To Conform or Not Conform - Three Adapting Situations

Joyce Morris

English 101

Professor Salsich

10/6/10

To Conform or Not Conform

Three Adapting Situations

Right or wrong the pressure to conform is always an issue in society.  In the fictional account “Life Size” by Jenefer Shute the anorexic patient is told she must eat even if it is against her will.  Eric Schlosser in “What We Eat” and Nora Ephron with “The Boston Photographs” each share with us their views on society adapting to situations.  On any issue there are two sides to be told, Shute, Schlosser and Ephron each give us their view of one side to discuss.

Shute in “Life Size” tells us a fictional story in which Josie, an anorexic college student who is hospitalized against her will.  It is expected that Josie obey the doctors and nurses and eat to gain weight.  Josie feels she has the right to starve herself if she wants to.  Josie says, she never feels hungry, and despises those who do feel hunger.  She feels they spend their lives foraging and never learned to ignore hunger like she did.  “Each gain against hunger makes her stronger,” Josie struggles with her bodies need to conform and eat food.  In the refusal to eat she is training her body to exist on nothing.  By doing so, Josie feels that “one day I will be thin enough.”  The support that people are giving her is viewed as them willing her to weaken.  “What choice do I have, powerless as a child […] right to determine what does and does not go into my body?”  Josie’s internal struggle continues as she lays in bed angry and humiliated face to face with a Vogue magazine.

In “What We Eat” by Schlosser society’s feelings and beliefs guide compliance of the food industry.  Once spread out and few, now there is an abundance of fast food businesses.  Over the last 30 years the wants of customers have driven the popularity of the fast food industry.  Americans spend more money on fast food than on higher education, computers and other household purchases.  This trend to spend has compelled the food industry to build rapidly.  A fundamental change in society that has led to the fast food industry growing is when women entered the workforce.  Faced with less time to do the traditional housewife duties families spent more money on eating outside of the home than preparing the food themselves at home.  “An estimated one out of every eight workers in the United States has at some point been employed by McDonalds.”  The demand for fast food and the lifestyles of Americans wanting to purchase food made outside the home has also increased the job opportunities in food service.  Since there is now so many franchises the wages that are paid are minimal.  Chain stores “rely upon a low paid and unskilled workforce.”  Workers are willing to agree to low wages because of the abundance of jobs.  Employees tend to stay in their positions shorted periods of time because they feel they can get a job elsewhere.  Corporations who want to succeed comply with the populations wants of fast food so that they can continue to grow.  The consumer complies with industry’s service and wages out of necessity to keep up with the speed of their lifestyles.

 “The Boston Photographs” by Ephron brings up the discussion of conforming to what society feels is the right way to handle news involving stories that have sensitive issues such as accidents and death.  As a past New York Post reporter, and then columnist and editor for Esquire magazine Ephron feels that there is no story that shouldn’t be told by photographs.  It is yielding to society to anticipate a reader’s reaction to photos of death.  The “fact that the photo was taken a millisecond before the young woman died” could have decided whether or not the photo was published.  People’s responses would have been different if the woman lived.  Ephron feels that newspapers are irresponsible and inaccurate if they don’t publish photos because of a potential reaction by their readers.  Death will always come, it is part of life and people should be able to hear of the stories that go with it.  To comply with the views of some and keep the truth away from the whole is not accurate.  “Photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism” and a photo can speak a thousand words, and to be interpreted by the viewer.  Photos document something that happened in the accurate way.  Newspapers and reporters should not be pressured to conform to the views put upon them by readers and viewers.

In the three essays each author shows how situations come about where the need to comply is shown.  Shute’s fictional essay tells of a young girl pressured not only by the medical staff but also her own conscious to comply with what is the expected way to be.  Her struggle furthered by printed magazine reinforcements of her failure.  Schlosser, in “What We Eat” brings up the food industries challenge of meeting the public’s demand of compliance to their lifestyle, as well as the consumer adjusting their needs to their lifestyles.  Ephron’s “The Boston Photographs” reveals the problem of what and how much the public is entitled to know about real life stories.  Society wanting the press to filter and adjust stories and what is shown to the public.  To comply or not is the question, what is wrong and what is right?  It is a topic with two sides and arguments to persuade one to comply.