reasons is because in my lifetime, everyone that I have met was some how connected to a family
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Approximate Word count = 896
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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