How does one maintain his or her individuality within in the conformity required by society?

The uniform that society creates and demands a person to wear with pride is not slowing its pace, as suspected. It is strengthening its hold on mankind, forcing the world to conform to preconceived notions and ideas created by society itself.

In this current world, most people believe “to be great is to be misunderstood”. Take a composer, Chopin, or a writer, Sylvia Plath; although they were great at composing music and putting thoughts down on paper, they themselves did not consider their collected works to be “great” or even themselves to be misunderstood. These minds who have shaped our world beyond imagination are simply people who wanted more then what society offered them. They took the golden opportunity, and so therein lies the paradox. Society is blatantly tries to uses reason to justify its actions but, "If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed” (Christopher McCandless).

The question still lies unanswered. Can a person truly break away from conformity and if they could, how? The answer is, unfortunately, no. If a person plans to live and work in the modern world, there is no way to possibly ignore all things society has to offer. Even if they don’t take any offering society is giving away, the person is still being influenced every day.

Ignorance is seeing blind, but the present of reason is sometimes just not seeing at all. In other words, society creates a smokescreen for the world to focus on. Instead of finding out for themselves what must be answered, they choose the screen. And though the screen has lights and sounds, it promotes reason and conformity.

But, every so often there are people who wander away from their chosen conformed destiny and try finding what our world is really centered around. Of course, the traditional society present today calls those people “crazy” or “extremists”. These so called “rebels” are more eager to know what is in the world, past the petty problems and unnecessary wants, more then anyone else. So, they get punished for thinking outside the box, so to speak. Society “loves not realities and creators, but names and customs” and the person who knows a love for so called realities and creators “would be a man must be a non-conformist.”

This world has transformed into a” society where the ignorant reign. A society where enlightened must hold their tongues. A nation whose politicians must profess half-hearted devotion to an ancient fable or face the disastrous consequences of speaking their true mind” (Christopher McCandless). Society takes away the choice to decide, the choice to be truly alive in the world.