Mark Twain
The essay that I chose to analyze is called “Corn-pone Opinions” (pages 1-5), written by Mark Twain in 1901. Since I couldn’t decide on which essay to pick, I went with this essay as Jennifer recommended. Since it is the very first essay in the book and it was written in the early 19th century, I was expecting it to be one of those unbearable essays to handle. As I read through it, I found out it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to read, but I found that could be confusing on some points. Even though the essay is 110 years old, some of the content of the essay can still apply to modern times.
Before getting into the essay, I would like to talk a little bit about the author. The author’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, later known as Mark Twain. He was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He is a well known American author and humorist. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1855) also called “the Great American Novel” and The adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) are two of his famous novels.
This essay is about how and why personal opinions are formed and how they conform to public opinion. Throughout the essay, he talks about how public opinions are so strong that they affect people’s choices of “fashion in clothes, or manners, or literature, or politics, or religion, or any other matter that is projected into the field of our notice and interest”; so strong that not many can resist. “It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resisit” (page 2).
The term “corn pone” is sometimes used to refer to one who possesses certain rural, unsophisticated peculiarities (“he’s a corn pone”), or as an adjective to describe particular rural, folksy or “hick” characteristics (e.g., “corn pone” humor). The term is sometimes intended as a pejorative, often directed at persons from rural areas of the southern and midwestern U.S.”
So it seems that Twain quotes his friend using the term “corn pone” as bread. However, Twain uses it like it’s defined above — Twain is using the term “corn pone” to describe a particular type of opinion. In this case, that opinion is one based on public opinion, rather than personal thought and conviction.
Why does Twain use “I” at the beginning of the essay and later he changes to use “We”?
In order to fit in a majority, do you think we need to conform our opinion?
Do you think conformity in society still exist now-a-days?
Sometimes I find it difficult to determine if an idea was just conformity or an honest individual opinion. Sometimes when shopping, I pick something up because it interests me, but then I realize it is “popular” and wonder, Why did I pick it up? Is there subliminal messages telling me to do so? Am I doing it because others do it too?! (Even if it seems like a unique idea, someone has already thought it before you anyway.) Conformity is very much still present, especially in our society that pretends to prefer individuality.
I can’t say why he went from “I” to “we,” but I was wondering why it goes from “they” in the examples to including himself in “we” during the last paragraph: “We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking.” It seems ironic because he just said “I think” right before it: “Does this mean study and examination, or only feeling? The latter, I think.” Is he acknowledging that he is a conformist though he seemed to be trying to deny it before by using other people’s examples instead of his own?
I think that Twain realizes the importance of conformity but in a sense he is not a conformist because he is aware of when he does it. It is hard to completely be free of conformity because it would require you to not have any opinions and not interact in a social setting. Even in developing friendships or relationships there is a common ground shared where conformity does occur it can be called “similar interests.” Maybe these interests developed from being exposed to a certain environment.
Twain is not a conformist. He knows it’s important to conform with other people though. I personally think I conform a lot in a social setting because of having common interests. So I still think that conformity still exists today.
I think he changes “I” into “we” later on in his essay because he was referring to what he thinks at first. Then he uses “we” as to what the whole society thinks.
Does Twain think it’s important to conform? Do you think he is a conformist or not?
I do not think Twain is a conformist. I just think he says all those things because he just wants to say what people want to here but he is not a conformist. He is just stating his own opinion. I think when he starts with “I” then moving on to “we” i think he was referring to himself in a way and then when he uses “we”, he refers it to everybody. I think conformity in society still exist now-a-days. Is it that important to share our own thoughts and opinions? Why do you think he uses other peoples example like his friends, do you think it is to put input of interest to make it seem like he is a conformist in a way that he is not?
The irony is that to be unique, we must conform < which defeats the purpose of being "unique," and like Twain said this stems from self-approval and self-approval is mostly only validated by the approval of other people.
I think the essay starts from I to we because it goes in parallel with the point he is trying to prove. It all begins with individuality and self becomes conformity (the "we").
I agree with Izette that Twain is trying to show the conformity with “I” to “we”. It seems he assumes that after reading his essay, the reader will conform to his idea / message. Its hard to say if Twain was a conformist in my opinion because I do not know much about his personal life and how it fit in with the rest of society during that time.
Based on the essay we read, I were to assume that he’s not a conformist but he clearly demonstrates when he is and isn’t being one. In his essay portrays the casualty of conformists and how it’s hard to depict from original ideas. With that said, conformity is still used today because we come up with our own opinions usually based on other opinions, depending on your rationale.
Why do we want to fit in a ‘majority’? Shouldn’t our decisions and choices we decide to do be based how we feel, our opinion? I mean, if we all have the same opinion then of course we’ll be together; we are forced to be with each other but we shouldn’t base our opinions on the majority because then we can be influenced to make our choices to see what the majority says. Now I’m confused, haha.
I’ve never heard of the term, “corn-pone” but thanks for clarifying it. I don’t think there is a clear cut answer to whether Twain is a conformist or a non-conformist; I don’t see him as being entirely as a conformist or a nonconformist because I think he could be a little bit of both, but more of a nonconformist. He clearly knows the when opinions are society based, or public opinions. Also, He seems to be have his own ideas that are not influenced by the society as he states that he believes some opinions are not formed by society and are original. It’s hard to tell if opinions are based on the public or if they’re created by someone. I think a lot of our opinions are influenced by the society, not just by the specific opinions, but also by the standards and norms, and what we see in the media. I feel like a lot of people’s ideas are somewhat based on what others think, maybe not the whole idea, but at least part of it if any.
