Conformity- Is it Right or Wrong?

In a Wrinkle in Time I noticed conformity is a huge issue. In the beginning of the book Meg wants more then anything for people to like her, and to fit in. At the same time she is incredibly stubborn, refusing to do her work the same way as everyone else. After Meg’s trip to Camazots, a world where everyone does exactly the same thing all of the time and doesn’t think for themselves, and her encounter with IT, a deformed brain that attempts to control all people’s lives, Meg realizes that she doesn’t want to be like everyone else because she is happy just being Meg.

The end of the book seems to say that conforming to the system is bad no matter what form it is in. ITs brain washing control over everyone represented this conformity. In the very beginning of the book it was also shown when Meg’s teachers forced her to relearn math she could already do, but instead of using a short cut they forced her to do it the long way around. What Ms. Whatsit briefly mentions, but is never fully explained is that not all conformity is bad. Meg never seems to understand that. Her teachers probably had a reason for forcing her to do it the long way around.  Through her stubbornness she ends up getting in her own way. We need to follow laws and do our work. We can do that though without changing who we are. Mrs. Whatsit explains this concept very well. She compares life to a sonnet. For a sonnet to be a sonnet it must follow a strict form and rhythm. However within that form the poet can write what ever he or she wants. In the words of Mrs. Whatsit “‘You are given the form but you have to write the sonnet yourself, what you say is completely up to you.’“

 Even though this book was written 40 years ago, it still applies to today. The pulsing rhythm of IT is sort of like a group mentality, trying to make you listen to the same music wear the same clothes and go to the same movies. Everyone wants to give in to this at some point or another. But you can never allow yourself to be lost in the group. You can never loose yourself. Charles Wallace fell into IT and it took the one thing that IT didn’t have to save him, love. Meg was able to provide IT with the one thing it could never give Charles Wallace, a real emotion.

 We can dress the way others do and speak the way others do, but we can never sacrifice our minds. We can never let others control our opinions, thoughts or feelings. Those are the things that make us who we are. By taking away that, we would take away our identities.