Theme study (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and Bless the Beasts and Children) the study of individuality vs. conformity

My investigation examined the theme of individuality vs. conformity. The texts I have chosen gave an effective portrayal of this. The texts I selected included 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey, 'Bless the Beasts and Children' by Glendon Swarthout, 'Fahrenheit 451'by Ray Bradbury and 'Brave New World' a novel by Aldous Huxley. Each of these texts expressed the theme of individuality vs. conformity in a different way depending on the setting and …

…seen that in these four novels the settings, characters and the motivation of these characters were different. In all the novels the outcome was similar because each main character was destroyed as a consequence of asserting his individuality and challenging authority to an intolerable degree. These novels invited us to consider to what extent our own New Zealand society represses and enforces conformity, by limiting people's critical judgment, diverting them with mass media and sports.