Conformity and Rebellion Comparison Essay by Neatwriter

This paper explains that the dilemma of conformity vs. rebellion is common in both life and literature as demonstrated by Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery". The author points out that rebellion may be not only personal as Amy Tan writes but also societal, as Martin Luther King wrote while imprisoned in the Birmingham, Alabama jail in 1963 for leading a civil rights protest seeking equal rights for African-Americans. The paper concludes that all four pieces illustrate that rebellion -- personal or societal -- is integral to the human condition; moreover, rebellion has its risks, benefits, drawbacks and rewards, based on time, place and circumstance.