Meaning of an Individuality to society Essay

Individuality is, to society, a hallmark of greatness. Individuals throughout history have done so many memorable things that impact the lives of all those around them. When society looks at history it sees the things that stand out or make large impacts on its development. What is often overlooked are the events that are common place to the current society, be it steam engines in the past, or cell phones in recent times. To other societies in other times, many of our customs would have been strange. For example, when the conquistadores arriven in the americas, they saw the Native Americans as savages simply because of their "lack' of technology and culture that was strange to them. These can be seen as extreme examples of conformity and individuality. On one hand, conforming to the Europeans wishes would guarantee, for some time, the safety of the group while any attempts at separating or rebelling against their rule would result in harm befalling the entire community.
Conformity is usually seen as following the crowd or blazing your own trail in a smaller scale of daily life, but the choice between conformity and individuality has had an impact on some of the world's most pivotal moments. Nearing the end of World War Two there was a choice to be made, whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Most of the government officials whom had a say in the decision were of the outward opinion that the bomb should be dropped in order to end the war. What their actual thoughts on the decision were didn't matter. So many of them agreed to the plan simply because they didn't want to cause controversy or because they were afraid of the consequences. Their fear lead them to conform to the majority but it wasn't until the masses agreed the decision was in poor taste that many of the officials came out about their previously unexpressed feelings, or like before, they conformed to the new majority out of fear.
When faced with the choice of individuality versus the safety of the group, in any circumstance, it is not always a clear cut decision. For example, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck's whole journey is based on his decisions to conform or go his own way. Huck is confronted with many chances to conform to the society he was raised, and currently, lives in. Hucks internal conflict about his friend Jim is a central theme throughout the book, when huck is given the choice of conforming and giving Jim to slave hunters. His initial decision to keep jim safe was because of the friendship he felt towards Jim. While Huck viewed him as a friend he still had the belief that he was Jim's superior. He was also of the mindset that any black other than jim was a complete animal. This basis of belief is what was ingrained in him his whole life and wasn't something he could just forget.