Also, I agree with Leo and Izette about how he changes from using “i” to “we” because he seems to start off with his own idea then moves on to a shared idea by the society that includes everyone.
I think that Twain is not a conformist because in the beginning of the book he likes to hang out with his friend that acts “different”; although I do agree that he is aware of social conformation. The fact that during the essay he changes from I to we; I believe that he starts talking about the people as a whole. He tries to inform the readers that most people tend to follow the majority, and their only a a few amount of people that that do not, and those people should be displayed in a museum.
I believe that in order to fit in people do conform their opinions, but not all the way, everyone has their own opinions on the topic. At some points people may think the same thing, but not all the time. Even today, I think everyone is expressing their own ideas on the worldly topics.
We all have the ability to be creative, spontaneous and opinionated but we rarely take advantages of these ability. As human beings we also have in our DNA the unbreakable need to belong, to be acknowledged or to be liked. This is a constant battle and it results in deep personal compromise. Do I tell my parents and friends the whole truth or do I bend it so that I am still liked and remain part of the group? Good opinions or ideas do not come from everyone and we tend to favor the ones that are suitable or similar to ours. If every ones’ options, ideas or understanding is to be considered, then we would never reach one specific main goal. The difference it not on conforming or settling, but on who’s opinion we focus our attention and energy. Not everyone is capable of leading or has a successful public opinion, but those that are to follow should be more careful on considering a public opinion and not lose their personal ideals and individuality in the process. Even us (English 414 students) are conforming to the idea that higher education is necessary to have a more successful live, knowledge and hopefully end up in better paying jobs. What would our grandparents think of it now? Some of them didn’t even learn to read and write, yet they were able to feed and raise their children and that is why we are here now analyzing Mark Twain. Sometimes it is necessary to conform and fallow, but keeping in mind that we all have the ability and responsibility to question and reject any idea or opinion that we individually consider unjust or outdated.
Twain is not conformist because he does not follow society. He accepts his friends for their differences like talks in the beginning of the essay.
He changes from “I” to “we” to make his audience part of his story and to make readers think at end about conformity. I think conformity still exists in our society.
I agree with zohra that by accepting the people around you for who they really are you are not conforming to a specific societal norm. When he changes from “I” to “we” he is talking about society as a whole. Personally, I think that we are conform in someway, i think it is natural to want to be “normal” and fit in. Do you think that you have personally conformed to our societies noms? Most believe that they are different from everyone else, i think we are a lot more alike than we think.
Oooooh, nice catch with the ‘I’ -> ‘we’. I didn’t notice that. Sorry, but I don’t have an answer to that. What I do like is this quote, “We are creatures of outside influences; as a rule we do not think, we only imitate” (p 3). When we do not conform, we are often view as outsiders, sometimes not even a person. When one person decide to live on the moon, and nobody wishes to join him/her, this person would most likely be viewed as a strange crazy person (& definitely an outsider). I like this quote because it summarize the entire essay.
Mark twain is definitely on the other side not conforming to society choice. He wrote an essay that talks about the fundamental idea of conforming in society norms, but when confronted in a situation, we fear to change it. While we do look at individual, we still feel the sense that somethings are not in the right place. in a sense he portray the idea of not conforming, but in the inside he likes to conform with the different people.
The I and We is like a view into the story of what he is saying. He makes us immense ourselves into the character or looking at the character from a distance. Must be a way to make us conform into the different aspect of this story.
Twain brings his thoughts and ideas to share with others because we all live in a society where there are things known as the “norm” or things that are different. People and ideas and styles change, and I do see that people want to be accepted by others while others do not care what others think. Although there are people who want to be an individual from others in society, we can always find someone conforming to what others do. Conformity still exists today.
Mark Twain is not a conformist. Books such as Huckleberry Finn were a reflection of his personality. From what I heard, he drew inspiration from his own personal life. I agree with most people when they say that he is just “conforming” in this essay so that he could make his audience agree with his message. Of course conformity still exist today, it is just expressed differently today.
I was originally having trouble understanding what “corn-pone” meant so thank you for clarifying that. I somewhat derived if from the passage but what you included made it much more clear.
Although Twain is explaining our lack of individuality and desire to be part of the collective, I do not think that he is trying to remove himself. I say this because as he states on page 2, “It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resist….The inborn requirement of self-approval. We all have to bow to that; there are no exceptions.” In this passage he does not alienate himself, he knows that whether consciously or not, we all try to be part of the majority. This is the case in which we follow trends and behave in manners so that we are not the excluded ones looking in at the rest of the crowd. People try their hardest to be part of that crowd, sometimes leaving individuality behind in that effort.
I think that this conformity will never change. It has been over 100 years since Corn-Pone Opinions was written and all the principles still hold true. For the most part, today we value individuality more and crave originality but we know this will never be attained, because there will always be people trying to be like the others. An original thought will arise but soon after there will be many more just like it so that the true origin will be lost forever. It’s some sort of paradox, we want originality but when it arises we quickly try to assimilate it and make it something no longer original. Why is that? Do we have a problem with people or ideas that do not want to conform to mainstream? If so, what is that problem? And what is mainstream anyway?